The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign decries the narrow passage of Trump administration’s reconciliation bill known as the “Big Ugly Betrayal” in the Senate, which followed over 24 hours of debate in the longest “vote-a-rama” on record. The bill will supercharge attacks on people seeking safety and immigrant communities by gutting Medicaid and stealing vital resources from our communities. If passed in the House, the bill will pump billions of taxpayer dollars into the Trump administration’s cruel mass disappearances machine.
We must not forget the context in which this bill, which was heavily opposed by people around the country, passed, or the sinister agenda that motivated it. Last Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti, leaving half a million Haitians who have been living and working in our country with this legal status vulnerable to deportation after September 2, 2025. Conditions in Haiti remain dire, with escalating political violence fueling mass displacement, abductions, killings, and record levels of hunger. Haitians forced to return would face imminent threats to their lives.
On the same day, the Supreme Court further enabled the Trump administration’s cruel anti-immigrant agenda, when it issued a ruling limiting the use of nationwide injunctions to check abuses of executive power. The decision, which did not rule on the substance of the underlying policy, allows the Trump administration to move forward with implementing its flagrantly illegal and unconstitutional executive order stripping U.S.-born children of citizenship while several lawsuits challenging the executive order continue to move forward.
Meanwhile, across the country, the Trump administration is abducting our immigrant community members, ripping apart families, and disappearing our neighbors to countries where they face grave harm. All of these policies are deeply rooted in white supremacy, anti-Black racism, and xenophobia.
We at the #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign join our 129 member organizations in urging the House to resist the administration’s cruel and reckless agenda and vote no on the reconciliation bill. We deserve a budget that invests in our communities, helps everyone thrive, and keeps families together, safe, and free.
“This bill is a sickening betrayal of our communities,” said Kate Jastram, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). “It will funnel billions of dollars into lawless agencies that terrorize our immigrant neighbors, while extending tax breaks to the wealthiest and making it more difficult for families to survive. This gives the Trump administration a blank check to separate families, build even more immigration prisons, disappear our loved ones, and punish people for seeking safety. Coupled with the shutdown of asylum, revocations of legal status, and slashes to healthcare and food assistance, a bare majority of lawmakers are advancing an unpopular agenda that will increase the wealth gap and inflict untold suffering. We urge the House to vote no.”
“Ending TPS for Haitians, threatening birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children, and stripping healthcare and vital resources from our communities are more dangerous examples of how the Trump administration is committed to targeting our most vulnerable neighbors while undermining fundamental rights for all,” said Nili Sarit Yossinger, Executive Director of Refugee Congress. “These decisions don’t just harm individuals — they erode the constitutional principles, moral responsibility, and democratic checks that define who we are as a nation. Congress must immediately act to stop this bill from funding more policies that harm our neighbors and loved ones.”
“This bill is an assault not only on immigrant communities, but also on the rule of law and the principles that uphold our democracy,” said Alvaro M. Huerta, Director of Litigation and Advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). “By funneling billions into a machinery of surveillance, detention, and deportation, the Trump administration is codifying cruelty and wielding budget policy as a weapon to disappear our immigrant neighbors. These attacks will erode our most basic constitutional protections and deepen the racial injustices at the core of our immigration system. Congress must reject this betrayal of our values.”
“The Senate’s passage of this cruel, anti-immigrant budget bill, coupled with the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on immigrant communities, is a direct assault on our shared humanity and on the foundational values of this country. By criminalizing migration and slashing critical protections, the U.S. leadership is fueling xenophobia and white supremacy instead of advancing justice,” said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. “Haitians and other Black immigrants who are fleeing unprecedented violence, climate disasters, and humanitarian crises which are as a direct result of failed U.S. foreign policy towards those nations are being further marginalized and scapegoated for cheap political points. We call on Congress and the American people to reject this hateful agenda and to instead champion policies that honor our moral and legal obligation to welcome people with dignity and in accordance with domestic and international laws.”
“Stripping birthright citizenship, ending Temporary Protected Status for vulnerable people, and funneling over $170 billion for ICE to keep terrorizing our communities are not just policy choices, they are cruelty incarnate," said Fatima Saidi, Director of We Are All America. “For too long, Black and Brown immigrant communities have resisted attempts to erase their dignity and undermine their safety, and now, everyday Americans will bear the cost of Trump's white supremacist agenda. Every dollar going towards detention and mass deportation is a dollar less going to healthcare and food assistance for millions of Americans. As an asylee who found safety here and is proud to call this country home, I refuse to let white supremacy make the U.S. a country vulnerable people flee from. We urge the House of Representatives to stand with the people and vote NO.”“These are violent assaults on Black and brown immigrant communities and not just policy choices,” said Fatima Saidi, Director of We Are All America. “Stripping birthright citizenship and ending Temporary Protected Status for vulnerable people are cruel attempts to erase our dignity and undermine our safety. This administration has pushed hundreds of thousands into undocumented status just to advance its racist agenda. As an asylee who found safety here, I refuse to let white supremacy decide who gets to call America home.”
“The Trump administration's effort to strip U.S. residents of their immigration status en masse and ramp up deportations by diverting funding away from life-saving programs such as Medicaid and food assistance reveals deeply broken priorities,” said Rricha deCant, Senior Policy Director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). “This administration and Congress should focus on investing in programs that help our communities prosper, not on ripping families apart.”
“This is not a mere budget bill – this is a drastic reshaping of our immigration system to fit Stephen Miller and President Trump's agenda. Handing over $170 billion to ICE and border patrol agents to escalate raids and funding potentially thousands of new private detention facilities is dystopian, cruel, and irresponsible,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs for the ACLU’s Equality Division. “At a moment when the administration is opening up new appalling detention camps like 'Alligator Alcatraz' and ramping up aggressive operations around the country, Congress must reject this bill that will give the administration the funds to turbocharge its deportation campaign.”
“While ICE continues to instill fear by raiding places of worship, schools, workplaces and courthouses, the Senate was busy passing a budget bill that pours billions of taxpayer dollars into expanding ICE’s tactics and capacity,” said Erol Kekic, Chief Strategy Officer at Church World Service. “If this bill is signed into law, hardworking families – among them refugees, asylees, and survivors of trafficking – will also be cut off from healthcare, hunger relief, and life-saving humanitarian programs. As people of faith, we are called to stand with our vulnerable and marginalized neighbors, and this bill betrays our core values. The House of Representatives must reject this disastrous legislation and focus on solutions that recognize the dignity of refugees and immigrants and their immense contributions to our communities.”