House Judiciary approves proposals to boost immigration enforcement in Trump’s megabill
House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have advanced their portion of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” endorsing a suite of policies that would turbocharge the administration’s immigration enforcement and deregulation efforts.
Among their proposed changes to the bill, Democrats sought to include language that would have prevented funds from being used for civil immigration enforcement actions in elementary schools or from being used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain or deport a citizen. Those efforts failed in the Republican-controlled committee.
“Everyday the administration uses immigration enforcement as a template to erode constitutional rights and liberties,” Raskin said. “They round up people in the street and disappear them to the torture prison of a foreign dictator without one minute of due process.”
But Republicans were almost entirely silent during the roughly 9-hour meeting, a marked shift for the usually raucous House Judiciary Committee. At one point, Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) prodded his GOP colleagues by name to engage in the debate, saying it was the only time in his yearslong Congressional tenure that House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) “has refused to make a comment.”
The reporting I saw on the vote said Dem's proposed around 30 amendments to the bill including prohibiting the use of appropriated funds to deport American citizens. And ensuring the right to habeas corpus for any potential deportee. Repubs never uttered a word, declining to state their objection to the amendments while voting against them. They kept their heads down and did what they were told. Ceding more authority on immigration to trump.
I found it particularly disappointing to see House Repubs continue to obey, like the unprincipled cowards they are, the directives coming from the WH in light of Don's decreasing approval on issues from the economy to immigration. These votes were for the markup of a bill so I suppose they thought no one would notice their disregard for the Constitution and basic human decency.
