Donald Trump cruelty is a disaster for hard working immigrant families: Big Ugly Bad Bill is punishment to innocent immigrants

Echo opinion published in the Boston Globe by Marcala Garcia

A ‘big, beautiful’ disaster for immigrant families

What this law enshrines is not reform but punishment — it’s criminalizing immigration to the fullest extent possible.

Donald Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, now law, promises sweeping changes to the country’s immigration system and safety net. But for millions of immigrant families, it spells a future of fear, hardship, and exclusion.

Touted as a win for border security and fiscal restraint, the law pours unprecedented resources into immigration enforcement and border security — to the tune of $170 billion — while stripping away critical health care and food assistance.

Legal experts and community advocates have warned that the law’s harsh provisions — massive detention expansions, steep new immigration fees, and deep cuts to social programs — will destabilize families, endanger children, and undermine the very communities that help drive the nation’s economy.

Among the law’s most alarming provisions: $45 billion to expand detention capacity to more than 100,000 beds — rivaling the entire federal prison system — and $31 billion to expand immigration enforcement and deportation activity, which could lead to the hiring of as many as 10,000 new ICE agents. The result? More raids, more arrests, more fear.

It doesn’t stop there. The bill imposes financial barriers and new fees on immigrant families. For instance, asylum applications, once free, will now cost $100 (after House Republicans originally proposed $1,000) and work permits, also once free, will now cost $550.

Appeals of immigration decisions now cost $900, up from $110. For many immigrants, these fees represent an “unaffordable price tag on due process,” Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told NPR.

Then there’s the new 1 percent tax levied on remittances sent abroad, which disproportionately affects low-income immigrants whose families back home rely on that financial support. The law also bars some legally present immigrants from accessing Medicaid and restricts food assistance (SNAP) eligibility for certain immigrants.

“The Big Ugly Bill is incredibly irresponsible,” Héctor Sánchez Barba, president and CEO of Mi Familia Vota, a Latino advocacy organization, said in a statement.

The sweeping law, which also includes massive tax cuts for rich individuals, carries a hefty cost: It’s estimated that it will add more than $3.4 trillion to the national debt over 10 years. “Our children and grandchildren will have to pay for its massive debt, while obscene amounts of money will go to ICE policies that punish families and the essential workers our economy needs for their hard work and tax dollars,” Barba said.

What this law enshrines is not reform but punishment 😞😭— it’s criminalizing immigration to the fullest extent possible, monetizing some legal rights, and prioritizing cruelty over common sense. It is a legislative embodiment of Trumpism: performative and punitive.

For immigrant families, the “big, beautiful” promise has revealed its true face, and it surely is an ugly one.

This is an excerpt from ¡Mira!, a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Marcela García.