Republicans Play Dirty, the Country To Pay a Heavy Price
Making moves in the dead of night, in a flurry of actions, Republicans are robbing their constituents while they sleep
The Friday news dump was A LOT. While the MAGA-flavored Republican budget bill is garnering most of the attention, as it should, several other developments are being overlooked. The nature of Friday news dumps is just that: to bury other unpopular news under a much bigger story, or stories. Lawmakers and high-ranking government officials can often see what’s coming and use it to conceal contemptible stories. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) direct line to the White House allowed the administration to see it coming, too.
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In this piece, I’m going to cover some of the bigger stories that were overlooked, starting with the austerity measures in the budget plan, a disaster for impoverished people. Democrats deserve some credit for putting up a fight against this disastrous bill. They are showing the fight that voters seem to have been asking for since the election.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) isn’t amused. When asked about the timing of the long process due to Senate Democrats putting up a fight, Fetterman told a group of reporters:
“Oh my God, I just want to go home. I've already my, I've missed our entire trip to the beach,” said Fetterman. There's no drama that we know the votes are going to go. And I think, I don't think it's really helpful to put people here till some ungodly hour.”
While Fetterman holds this position, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) decided not to run for reelection so he can call out just how much of a disaster the bill is for his constituents without needing to worry about backlash from Trump or MAGA. Despite this, the way Republicans moved over the weekend means they have every intention of making their constituents' lives harder.
“What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore, guys?” Tillis said in an explosive floor speech on Monday.
Social Programs
While the aim is to target “welfare queens” (because that’s been the racist plan since the 1970s to target Black women as “leeches” on the system), today they’re using immigration as one part of an excuse to strip health care and food assistance from nearly 12 million citizens, many of whom are white. For Republicans, they’ve never concerned themselves with how much they may hurt white voters, as long as nonwhite voters are suffering more.
According to a Pew Research study in 2023, “44.6% of adult recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2020 were non-Hispanic white people, and 31.5% were children. In 2022, an average of 41.2 million people in 21.6 million households received SNAP benefits each month, which is about 12.6% of the U.S. population.”
Late Saturday night, the Congressional Budget Office estimated 11.8 million people will lose their healthcare under the Republican plan, thus breaking a stern promise Trump made on the campaign trail. The proposed cuts to Medicaid shifted little over the weekend, hovering around the $1 trillion mark and haven’t moved away from that number in any meaningful way. These cuts will have devastating economic and social impacts while adding as much as $4.5 trillion in new debt to cover tax cuts for the wealthiest U.S. citizens.
On social media, the conversation from conservatives revolves around noncitizens getting government benefits when we all know that is not entirely true. A noncitizen’s citizen child may qualify for Medicaid and food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but that is a far cry from “giving illegals money” as so many ill-informed people say. Noncitizens pay into social programs they don’t qualify for or will likely never benefit from, like Medicaid, SNAP, Medicare, and Social Security.
ICE Funding
Another key issue in the budget debate that isn’t getting as much attention is the absolutely insane amount of money being handed to a federal law enforcement agency with little accountability that operates on the fringes of the law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency is set to receive $75 billion over four years, specifically designated for expanding detention, deportation, and interior enforcement operations, out of the $175 billion in immigration-related funding set aside in the bill.
More than half of the funding, $45 billion, is dedicated to expanding detention capacity for adults and families, as the bill seeks to detain minors. This comes as the White House is pressuring the agency to aim for a daily detention capacity of over 100,000 people. The funding is an 800% increase compared to 2024 funding levels, according to the National Immigration Forum.
The bill also includes provisions ($28.8 billion) for hiring 10,000 new ICE personnel and 5,000 new customs officers ($8 billion), according to the White House. In addition to the direct funding for ICE, the bill includes substantial funding for border security measures, including wall construction and personnel. ICE now stands to become the largest federal law enforcement agency and the largest incarcerator, with a budget larger than the Bureau of Prisons.
Birthright Citizenship
The Supreme Court limited the lower courts’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions. Despite the headlines and chyrons across legacy media saying things like, “SCOTUS Restricts Nationwide Injuctions on Birthright Citizenship,” making it sound as if it's a decision against the 14th Amendment, it did not impact birthright citizenship directly, just how cases were filed. The headlines should have read, “SCOTUS Rules to Limit Nationwide Injunctions,’ and nothing else.
That, in itself, is a decision that impacts both citizens and noncitizens alike because it impacts all cases moving forward, not just immigration-related cases. The silver lining here is that justices in their opinions essentially provided instructions for how to properly file cases so that nationwide orders can be issued. Something several organizations have already done through amended filings.
The decision does not let President Donald Trump's executive order restricting birthright citizenship take effect. Instead, it directs lower courts to revisit the scope of their nationwide injunctive orders. The court did not address the legality of the White House’s targeting of birthright citizenship and instead kicked the can down the road, so to speak.
“LULAC calls on the American people to join us in this fight. Contact your lawmakers, said Roman Palomares, LULAC National President and Chairman of the Board. “Speak up in your communities. Defend the Constitution. No child born in this country should ever be told they do not belong. Our promise is clear: LULAC will not rest until birthright citizenship is reaffirmed, protected, and preserved for all children, in every state, now and always.”
Haitians Lose TPS
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Kristi Noem, announced that DHS is terminating Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, citing that the situation has changed in the country and that it is now safer for their return. According to the DHS filing at the federal register, the TPS designation for Haiti expires on Aug. 3, 2025, per the law, which means that her notice begins a 60-day clock until Tuesday, September 2, 2025, when TPS officially expires.
“After conferring with interagency partners, Secretary Noem determined that conditions in Haiti no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements,” reads the DHS press release about Haitian TPS. “The Secretary’s decision was based on a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services review of the conditions in Haiti and in consultation with the Department of State. The Secretary determined that, overall, country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety. She further determined that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interest of the United States.
However, the Department of State has issued a level 4 Travel Advisory for Haiti, warning U.S. citizens not to travel there due to the risk of kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care. Even in Noem’s federal register filing, it says, “The current situation in Haiti is concerning,” and later goes on to say that “Gang violence in Haiti persists as armed groups operate with impunity, enabled by a weak or effectively absent central government.”
“The Congressional Research Service described the situation in Haiti in a recent report: “The gangs – some of which are aligned with political elites – amassed control over territory and illicit markets amid political instability following the 2021 assassination of then-President Jovenel Moise,” reads the federal register notice. “Since April 2024, Haiti has been governed by a Transitional Presidential Council (TPC). The TPC, tasked with governing until elections can be convened, has been plagued by allegations of corruption and infighting.”24 According to Amnesty International, “Haiti is in the grip of severe humanitarian and human rights crisis. Armed gangs are striking the Port-auPrince area and its surroundings with terror and violence, including rape and other forms of sexual violence.”
As has been the case since the start of this administration, its lies are easily exposed through the duplicity espoused through contradictory statements and outright incompetence. Luckily for Haitians, Noen may have just given them to strongest basis for a lawsuit. She did so in the same breath that she villainized nearly half a million Haitians. Now, given the use of racial profiling, Black people in communities where Haitians are present are at risk of being swept off the streets in “error” as we have seen happen to so many Latinos in the past several months.
The White House is even moving to take citizenship away from naturalized citizens.
Arturo is an independent journalist whose work can be found at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. Arturo is also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support his work, become a paid subscriber or donate via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.
Once again, your writing is an eye-opener. You have a real talent for reporting news and explaining it in context with what is happening. I am reeling from all the consequences of these reckless moves and stunned that so many legislators are more interested in protecting themselves than doing what is right for our country.
Sometimes, journalists do include some historical context, but often in the tone of a skeptical observer of events Somewhere Over There, rather than experienced by actual people.