Fifteen Immigration Riders in House Spending Bills Must Be Removed

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Appropriations Republicans have loaded up their draft annual spending bills with at least 15 poison pill policy riders that attack immigrants and the immigration system. The Clean Budget Coalition, which is tracking the poison pills added to federal spending bills, has repeatedly called on Congress to remove all of these harmful measures.

“On top of the billions appropriated for wasteful detention, surveillance, and other punitive programs, the House appropriations bills include toxic provisions that would make it more difficult for asylum seekers and add layers of cruelty to the spending proposal for ICE and Border Patrol,” said Jesse Franzblau, senior policy advisor at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “The provisions include proposals that would deny basic access to reproductive rights and gender affirming care, and direct ICE to detain more people in immigration detention. The measures have nothing to do with good governance, and instead serve to line the pockets of private prison industry at the expense of limited public resources and human rights. Congress should reject the anti-immigrant riders outright.”

Immigration riders include:

Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies

  • The Asylum Adjudication Rider would prohibit funds for a rule that allows asylum officers to adjudicate asylum claims for individuals subject to expedited removal – an effort intended to help alleviate the immigration court backlog.
  • The Asylum Rules Rider would block funding for any new rules related to asylum law and process or the administrative closure of cases in immigration court.
  • The Immigration Case Dismissal Rider would prohibit using funds to close or dismiss immigration cases without adjudicating the merits of the case.
  • The Immigration Case Metrics Rider would require the Executive Office for Immigration Review to implement case performance metrics linked to the performance review for immigration judges.
  • The Census Rider would prohibit the use of funds to include undocumented immigrants in the Decennial Census apportionment determinations.
  • The Immigration Settlements Rider would block funds to pay any settlements related to civil actions brought by undocumented immigrants against the U.S.

Homeland Security

  • The ICE Abortion Rider: Expands the scope of an existing abortion coverage ban to people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
  • The ICE Abortion Refusals of Care Rider: Provides for harmful refusals of care that stigmatize abortion and harm those detained under ICE custody who need care.
  • The ICE Gender Affirming Care Rider would ban funding for surgical procedures or hormone therapies for gender affirming care.
  • The Sponsor Deportation Rider: Eliminates a provision that protects potential sponsors of unaccompanied children from being deported.
  • The ICE Prosecutorial Discretion Rider would block funds for implementing the Biden administration’s “Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law’’ that the U.S. Supreme Court approved as lawful on June 23, 2023.
  • The Border Wall Rider would prohibit any funds being used or transferred to any other federal agency, board, or commission to dismantle existing parts of the current border wall.
  • The CBP One Application Rider would block funds being used for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One Application or any successor application to parole immigrants into the U.S.
  • The ICE Detention Rider would direct DHS to prioritize detention of immigrants and ensure that the average daily population of detainees is maintained at full capacity throughout the year. It also specifies that immigrants in the Alternative to Detention program have mandatory ankle monitoring throughout the duration of all immigration proceedings.

Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

  • The H-2A Visas Rider would block implementation of the U.S. Labor Department’s rule on H-2A visas to strengthen protections and wage calculations for temporary foreign workers. This rule is facing a Congressional Review Act challenge. Overturning it would take away an estimated $38 million wage increase from impacted H-2A farmworkers.

Please contact the individuals listed above to speak with an expert.