United States president Donald Trump, This Thursday achieved an important political victory with the approval in Congress by narrow margin of its megaproject of budget law, that consolidates its radical agenda for the second mandate and increases the funds for its anti -immigration campaign.
With an expense of almost US $ 170 billion in four years, The Government will increase the number of migration agents —With about 20 thousand new positions, “will build new detention centers for migrants and invest in surveillance technologies, including artificial intelligence.”
The law includes more than US $ 46,500 million for the construction of the border wall and more than US $ 45 billion for migrants’ arrest, including the construction and maintenance of centers and the transport of deportees.
To increase arrests and fill these centers, the government plans to hire more than 20 thousand new agents for the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) and for the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP, in English).
The conservative ideas laboratory already predicts that, once this law is entered into force, The number of people locked in detention centers for migrants will quadruple: It will go from 50 thousand currently to more than 200 thousand throughout the country.
The AIC estimates that the new budget It can be translated into about 116 thousand daily arrests of migrants and people who do not have American citizenship.
If the government achieves its objective of Deport a million people per year, About six million people could lose their jobs, including 3.3 million migrants.
The law also seeks to increase the costs of some migratory procedures and, for the first time, an amount of US $ 100 will be charged to request asylum, A status designed to protect people fleeing political, religious, social or racial persecution in their countries.
The cost for requesting a work permit will be US $ 550, And this will only have a validity of six months. In addition, US $ 100 will be charged to those who have a pending asylum application.
Appealing a decision of a migration judge will cost US $ 900 (before US $ 110), and also The cost of requesting a temporary protection status (TPS) will rise to US $ 500.
The law creates a new tax that will directly affect the economy of migrants in the US: A 1% tax at remittances sent abroad.
The law also includes measures that directly affect migrants, restricting your already limited access to tax benefits.
The families in which one of the parents is undocumented or does not have a social security number They will not be able to access the tax credit program for their children.
In turn, The federal funds of the Medicaid program will be reduced For states that offer health services to migrants without legal status, and it will be prohibited that some migrants with legal status – including those who have work visas or TPS – can access health insurance with reduced costs.