The House Judiciary Committee on April 30 advanced its text for the reconciliation bill Republicans are crafting to pass President Donald Trump’s major legislative agenda.
The committee voted 23–17 to send its portion to the House Budget Committee.
The committee’s part included billions in funding for immigration enforcement and $1,000 and $3,500 fees for asylum seekers and sponsors of illegal immigrant children, respectively.
It would also charge a $500 fee for those seeking Temporary Protective Status and $550 for those applying for a work authorization visa.
“Existing fees in the immigration system have not been updated, in some cases for decades, and in many cases, these have never been applied at all.
“This system has left these agencies with funding shortfalls paid for by American taxpayers,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“These and other resources and fees in this reconciliation text will ensure the Trump administration has ... adequate resources to enforce immigration laws in a fiscally responsible way,” he continued.
Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) said that the fees would be “commodifying the immigration system.”
The committee portion also consisted of the REINS Act, which would require Congress to approve regulations if they cost at least $100 million, and the Midnight Rules Relief Act, which would allow Congress to nullify regulations en blanc as opposed to doing so through individual disapproval resolutions.
The regulations that Congress would be able to repeal would be ones that were put forth during the final year of a president’s term.
Republicans on the committee decided to forgo a measure to have the Department of Justice’s antitrust division take over the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust enforcement functions.
“The American people gave President Trump and House Republicans a mandate to restore immigration integrity, security, and enforcement, and President Trump is carrying out what he told them he was gonna do,” Jordan said during the committee hearing.
“The measures in our package are necessary to provide the resources to improve immigration enforcement and regulatory improvement.”
Republicans on the committee rejected amendments put forth by Democrats.An amendment introduced by Garcia would have prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting immigration raids at houses of worship.
Another, put forth by Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), would have afforded international students on study visas due process rights.
The Trump administration has been revoking visas from students it says have engaged in pro-Hamas activities amid the rise in anti-Semitism on America’s college and universities since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Numerous students have been apprehended by federal immigration authorities, and the administration is looking to deport them.
