This statement can be attributed to Wendy Chun-Hoon, president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).   

Washington, D.C., June 10, 2026 – CLASP denounces the passage of a budget reconciliation bill that will cause immeasurable harm to families across the country. Congress’ decision to pass legislation giving an additional $70 billion to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), on top of the billions they already received last summer, flies in the face of the policies people need to thrive. Families are struggling to make ends meet as a direct result of policy choices by Congress and the Trump Administration. One of those decisions, the Budget Reconciliation Act of 2025, gutted food assistance and health care and has contributed to over three million people no longer receiving SNAP and a 20 percent enrollment decrease in ACA health care coverage.  

Adding billions more to ICE and CBP’s budgets harms children and communities and does not increase safety. It is an irresponsible use of resources consistent with the administration’s terror campaign against immigrants, families, and cities. Since January 20, 2025, ICE and CBP have perpetrated egregious sexual violence against vulnerable communities, militarized communities, and violated their own policies around safeguarding the well-being of children. This has resulted in an estimated 145,000 children in the U.S. experiencing a parent getting detained in immigration facility; at least 79 children harmed by tear gas or pepper spray; and over 6,200 kids placed in immigrant detention camps. CLASP’s reports, which cover findings from conversations with early care and education providers and parents of young children in seven states, make it clear how immigration enforcement is traumatizing children, burdening child care and early education providers, and creating social, emotional, and economic shockwaves in communities throughout the United States. This funding will only continue to separate families and traumatize all children and their communities, regardless of their immigration status.  

Funding for immigration practices that separate families and harm children is not what people want or need, now or ever. CLASP will continue to work toward a country where children have the opportunities to thrive with their loving caregivers and a government that invests in what families and communities need instead of tearing them apart.