Trump admin cancels funding for refugees, immigrant detainees and others

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The Trump administration is moving to cancel $810 million of funding that has been appropriated by Congress for refugees, immigrants and other services it argues are unnecessary, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget.

In what is called a pocket rescission, the package of proposed cuts, sent from Trump to House Speaker Mike Johnson in a notification letter, includes proposed rescissions at the Departments of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development and the Justice Department. Several cuts were for international assistance programs.

The White House argues that President Donald Trump is targeting “the most harmful government spending,” though some lawmakers are criticizing the move as an illegal “line item veto” that bypasses Congressional authority. Once the rescissions are submitted by the White House, the funds are paused while Congress has 45 days to act. But given the fiscal year ends on September 30 , it sets the funds up to essentially be canceled.

One of the proposed rescissions seeks to cancel $10 million of the $50 million for Minority Business Development Agency programs, which the Trump administration claims are funds appropriated for “unconstitutional race-based purposes.”

“The MBDA grant programs direct grants to businesses based on race. Divisive and discriminatory programs are at the core mission of MBDA, which is why the FY 2027 Budget request proposed to eliminate the agency,” the notification letter said.

Another rescission cancels $567 million for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance account, which funds Office of Refugee Resettlement programs under HHS.

The White House argued that the office is “overfunded,” given that Trump’s border policies have curbed border crossings. Refugees typically enter the US after extensive background checks through a network of non-government organizations working with the State Department.

Some of the rescissions pull back funds for DHS, including the $15 million for the Alternatives to Detention-Case Management Pilot Program that provides case management services for people under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision but are not detained. The administration argued that the move would “eliminate unnecessary and wasteful spending.” Another $10 million would be cut from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Citizenship and Integration grant program meant to help lawful permanent residents learn English and about US history on their way to becoming US citizens. The Trump administration said DHS “has already paused” the program and “cancelled previously awarded grants from prior years.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in an X post that the pocket rescission “shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law.”

“Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” Collins wrote. “I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.”

Calling pocket rescissions “an illegal line item veto,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley urged his Republican colleagues to consider how they would feel about a Democratic president doing the same.

“He is canceling the lines of spending he doesn’t like. This violates the core separation of powers embedded in our constitution in which it is the Congress, not the president, who decides what programs are designed and at what level they are funded,” Merkley said.

But this is not the first time the White House has canceled funds that Congress had already approved.

The White House lauded Trump’s use of “long-neglected Presidential authorities,” also through the Impoundment Control Act to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid through a pocket rescission last year. Jimmy Carter was the last president to do so in 1977.

The White House defended its effort to claw back the appropriated funds.

“Last year, President Trump took the historic step of utilizing long-neglected Presidential authorities provided to him under the Impoundment Control Act to deploy the first ‘pocket rescission’ in 50 years. This year, he is continuing his commitment to the American taxpayer by utilizing a pocket rescission for another nearly $1 billion of the most harmful government spending,” the White House said in a release.

Arlette Saenz and Phil Mattingly contributed to this story.

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据管理和预算办公室发言人称，特朗普政府正着手取消国会拨款的 8.1 亿美元用于难民、移民和其他服务，理由是这些服务没有必要。

特朗普向众议院议长迈克·约翰逊发出的一份名为“口袋式削减”的提案，拟削减商务部、教育部、卫生与公众服务部、国土安全部、住房与城市发展部以及司法部的预算。其中几项削减涉及国际援助项目。

白宫辩称，特朗普总统此举旨在削减“最具危害性的政府开支”，但一些议员批评此举是非法的“项目否决权”，绕过了国会的授权。一旦白宫提交撤销申请，资金将被暂停，国会有45天的时间采取行动。但鉴于财政年度将于9月30日结束，这实际上意味着这些资金将被取消。

其中一项拟议的撤销措施是取消少数族裔企业发展署项目 5000 万美元拨款中的 1000 万美元，特朗普政府声称这些资金是为“违宪的种族目的”而拨付的。

“MBDA的拨款项目根据种族向企业发放拨款。分裂和歧视性项目是MBDA的核心使命，这也是为什么2027财年预算申请提议取消该机构的原因，”通知信中写道。

另一项撤销决定取消了难民和入境援助账户的 5.67 亿美元拨款，该账户为美国卫生与公众服务部 (HHS) 下属的难民安置办公室项目提供资金。

白宫辩称，鉴于特朗普的边境政策已经遏制了非法越境行为，该办公室“经费过剩”。难民通常需要经过与国务院合作的非政府组织网络进行的严格背景调查才能进入美国。

部分削减措施将导致国土安全部资金减少，其中包括为“替代拘留——个案管理试点项目”提供的1500万美元拨款。该项目为受移民和海关执法局监管但未被拘留的人员提供个案管理服务。政府辩称，此举将“消除不必要的浪费性支出”。此外，美国公民及移民服务局的“公民身份和融合”拨款项目也将削减1000万美元，该项目旨在帮助合法永久居民学习英语和美国历史，以便他们最终成为美国公民。特朗普政府表示，国土安全部“已经暂停”了该项目，并“取消了之前几年的拨款”。

共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯在 X 论坛上发帖称，此次“口袋式撤销”表明，OMB 故意扣留这些资金数月之久，以执行这项非法取消拨款的行动。这些拨款是两党共同批准并签署成为法律的。

科林斯写道：“任何未经国会批准而撤销拨款的行为都明显违反了法律。我将与我的同事们一起处理这些非法行为。”

民主党参议员杰夫·默克利称“口袋式撤销”是“非法逐项否决权”，并敦促他的共和党同僚们思考，如果一位民主党总统也这样做，他们会作何感想。

“他取消了他不喜欢的支出项目。这违反了我们宪法中规定的权力分立的核心原则，即由国会而不是总统来决定哪些项目需要设计以及它们的资金水平，”默克利说。

但这并非白宫第一次取消国会已经批准的拨款。

白宫称赞特朗普动用了“长期被忽视的总统权力”，即通过《扣押控制法》取消了去年49亿美元的对外援助。吉米·卡特是上一位这样做的总统，那是在1977年。

白宫为其追回已拨款项的努力进行了辩护。

白宫在一份声明中表示：“去年，特朗普总统采取了历史性的举措，利用《扣押控制法》赋予他的长期被忽视的总统权力，实施了50年来首次‘口袋式撤销’。今年，他继续履行对美国纳税人的承诺，再次利用‘口袋式撤销’削减了近10亿美元最具危害性的政府支出。”

Arlette Saenz 和 Phil Mattingly 对本文亦有贡献。