FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 22, 2025

Press Contact: press@alianzaamericas.org 

Cindy Cruz - El Salvador +503 7803 8465

Sandra Díaz - Estados Unidos (773) 638-4278

‍Chicago, Illinois - Alianza Americas strongly condemns the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation is a dangerous roadmap that prioritizes massive tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy at the direct expense of children, seniors, people with disabilities, and working families, many of those immigrant families. The bill proposes a staggering $3.8 trillion tax cut over the next decade for the richest people, while slashing $700 billion from Medicaid, excluding 4.5 million of U.S. citizen children from the Child Tax Credit, and funneling $150 billion into punitive immigration enforcement. These provisions are not merely harmful, they are life-threatening for many.

Tax incentives for clean energy and student loans were among several program cuts, continuing the disastrous efforts of those in power to move the country backwards. Furthermore, it creates fees for applying for asylum, sponsored parole, visas for unaccompanied immigrant children, and raises the fee for work authorization while reducing them to six months. This is a concerted effort to create additional financial hurdles on the very limited existing paths on regular immigration status, making more people fall on irregular status, to continue feeding the anti-immigrant narrative.   

We must be very clear: these program cuts are designed to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest in the U.S. and more arrests, detention centers, and the inhumane separation of immigrant families. From a new tax on remittances sent by non-citizens, to devastating cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs, and increased funding for immigration detention and enforcement, this bill will have catastrophic impacts on all working class communities. It will harm and separate families with immigration enforcement and at the same time reduce the social welfare programs on which many families depend. Its harm on top of harm.

“This bill clearly exposes the Trump administration’s priorities, and children and working-class families are not among them,” said Dulce Guzmán, Executive Director of Alianza Americas. “A federal budget that truly serves its people invests in the safety and well-being of its most vulnerable. Instead, this bill strips resources from immigrant and working families to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest in our country” concluded Guzmán.

As the bill moves to the Senate, we urge all people and elected officials to raise their voices and demand that our tax dollars be used to support our collective well-being through access to affordable healthcare, quality education for our children, and humane, safe pathways to permanent protection for immigrants.

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Alianza Americas is the premier transnational advocacy network of Latin American migrant-led organizations working in the United States, across the Americas, and globally to create an inclusive, equitable and sustainable way of life for communities across North, Central and South America.