Protect Immigrants from Unchecked Detention and Deportation

This week, the week of World Refugee Day, members of the Senate are considering a piece of anti-immigration legislation with the potential to cause irreparable harm to those who are poor and vulnerable.

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a House-passed budget measure, is a megabill that addresses tax cuts, a Medicaid overhaul, and green credits. But it also contains massive increases in funding for immigration enforcement. According to analysis by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the House-passed bill would weaponize the U.S. immigration system by:

• Funding $25 billion for immigration enforcement and $45 billion for detention, including family detention.
• Providing $100 million to expedite the removal of unaccompanied children without legal counsel.
• Imposing prohibitive fees for families seeking to reunite with an unaccompanied child up to $8500.
• Imposing a mandatory $1000 fee for all asylum requests. (Currently, there is no fee for asylum applications.)
• Requiring a $550 initial work authorization application fee and charging for renewal every six months (instead of five years).
• Imposing a $250 “visa integrity fee” – on top of the fees already paid – for every person who receives a nonimmigrant visa, such as religious workers.

World Refugee Day is on June 20, commemorating the resilience, strength, and courage of individuals forced to leave their home countries due to conflict and persecution. Refugee Council USA is marking the occasion with a webinar on Wednesday, June 18, 2pm ET: No Safe Place? Refugee Protection in a Fractured World. Click here to register for the webinar. You can take action to make your community a welcoming place for refugees using resources and tools in the Refugee Council USA Advocacy Toolkit, available here.

Ask your senators to protect human life and dignity and promote the common good by rejecting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act using the form below.