Will Mass Deportations be Allowed?

This week, the House Appropriations Committee approved funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for FY2026. However, the legislation would undermine Pres. Trump's mass deportation efforts and his America First agenda.

The bill would provide more than $6.6 billion for border security and interior enforcement. The Committee approved an amendment which would improve the credible fear standard and limit asylum for illegal aliens who passed through safe third countries. However, they also approved several amendments that would significantly hinder Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers' ability to achieve the president's mass deportation goals, including:

• Rep. Mark Amodei's (R-NV) amendment that requires ICE to prioritize criminal aliens (along the lines of the Mayorkas enforcement policy), rather than all illegal aliens;

• Rep. Veronica Escobar's (D-TX) amendment that prohibits ICE from detaining or deporting a U.S. citizen, even if the U.S. citizen interferes with an immigration arrest or an illegal-alien parent chooses to take his or her U.S.-citizen child to the home country when being deported; and

• Reps. Juan Ciscomani's (R-AZ) and Escobar's amendment urging ICE officers to avoid making arrests at courthouses, where it is safer for both ICE officers and the aliens to make the arrests (this replaced the original Escobar amendment, which would have effectively banned courthouse arrests outright).

Additionally, the Committee approved an amendment offered by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) that would significantly increase the number of low-skilled foreign guest worker visas to the detriment of American workers. Rep. Harris's amendment would:

• Establish a new, cap-exempt category of H-2B visas for employers with a history of using the program. Employers use the H-2B visa program to fill non-agricultural temporary or seasonal jobs. The program is capped at 66,000 per year, but Rep. Harris's amendment would exempt certain visas awarded to employers who used the program over the last five years. This could increase the number of visas issued to 238,480 for fiscal year 2026.

• Make dairy jobs eligible for the uncapped H-2A agricultural guest-worker program. Dairy isn’t currently eligible for H-2A visas because the work isn’t seasonal, but adding them to this visa program would mean that tens of thousands of American dairy workers would instantly face competition from an unlimited, cheap labor visa program.

• Allow “mobile entertainment” venues, like carnivals, to apply for unlimited numbers of P visas to import foreign ride operators, mechanics, and concession-stand workers. Currently, carnivals must import workers through the capped H-2B program, but this amendment would give them access to the uncapped P visa, which was established for athletes, artists, and entertainers coming to the United States temporarily to perform.

Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act hits a roadblock in the Senate

Yesterday, Pres. Trump held an event at the White House to rally support for his One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget reconciliation bill that would codify many of the president's legislative priorities. President Trump and Border Czar Tom Homan, among others, touted the bill’s provisions to ramp up deportations and build additional border wall. IAP's Rosemary Jenks and Grant Newman were invited to attend the event in the East Room of the White House.

The Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act hit a roadblock this week after the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that several provisions violated the Senate Byrd rule. The Byrd rule requires budget reconciliation to focus only on fiscal matters that are directly related to spending or revenue. While most of the provisions identified by the Parliamentarian didn't deal with immigration, she did rule that the Senate's provisions that would block certain illegal aliens from major welfare benefits violated the Byrd rule. The Senate is expected to try to fine-tune these provisions over the next week, so we will be monitoring their progress.

Immigration News

SCOTUS rules on Trump's birthright citizenship order, testing lower court powers
Just this morning, the Supreme Court granted a partial stay in the lawsuit brought against President Trump’s birthright citizenship order. It’s critical to note from the outset that this was not a ruling on the birthright citizenship order itself, but a ruling that has the effect of limiting the deluge of nationwide injunctions that have blocked President Trump’s actions over the past few months. The Court held that judges do not have the authority to grant universal injunctions that go beyond redressing the claims of the actual parties to a case. The birthright citizenship case now goes back to the lower court, so the story is far from over. However, the ruling means the President’s EO banning birthright citizenship can take effect in states that are not parties to the lawsuits.

Trump’s deportation machine hits stride as ICE arrests, detention set new records
Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times reports that ICE is now deporting more than 1,100 illegal aliens a day, as arrests have increased to roughly 1,200 a day, and ICE is detaining more than 56,000. IAP’s Rosemary Jenks commented, “Some of the expectations that were built were unreasonable, that all of a sudden we were going to have mass deportations. You have to ramp up to something like that, and I think the administration is showing they are ramping up.”

Over 700 Iranian nationals released into US during Biden administration despite terrorism concerns
While the country of Iran was in the news for issues that didn’t pertain to immigration, concerns heated up over the last week because more than 700 Iranian nationals were released into the interior of the country during the border crisis of the last four years. That number does not include any Iranians that made it through as part of the more than 2 million known gotaways. Over the weekend, ICE arrested 11 Iranians who were in the country illegally, but this episode demonstrates yet again how immigration policy is directly tied to national security.

Next Week

Both Chambers of Congress are supposed to be in recess next week, but the Senate is still trying to stick to the President’s July 4th deadline to get the One Big Beautiful Bill passed and signed. The Senate will likely stay in session until it completes its work, and if it does, the House may return next week to vote. We will keep you posted.