On Thursday, May 22nd, House Republicans passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act." The proposed legislation unleashes approximately $150 BILLION for immigration detentions and removals without due process, resulting in community disruption and hardship to U.S. citizen families and businesses. The reconciliation bill includes the following:​

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1. Improperly uses the reconciliation process to reshape U.S. immigration policy by inserting items like “Return to Mexico” and other measures that are contradictory to existing federal law and the reconciliation process;

2. Provides nearly $60 billion in largely unrestricted funds for border enforcement when the border has been closed as a practical matter since July 2024;

3. Provides approximately $80 billion to build and support a financially wasteful and devastating immigration industrial complex throughout the United States where immigrants with no criminal records are treated as prisoners in private as well as city, county, and state prisons;

4. Imposes prohibitively expensive new penalties for immigration application forms—including for humanitarian protection—that would make it impossible in many cases for people fleeing persecution to present their claims.

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The bill also includes provisions that violate the Byrd Rule, as they have no legitimate budgetary effect and bypass the 60-vote threshold required for substantive policy changes.

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Key non-budgetary riders to strike:

 

• Contempt bond requirement (§70302): Prohibits courts from enforcing injunctions without a pre-posted bond. This retroactive procedural change carries no fiscal impact yet eviscerates judicial authority.

• SAVE Act riders (Secs. 2–3 of §70501): Mandates documentary proof of citizenship or federal voter registration—e.g., birth certificate, passport, naturalization certificate—without any grace period for name changes. This will disproportionately disenfranchise married women who adopt their spouse’s surname, since birth certificates and state IDs often retain their maiden names, and fewer than 55 percent of Americans hold passports to satisfy the alternative requirement. Embedding this policy in a budget bill circumvents transparency and undermines confidence in the democratic process.

• Judicial-review curtailment (§70303): Imposes arbitrary deadlines and bars challenges to agency action “under this Act,” stripping Article III courts of their role in checking unlawful executive overreach without altering revenues or spending.

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By packing these purely procedural and substantive policy changes into a budget reconciliation vehicle, the majority circumvents:

 

1. Senate Rule XXII’s 60-vote requirement for policy enactment; and

2. The Byrd Rule mandate that reconciliation only affect direct spending or revenues.

 

The reconciliation bill presents a generational threat to the democratic rule of law and community safety across the country. For these reasons, we urge Senators to vote NO on this bill and stand with immigrants, families, and the values of due process and fairness.