In the News

"WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” in Congress includes more than tax breaks and spending cuts — it also seeks to pour billions of dollars into the administration’s mass deportation agenda.

Republican leaders capitalized Tuesday on the demonstrations in Los Angeles, where people are protesting Trump’s immigration raids at Home Depot and other places, to make the case for swift passage of their sprawling 1,000-plus-page bill over staunch Democratic opposition.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act delivers “much-needed reinforcements,” including 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, $45 billion to expand migrant detention facilities and billions more to carry out at least 1 million deportations a year.

“All you have to do is look at what’s happening in Los Angeles to realize that our law enforcement needs all the support that we can possibly give them,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

The focus on some $350 billion in national security funding comes as action on the massive package is lumbering along in Congress at a critical moment. Trump wants the bill on his desk by the Fourth of July. But Senate Republicans trying to heave it to passage without Democrats are also running up against objections from within their GOP ranks over the details.

At the same time, Democrats are warning that Trump’s executive reach into California — sending in the National Guard over the governor’s objections and calling up the Marines — is inflaming tensions in what had been isolated protests in pockets of LA. They warned the president’s heavy-handed approach has the potential to spread, if unchecked, to other communities nationwide.

“We are at a dangerous inflection point in our country,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who represents the Los Angeles area.

“Trump created this political distraction to divide us and keep our focus away from his policies that are wreaking havoc on our economy and hurting working families,” he said. “It’s a deliberate attempt by Trump to incite unrest, test the limits of executive power and distract from the lawlessness of his administration.”