Pennsylvania Condemns Passage of “One Big Beautiful Bill”
Lawmakers handed billions to deportation and detention while ripping healthcare away from millions.
PENNSYLVANIA– Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a betrayal of historic proportions. This bill will erase decades of hard won progress in civil rights, access to healthcare, immigrant protections, environmental justice, and basic economic fairness. It rips healthcare away from millions while funneling an unprecedented $150 billion to the corporations that profit from separating families and abducting community members.
The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Trump tomorrow, lays the groundwork for a staggering $45 billion for ICE detentions alone – a 13-fold increase over the agency’s current budget. Instead of funding healthcare and education – investments that support every family – this bill pours billions into cruelty, propping up an industry that allows corporations to profit off the suffering of poor, working-class and immigrant communities.
The below advocacy organizations, unions, and community leaders stand in resolute opposition and fierce resolve. We call on every Pennsylvanian to join in condemning this betrayal of working families. We will not allow our neighborhoods to become hunting grounds. We will not watch silently as families are torn apart. We intend to meet these challenges with unrelenting resistance, solidarity, and strategic rapid response and mobilization.
Patty Torres & Diana Robinson, Co-Executive Directors of Make the Road Pennsylvania, said: “History will remember this day as a betrayal of our deepest values. There is nothing beautiful about a budget that steals from the poor to further enrich billionaires and fuel the deportation and detention machine. Excluding refugees, asylees, and domestic violence survivors from SNAP and Medicare is a direct attack on people already facing systemic violence. This bill doesn’t just target immigrants, it rips away any hope of stability from working people across the country, nailing the coffin shut on the American Dream for millions of people. Every Pennsylvania legislator who supported this bill has shown us exactly who they are: They’ll gladly betray their own constituents to line the pockets of billionaire donors and private prison profiteers. Pennsylvania will rise with tenacity, solidarity and unwavering resistance.”
Mike Lee, Executive Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said: “This bill will go down as one of the most destructive and dangerous pieces of legislation in modern American history. Congress just voted to kick millions of people, including children and people with disabilities, off of Medicaid while bankrolling the president’s police state, cruelty toward immigrants of color, and unconstitutional executive overreach. Shame on every member of Congress who voted for this abomination.”
Sam Williamson, SEIU 32BJ Vice President for Pennsylvania, said: “Republicans in Congress have made their priorities clear. This bill is anti-worker, anti-immigrant, anti-environment—and it does nothing to lower prices or improve lives. Our priorities are also clear, and our members will continue organizing and standing up for justice for all working people.”
Vivian Chang, Executive Director of Asian Americans United, said: “This is disgusting. Congress is choosing to rip children apart from their families and hurt them, all sponsored by our taxes. ICE facilities have already killed 9 people in less than four months. This bill allows the federal government to kidnap immigrant children and keep them indefinitely. It fuels child trafficking by deporting children quickly and without their guardians, right into the hands of human traffickers. This bill will cause immense death and suffering, pushing the U.S. further into fascism. Two different parts of the bill push for invasive physical examinations of unaccompanied children, including children in government custody regardless of how young they are. These are dark days and we must fight back.”
Mohan Seshadri, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (API PA), said: “Asian American families know what it means to be targeted, to be scapegoated, and to have to fight for basic rights and recognition in this country. This legislation is a direct attack on our communities’ dignity, safety, and future. The massive increase in funding for detention and deportation forces while legal status is being ripped away from members of our community, coupled with horrific cuts to healthcare, education, and more is a chilling reminder that this administration thinks that our people don’t belong here and has no interest in addressing the affordability crisis affecting all working families. We will fight this in every arena available to us – legislatively, in the courts, and in the streets – until we have the America that we were promised, where every member of our community, no matter when or how their family came to this country, is safe, healthy and strong.”
Rev. Dr. Gregory Edwards, Executive Director of POWER Interfaith, said: “As people of faith, we are called to love our neighbors and to fight for justice, not to bankroll violence against the most vulnerable. This bill is a moral failure – a choice to fund cruelty and corporate greed over compassion and care. Our communities are already suffering under the weight of economic inequality, white nationalism, and mass incarceration. Now Congress is choosing to escalate that suffering by pouring billions into detention and deportation while ripping away healthcare and basic supports. We at POWER condemn this betrayal and call on people of conscience across Pennsylvania to stand up, speak out, and organize against this assault on our shared humanity.”
Diana Konaté, Deputy Executive Director, African Communities Together, said: “Cutting off access to these programs will have a devastating impact on the health, food security, and overall quality of life for millions of Americans and the African immigrant families we serve. Congress is complicit in what is to come. Public servants should be prioritizing the well-being of Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, and other vital public benefits over the interests of billionaires.”
The Center for Integration and Migrant Support (CIMS) is outraged by the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This legislation poses serious risks to already vulnerable migrant and refugee communities, many of whom have sought safety in the United States after fleeing war, persecution, and instability. With the loss of long-standing federal safety net programs earlier this year, this bill further exacerbates hardship by expanding funding for enforcement and detention at the expense of supportive services that promote dignity, stability, and integration.
Kennedy Chesoli, the Executive Director of CIMS, noted that the significant increase in ICE funding is going to heighten fear and uncertainty, even for newly resettled families working hard to rebuild their lives. CIMS remains committed to working with other stakeholders to ensure that individuals in these United States, regardless of immigration status, are treated with compassion, respect, and humanity.
Jasmine Rivera, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, said: “This bill is going to lead to countless lives lost and will unleash a level of terror from ICE and Border Patrol this country has never witnessed before. This is not just a blow for the immigrant community, we know this puts everyone in jeopardy. This is a dark day for America.”
Desi Burnette from The Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania (MILPA) said: “Once again, the powers that be have chosen to prioritize the interests of the elites, have chosen to use our tax dollars for deportation and family destruction over our wellbeing and lives. MILPA is prepared to stand together and organize with the millions of poor and working class families who this bill aims to undermine and attack. We are prepared to fight for our needs and our families together.”
Monica Ruiz, Executive Director of CASA San Jose, said: “Our immigrant communities continue to stand in firm and unequivocal opposition to the so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’ This legislation is a direct assault on the health and well-being of our most vulnerable. It is a morally bankrupt proposal that lays bare the shameful priorities of this administration, prioritizing politics and profit over people. Once enacted, its consequences will be devastating. The damage it will inflict on our children and communities cannot be overstated. Their suffering—and their blood—will be on the hands of those who support it.”
Daisy Romero Chavarria from Juntos, said: “The deportation machine as it exists today took years in the making, each administration complicit in the lack of investment in a just and comprehensive immigration reform that has left so many vulnerable to the terror that we are witnessing today. While we can’t tell what $100 billion plus in ICE funding will look like over the next two decades, we know it will go down in history as one of the darkest periods for immigrants, families and children. Not only does this bill fund hate and xenophobia, but it strips away funding from critical programs that impact many others including food access, healthcare access and more. Our communities have fought back every single time our community has been under attack and this bill will not stop us from organizing. At the same time, we are looking to the Philadelphia Mayor and local entities to show up for us and join us in fighting back. Staying quiet is not an option anymore.”
Carrie Santoro, Executive Director of PA Stands Up, said: “MAGA’s murder bill takes medicine from the sick, food from the hungry, and more money from the pockets of working people to fund the masked thugs disappearing our neighbors and ripping families apart. Make no mistake, the only benefactors of this bill are tax-dodging billionaires and multinational corporations, aided and abetted by their feckless cronies in public office, leaving the rest of us less safe. If the federal government won’t stand up to this regime on behalf of working people, Pennsylvania legislators must. They can start by passing the #AllEyesOnYass Pathway to Prosperity to combat this obscene and dangerous transfer of wealth, and ending 287(g) to keep our neighbors safe.”
