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LetMyPeopleVote

(174,895 posts)
Tue Jun 10, 2025, 06:16 PM Jun 2025

Maddow Blog-Why the Los Angeles unrest is relevant to the fight over the Republicans' megabill

If the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” becomes law, ICE raids like those in L.A. will become vastly more common.

The Republicans’ poorly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and the ICE raids are linked:

The megabill would give ICE the resources it needs to repeat its Los Angeles tactics in cities nationwide. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-06-10T18:05:48.631Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/los-angeles-unrest-relevant-fight-republicans-megabill-rcna212097

As the White House prepared to deploy Marines to California, Axios reported that congressional Republicans want to lean into the local unrest, seeing it as a political winner for the GOP. The report added:

Republicans also see it as an opportunity to remind voters that a key part of their sweeping ‘one, big beautiful bill’ involves providing significant resources to ICE. The conversation around the bill has largely been focused on tax and spending cuts.

....After months of controversial and legally dubious tactics in communities nationwide, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out raids in three locations across Los Angeles on Friday, sparking a predictable public backlash. For those eager to see a lot more of these raids and public backlashes, have I got a bill for you. As a new Slate analysis explained:

Currently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has ‘an annual budget of approximately $8 billion,’ and $3.4 billion of that is spent on detention, according to the [American Immigration Council]. Under the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act], the agency would be given $45 billion for immigration detention alone through September 2029, which amounts to about $12 billion annually. The bill also gives ICE $14 billion to spend on deportation operations and $8 billion to hire more ICE officers.


Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told Slate, “The kinds of dollars we’re talking about would really unlock an ability for the Trump administration to level up the cruelty of their enforcement actions at taxpayer expense in a way that I’m not sure we can even envision right now.”

ICE’s recent record of dramatic raids and abusive tactics has generated a national controversy, but the only thing stopping ICE from doing more of this is a lack of resources. It is a “problem” that congressional Republicans are eager “fix” with their pending reconciliation package.

Indeed, Donald Trump isn't exactly being shy about his future intentions.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lrbdnt2isa2j


As The American Prospect’s David Dayen summarized, the GOP bill would make it possible for the Trump administration to conduct L.A.-style raids “in dozens of cities at once.” Dayen concluded, “So if you don’t like what’s happening [in Los Angeles], it’s coming to your town if the bill passes.”
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