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 Republicansâ poorly named âOne Big Beautiful Bill Actâ 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, T
he kinds of dollars were 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 Im not sure we can even envision right now.
ICEs 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 Prospects 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 dont like whats happening [in Los Angeles], its coming to your town if the bill passes.