FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 4, 2025

CONTACT: media@vera.org

WASHINGTON, DC – After months of deliberations, Congress passed and President Trump is expected to sign the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” today, despite growing opposition to the administration’s terrorizing ICE enforcement tactics and widespread rejection of cuts to critical programs that deliver basic needs to millions. The bill adds a staggering $170 billion for immigration enforcement, including a 265 percent increase for the construction and operation of new detention facilities.

Shayna Kessler and Nicole Melaku, co-leaders of the Fairness to Freedom campaign for universal representation, issued the following statements:

“This bill is a moral and policy failure. It takes funding away from health care and food assistance and uses it to fuel the Trump administration’s cruel anti-immigrant agenda,” said Shayna Kessler, director of the Advancing Universal Representation initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice. “The bill imposes steep fees for asylum seekers and others who want to work and live in safety. It dismantles legal protections for immigrant children, and slashes funding for lifesaving legal and social services while rewarding ICE agents with bonuses and pouring unprecedented funds into immigration detention and militarization, at the expense of our fundamental values and the well-being of our communities.”

Said Nicole Melaku, executive director, National Partnership for New Americans: “This disgraceful, anti-immigrant budget hands the Trump administration a blank check to further ramp up its shameful efforts to terrorize American communities and separate families. Instead of safeguarding people’s access to healthcare and wellness, the bill gives tax cuts to big corporations and funnels billions of dollars to hire more immigration agents, build more immigration jails, and deny people their fair day in court. What should have passed is a federal budget that the people of this country actually want: one that prioritizes public health and safety, protects family unity, prevents government overreach and abuse, and upholds each person’s right to due process.”

###

Fairness to Freedom: The Campaign for Universal Representation was launched by the National Partnership for New Americans and the Vera Institute of Justice in April 2022 with a coalition of over 200 organizations and legal service providers. The campaign’s goal is to support the passage of the Fairness to Freedom Act to establish a federal right to representation for all immigrants facing deportation.