Implications of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Immigration Provisions
On July 4th, 2025 President Trump passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1) into law, this bill is also referred to as the OBBBA. The bill passed by one vote in both the House (215-214) and the Senate (51-50). This budget reconciliation bill covers a range of domestic issues (healthcare, economy, business, etc.) as well as immigration. This bill significantly increases funding for border security and immigration efforts,; quadrupling Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) budget. These financial increases aim to expand the reach and capacity of Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP through provisions that expand detention and deportation operations such as workplace raids, expedited removals, and detention center capacity. The legislation also introduces fees for immigrants seeking humanitarian protection, imposes taxes on remittances, and restricts federal benefit access for mixed-status families and unauthorized individuals.
The budgetary increases and associated provisions in the OBBBA represent a significant shift in immigration policies with direct consequences for civil liberties. Increased funding for CBP and ICE will increase the speed and efficiency of surveillance, detentions, and deportations, in doing so, undermining due process and legal representation for immigrants. Civil rights groups warn that this bill will likely disproportionately affect Black and Brown immigrant communities and mixed status families, negatively impacting physical and mental health among these groups. For example, the OBBBA cuts off access to critical healthcare programs (e.g. Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare, etc.) and nutrition assistance (SNAP) for many lawfully present immigrants. Further, protections for children are weakened as the bill approves the use of funds for family detentions; a practice leading medical and mental health clinicians explain causes psychological trauma and long-term mental health risks in an open letter to President Donald J. Trump and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. As many legal aid systems are already inundated, the scale and speed of enforcement is likely to raise concerns about unjust outcomes and racial profiling.
Immigration, due process, and equal protection are part of the Civil Rights pillar sub-area Immigration, Policing, and Due Process. The enforcement expansion the OBBBA entails echo historic patterns of exclusion and marginalization. The bill also intersects with other recent developments such as EO 14173 that reduce oversight mechanisms within federal agencies. In the absence of strengthened accountability structures, such as independent review boards or access to public defenders, new resources risk reinforcing systemic disparities instead of addressing them.
Legal challenges to the OBBBA enforcement provisions are already underway; multiple coalitions of immigrant rights organizations have filed suit in federal court, arguing that expanded use of expedited removals violate constitutional due process protections. A class-action lawsuit has been filed seeking to stop ICE from arresting migrants who appear at immigration courts for previously scheduled hearings. Further, 80 civil rights organizations have called on Congress to pass a “Civil Rights Oversight Act” to introduce safeguards around detention conditions, legal access, and racial profiling data collection and mandate Department of Justice/Department of Homeland Security accountability. So far, there has been no updated guidance issued by the Department of Justice on how it will monitor or respond to civil rights violations stemming from this new policy landscape.
The OBBA’s immigration measures highlight a growing tension point in US civil rights enforcement: as enforcement capacity expands, protections for due process and equal treatment lag behind. Without strong guardrails, this shift risks deepening the very inequities civil rights laws are meant to prevent.