Trump's actions in Los Angeles spur debate over deportation funds in his
'big, beautiful' bill
[June 11, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” in
Congress includes more than tax breaks and spending cuts — it also seeks
to pour billions of dollars into the administration’s mass deportation
agenda.
Republican leaders capitalized Tuesday on the demonstrations in Los
Angeles, where people are protesting Trump’s immigration raids at Home
Depot and other places, to make the case for swift passage of their
sprawling 1,000-plus-page bill over staunch Democratic opposition.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act delivers
“much-needed reinforcements,” including 10,000 new Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agents, $45 billion to expand migrant detention
facilities and billions more to carry out at least 1 million
deportations a year.
“All you have to do is look at what’s happening in Los Angeles to
realize that our law enforcement needs all the support that we can
possibly give them,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
The focus on some $350 billion in national security funding comes as
action on the massive package is lumbering along in Congress at a
critical moment. Trump wants the bill on his desk by the Fourth of July.
But Senate Republicans trying to heave it to passage without Democrats
are also running up against objections from within their GOP ranks over
the details.
At the same time, Democrats are warning that Trump’s executive reach
into California — sending in the National Guard over the governor’s
objections and calling up the Marines — is inflaming tensions in what
had been isolated protests in pockets of LA. They warned the president's
heavy-handed approach has the potential to spread, if unchecked, to
other communities nationwide.
“We are at a dangerous inflection point in our country,” said Rep. Jimmy
Gomez, who represents the Los Angeles area.
“Trump created this political distraction to divide us and keep our
focus away from his policies that are wreaking havoc on our economy and
hurting working families," he said. "It’s a deliberate attempt by Trump
to incite unrest, test the limits of executive power and distract from
the lawlessness of his administration.”
At its core, the bill extends some $4.5 trillion in existing tax breaks
that would otherwise expire at the end of the year without action in
Congress, cutting some $1.4 trillion in spending over the decade to help
offset costs.
The Congressional Budget Office found the bill’s changes to Medicaid and
other programs would leave an estimated 10.9 million more people without
health insurance and at least 3 million each month without food stamps
from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. At the same time,
CBO said the package will add some $2.4 trillion to deficits over the
decade.
One emerging area of concern for Republican leaders has been the bill’s
status before the Senate parliamentarian’s office, which assesses
whether the package complies with the strict rules used for legislation
under the so-called budget reconciliation process.
Late Monday, Republicans acknowledged potential “red flags” coming from
the parliamentarian’s office that will require changes in the House bill
before it can be sent to the Senate. Leaders are using the
reconciliation process because it allows for simple majority passage in
both chambers, were GOP majorities are razor-thin.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and the Republican
leadership depart a news conference after defending President Donald
Trump's handling of protests in Los Angeles by sending thousands of
National Guard troops and 700 active duty Marines to quell the
immigration protests, at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington,
Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Republicans are preparing
to address the concerns with a vote in the House, possibly as soon
as this week, to change the package.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer seized on the House’s
upcoming do-over vote as a chance for Republicans who are
dissatisfied with the package to reassert their leverage and “force
the bill back to the drawing board.”
“They say they don’t like parts of the bill — now is their
opportunity to change it,” Schumer said.
On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance was dispatched to speak with one
GOP holdout, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who has pushed for
deeper spending reductions in the bill to prevent skyrocketing
deficits from adding to the nation’s $36 trillion debt load. Other
Republican senators have raised concerns about the health care cuts.
But Republicans are in agreement on border security, deportation and
military funding, over the objections of Democrats who fought
vigorously during the committee process to strip those provisions
from the bill.
The package includes about $150 billion for border security and
deportation operations, including funding for hiring 10,000 new ICE
officers — with what Johnson said are $10,000 hiring bonuses — as
well as 3,000 new Border Patrol agents and other field operations
and support staff.
There's also funding for a daily detention capacity for 100,000
migrants and for flights for 1 million deportations annually. The
package includes $46 billion for construction of Trump’s long
promised wall between the U.S.-Mexico border.
Additionally, the bill includes $150 billion for the Pentagon, with
$5 billion for the military deployment in support of border
security, along with nearly $25 billion for Trump’s “Golden Dome”
defense system over the U.S. Separately, the bill adds another $21
billion for the Coast Guard.
Democrats have argued against the deportations, and warned that
Trump appears to be stirring up protests so he can clamp down on
migrant communities.
Rep. Nanette Barragan — whose district represents the suburban city
of Paramount, where the weekend Home Depot raid touched off protests
— implored Americans: “Listen to the words of this administration:
They’re using words like insurrection. They’re using words like
invasion.”
She warned the administration is laying the groundwork for even
steeper actions.
“That’s a concern,” she said. “That is dangerous. It’s wrong.”
___
Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this
report.
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