In a sweeping executive push to advance its restrictive immigration agenda, the Office of Management and Budget confirmed over the weekend that the second Trump administration is moving to revoke $810 million in congressionally approved funding earmarked for refugee support, immigrant services, and related community programs. The administration formally submitted a rescission request to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, targeting unspent appropriations across six federal agencies: Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice.
A rescission is a formal procedure through which a president asks Congress to cancel previously authorized spending. In the letter, which was first reported by CNN on Saturday, administration officials framed the proposal as aligned with their core policy priority: ending federal taxpayer spending that supports non-citizens, and prioritizing the needs of U.S. residents first.
The proposal has already drawn fierce bipartisan condemnation from lawmakers, who argue the move represents an unprecedented overreach of executive authority that circumvents Congress’s constitutional power over federal spending. Even Republican lawmakers have pushed back against the plan. “Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without explicit congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” said Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine. “I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.”
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley amplified this criticism in a post on X, framing the action as an unlawful “pocket line-item veto.” “It is the president saying that he and he alone will convert a bipartisan spending bill that has been signed into law into a partisan spending bill,” Merkley wrote. “He is cancelling the lines of spending he doesn’t like.”
This targeted funding cut is not an isolated action, but part of a much broader, aggressive administration push to drastically reduce immigration flows and alter long-standing U.S. residency and citizenship policies. Already this term, the White House has attempted to eliminate birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants and so-called “birth tourism” visitors entering the country specifically to give birth on U.S. soil. That policy was ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in a narrow 5-4 ruling.
A recently disclosed internal government memo also reveals the administration has expanded the authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to detain lawfully admitted refugees who have not yet obtained permanent legal residency. Earlier this year, the administration implemented a new rule requiring most foreign nationals already in the U.S. seeking to adjust their visa status to leave the country and complete their application process through an overseas U.S. embassy, a change that has delayed or derailed thousands of residency applications.
The administration’s immigration crackdown has also extended to political activism, with officials specifically targeting pro-Palestinian organizers and critics of Israeli policy for deportation action. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who has participated in anti-Gaza war protests on campus, is currently suing the administration over his pending deportation proceedings.