By America’s Voice | Editorial credit: Chip Somodevilla / shutterstock.com

Washington, DC — Yesterday, NBC News highlighted, “Trump’s border czar is ‘begging’ for money for immigration crackdown, Senate budget chief says,” highlighting comments from Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) ahead of hearings and a vote in the committee today and tomorrow on a budget resolution that includes an additional $175 billion for “for immigration enforcement, including ICE agents, detention beds and deportation resources.” Yet as Senator Graham and GOP allies cite the specific comments of Tom Homan and other Trump administration immigration leaders, they are failing to provide specifics on how the money would really be used. Below are three key questions that Senator Graham – and all congressional Republicans endorsing the Trump administration’s anti-immigration push – should be prepared to answer (we explore each of the three questions in more detail below).

1. Will ICE continue to arrest, detain and deport indiscriminately, including targeting long-settled immigrants, those who have had legal status, and even U.S. citizens? 
2. As inflation and the cost of living continue to hurt everyday Americans, how will indiscriminate deportations of long-settled essential workers help lower prices and combat inflation? 
3. Will this funding continue to prioritize the arrest of immigrants who pose no public safety threat over terrorism and the fight against fentanyl?  

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“We are already witnessing the fear, the chaos and the harms of the Trump and Republican immigration agenda – not just on immigrants, but all Americans. Republicans are considering slashing health care coverage for millions of American families to spend hundreds of billions on mass deportations. Instead of cutting them a blank check for indiscriminate deportations and cruel policies that don’t advance public safety or solutions to our broken immigration system, we need answers and details. Their approach is fiscally irresponsible and moving America in the wrong direction and threatens to harm our economy and competitiveness, destroy key industries, and trample on American families and American values.”

Below, we explore the three key questions and related specifics in more detail:

1. Will ICE continue to arrest, detain and deport indiscriminately, including targeting long-settled immigrants, those who have had legal status, and even U.S. citizens? Despite talk about going after the “worst of the worst,” the Trump administration’s early immigration enforcement efforts have instead been indiscriminate, including multiple reports of U.S. citizens being ensnared in enforcement efforts. ProPublica reported this week that “less than half of the approximately 8,200 people arrested from Jan. 20 through Feb. 2 so far have criminal convictions.” The Guardian also provides a deep-dive look at the early immigration enforcement efforts and related lack of data transparency here. As the Trump team strips legal protections from TPS holders and those who arrived legally through the CHNV programs, supporters of ramped-up ICE funding should specify if those who arrived here legally will be in the deportation queue.
2. As inflation and the cost of living continue to hurt everyday Americans, how will indiscriminate deportations of long-settled essential workers help lower prices and combat inflation? Immigrants were and are essential to our economic dynamism and growth, including in the recent fight against inflation. With “resurgent inflation” in the news again and given the Trump administration’s promise to lower prices – i.e., candidate Trump’s “prices will come down” promise – congressional Republicans and Trump administration allies should answer how and why their proposed eviction of key workers in industries ranging from food service to agriculture to construction to caregiving to beyond won’t worsen our economy and spike inflation further.

• Will this funding continue to prioritize the arrest of immigrants who pose no public safety threat over terrorism and the fight against fentanyl? The Trump administration has prioritized indiscriminate immigration enforcement and the arrest of those who pose no threat to public safety above actual threats – including taking critical resources away from drug enforcement, combatting fentanyl and terrorism investigations in their zeal to focus on mass deportations. And while Republicans like to pretend their “immigration crackdown” helps in the fight against fentanyl trafficking, that’s not the reality. It’s well established that the cartels use U.S. citizens and points of entry to transport their product – not undocumented immigrants. As scholar Kathleen Frydl explained, “the organizations that traffic in it do not risk their product on desperate people facing steep odds and a dangerous crossing.”