The Ugliest of Bills: How Republicans' Reconciliation Bill Endangers All Children

[niyad]

The Ugliest of Bills: How Republicans’ Reconciliation Bill Endangers All Children
PUBLISHED 6/11/2025 by Mary Giovagnoli
Beneath the gleaming name of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” lies a ruthless blueprint for starving, separating and silencing the most vulnerable children.



Two Haitian children play as they advance in a caravan toward the United States, in Huehuetan, Mexico, on Jan. 2, 2025. (Jose Eduardo Torres Cancino / Anadolu via Getty Images)

One of the many dangers of the budget reconciliation package currently before the Senate, which Trump is calling the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” is its audacity. It is so large, so ugly and so expensive—nothing beautiful to see here—that it can be hard to know how to fight back. So much is at risk that, even assuming some of the most talked-about measures, such as Medicaid cuts, are removed or modified in the Senate, it is likely that passage of This Ugliest of Bills (THUG Bill) would still fundamentally harm millions of people. Children—citizen and non-citizen—are going to be especially hard hit if this ugliest of bills passes. Focusing on their well-being and demanding their protection is one avenue for showing support across multiple issue areas and ideologies. This ugliest of bills disproportionately affects children, according to First Focus Campaign for Children. Three of the major programs serving children—Medicaid, the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—are slated for $1 trillion in cuts. Fourteen million children rely on Medicaid and SNAP for their basic health and nutrition needs.

. . . . .

Ugliest of all, the THUG Bill sets the stage for exploitation and abuse of immigrant kids by using fines, funding cuts and funding restrictions to gut measures that protect unaccompanied children in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. In a general swipe at asylum seekers, this ugliest of bills imposes a $1,000, non-waivable fee to apply for asylum, regardless of age or circumstances, and levies another $550 every six months for employment authorization. It restricts eligibility to visas for abused, abandoned or neglected children. It penalizes kids who are found between ports of entry, charging them $1,000 just for being in the U.S. It imposes a $3,500 sponsorship fee, and an additional $5,000 bond on parents or other sponsors trying to get their kids out of government custody. Altogether, this ugliest of bills would cost an unaccompanied child and their family $15,000 just to have a chance at reunification and protection, according to estimates from Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an unaccompanied children’s advocacy group.





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Rather than protect children, Boyd says the bill will have the opposite effect, creating new opportunities for exploitation. At a minimum, those children who do make it through the labyrinth of new requirements are likely to remain in custody indefinitely, with few prospects for legal or other assistance. The pressure to give up and go home will be enormous, particularly because even asking a judge for a continuance to find a lawyer would cost $100 under the new scheme.

This ugliest of bills is a vendetta against all children. It goes after the most vulnerable of the vulnerable—unaccompanied children—because lawmakers think they can attack this population with no political backlash. That’s why it is critical to tell the Senate to protect children and reject those provisions that harm them. Children are children first. They should be fed and cared for, regardless of their immigration status. If we can’t stand up for that simple principle, the ugliness of the reconciliation package will shame us all. Contact your senators today and demand that they protect all children, including unaccompanied children.

https://msmagazine.com/2025/06/11/one-big-beautiful-bill-senate-republicans-trump-unaccompanied-minor-children-immigrant/

[SheltieLover]

1. Kick

[niyad]

3. Thank you.

[SheltieLover]

4. Yw. Ty for posting!

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Thanks for sharing this, niyad. ❤️

[niyad]

5. You are most welcome. One wonders how these people can walk

around with the weight of the ugliness and hatred that they carry.