It’s a Friday afternoon, and while we were asleep last night, the Senate voted to give an additional $70 billion to fund mass deportations. Let’s jump right in to the news:
Senate Votes to Give Another $70 Billion More for Mass Deportations
Earlier this morning, June 5th, the Senate passed a bill giving $70 billion more for mass deportations, with funding specifically allocated to target places like Washington state. All Democratic senators and one Republican voted against it.
A quick recap for how we got here: Last summer, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which took away money from programs like health care and food stamps to give ICE $170 billion to detain and deport immigrants. ICE used this money to invade major US cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis. After ICE agents murdered Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis this past winter, Democrats refused to vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unless ICE was held accountable. Republicans refused any attempts to rein in ICE, so the government shut down for a record 76 days. A deal was finally reached at the end of April, but it excluded funding for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).
Now, Congress is back at it again, giving ICE yet another blank check for mass deportations. This bill allocates $26 billion for Customs and Border Patrol to hire additional agents, update its surveillance systems, and buy new technology. It also includes $38.5 billion for ICE to hire officers and deport immigrants.
Also included is $350 million specifically to arrest and detain immigrants in cities and states that the Trump administration decides are “not sufficiently cooperating” with its violent immigration enforcement plan. This would specifically target places like Washington where under Keep Washington Working (KWW), state and local law enforcement are prevented from using public resources to enforce civil immigration laws. KWW was passed to ensure that state and local agencies, including local law enforcement, use their resources to keep our communities safer. Now the federal government wants to target states Washington for more raids and violence in the streets.
But the path to this point has been surprisingly rocky. The Senate initially tried to pass this funding in mid-May, but after Donald Trump insisted on including his $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in the budget bill, enough senators balked at this proposal that Republican leadership had to cancel the vote.
Two weeks later, Republicans finally managed to find the votes to pass this bill in the Senate, but the fight isn’t over yet. The bill heads to the House next week, where Republicans have a very small majority. If every Democrat votes no, Republicans only can lose six votes.
Keep an eye out for more action alerts next week.
Organizing at Delaney Hall Detention Center
While Congress is trying to allocate even more money to detain immigrants, 300-400 detainees at an ICE detention facility in New Jersey have been on a hunger and labor strike since mid-May. Their original calls for better food, access to medical care, and for progress on their immigration cases have expanded to demands to shut down the detention center.
Delaney Hall is run by GEO Group, one of the biggest private prison companies in the country. Last year, the company made more than $250 million in profit, which was 700% more than the previous year; about half of its revenue comes from its contracts with ICE. If the connection wasn’t obvious enough, recently a former GEO Group executive took over as acting director of ICE.
As one of the detainees who was released from the prison noted, “If they freed us, we wouldn’t generate profit for this business… If we are going to be detained for months so this company can profit, they should at least provide a better ‘service.’”
At Delaney Hall, detainees keep the prison running, doing maintenance on the facility and cooking for as little as a dollar a day. According to New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, some people are being forced to work for no compensation at all. People inside the detention center have said they’re being served worm-infested food, there is no air conditioning and poor ventilation inside, and detainees are denied medical treatment.
DHS denies that conditions in the facility are a problem – or that there is even a hunger strike happening – but protestors have been a constant presence outside the facility for weeks. Protests have been led by the loved ones of detainees themselves, including young children whose parents have been ripped away from them. Federal agents are responding with violence; Senator Kim was pepper sprayed by DHS agents outside the facility while talking with family members of detainees on Memorial Day.
GEO Group is refusing to allow elected officials to enter. The governor of New Jersey along with members of the state’s congressional delegation have attempted to get inside to inspect the facility but they’ve been denied entry. (Delaney Hall is the same detention center where federal agents arrested US Representative LaMonica McIver for trying to enter just over a year ago.)
This is the same story at GEO-run detention facilities across the country. Washington State law allows state health inspectors to enter private prisons, but even after a federal appeals court ruling, the company has banned them from inspecting the Northwest Detention Center.
These detainees are organizing under some of the most oppressive circumstances imaginable. And their bravery is contagious. Hunger strikes are spreading. La Resistencia reports that there have been 15 hunger at ICE detention facilities this year.
And they’re winning. According to the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, over the last few days, like pregnant people, high school seniors set to graduate, and medically fragile people have all been released. The governor of New Jersey also announced her commitment to more than doubling the existing funding for immigration legal defense and setting up a statewide rapid response network. None of this would have happened without the bravery of these detainees.
Organizing works.
USCIS Attacks Lawful Immigration Pathways
In May, the Trump administration issued a memo attempting to change the way hundreds of thousands of people get green cards.
Right now, a majority of people who are issued legal permanent residency do so through what is known as an “adjustment of status.” This means that they can apply for residency and work authorization while living in the US. However, in a press release, DHS misleadingly announced that immigrants who were seeking legal permanent residency would have to return to their home countries to wait for their green cards. The memo they issued directs USCIS officers to needlessly scrutinize applications for adjustment of status, making it far riskier to obtain a green card.
This is a blatant attempt to shutdown lawful immigration pathways and prevent immigrants from establishing their lives in the US.
58% of people who received legal permanent residency in 2024 were already living in the US. 60% of these are relatives of US citizens, such as spouses, siblings, children, and parents.
As announced, this change would have separated families and endangered immigrants. But DHS doesn’t have the authority to change the way green cards are issued. Only Congress has that power. The law has not changed.
By issuing this confusing, likely illegal memo, the Trump administration created more fear and chaos. And after mass outrage and confusion, DHS issued a correction. Adjustments of status are still the law.
There are still a lot of questions about what this memo actually means for individual cases. If you or anyone you know is applying for a green card, seek legal counsel to get questions about your individual case answered.
Immigration Attorney Alexandra Lozano Resigned After Defrauding Clients
Alexandra Lozano was a Tukwila-based immigration lawyer who had five offices in the US plus additional offices in Columbia, Mexico, and Argentina. Her firm has over 35,000 clients and her signature is on nearly 54,000 petitions before USCIS. And in May, she gave up her law license rather than face a hearing by the Washington State Bar Association for misconduct.
According to the bar association’s investigation, she filed green card applications for clients regardless of whether they were eligible, charged exorbitant fees, and added client’s signatures to forms even when the client did not review the documents. Her clients had their cases denied because of her negligence after paying her tens of thousands of dollars, which she used to by a pink private jet.
Lozano defrauded vulnerable people, who trusted her to help them navigate the immigration system. She specifically targeted the Latino community. She suggested she could perform miracles, trademarking the slogan “arrelgar sin salir,” or “fix without leaving” and advertising with images of the Virgin of Guadelupe.
Lozano cannot practice law in any state or be affiliated with her law firm anymore. She also cannot reapply for her license. USCIS’ fraud division has been investigating her, and nine former clients have also filed a lawsuit, claiming that her services were negligent.
Her former clients are advised to request their case files from her office – renamed as Luz Legal – file a FOIA for their USCIS records, and seek another opinion from a different immigration attorney. Clients should also save all communications received from her office. Some clients may also be eligible for compensation. This link walks through more details.
At a time when immigration attorneys are under attack by the current federal administration for standing in the way of their mass deportation agenda, this horrific story threatens to discredit so much important, thankless work being done by good attorneys.
World Cup
Finally, but certainly not least, the World Cup starts next week, and the first game is scheduled to be played in Seattle on June 15.
Labor and immigrant rights groups – including OneAmerica – have been organizing and preparing for this massive event to protect residents and fans from the possibility of increased ICE presence.
Working Washington – a statewide workers organization – has been at the forefront of a lot of this preparation work in Seattle. They’ve been canvassing restaurants, talking to workers about their rights and the issues they’re concerned about. They’ve also been providing trainings at restaurants so that service workers know what to do in the case of an ICE raid.
Immigrant workers are in a tough spot. As CJ Garcia from Working Washington recently told the Seattle Times: “There are workers who are like … ‘I am concerned about being able to pay rent, I’m concerned about being able to put food on the table, but I’m extremely concerned about the risk that is going to be put on our shoulders during the World Cup here.’”
Workers are responding by organizing. Hotel employees at the Embassy Suites hotel near Lumen Field represented by UNITE HERE Local 8 announced a strike vote this week. One of our organizers spoke at their rally last week in support of one of their key demands: protections from ICE at work. So far, hotel management has rejected this proposal, but union members are keeping the pressure up.
Messaging about ICE’s presence at the games from the Trump administration has been confused. ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, said back in February that the organization would be at the games to play a “key part.” But more recently Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said ICE will not be at the stadium in Miami.
Closer to home, the city of Seattle announced that, “our federal partners have informed us that there are no specific planned civil immigration operations during the FIFA World Cup 2026 timeframe,” but there will be a large law enforcement presence.
We’ll be keeping tabs on what is happening in Seattle and across Washington over the next month. In the meantime, check out Know Your Rights materials from the ACLU, check out the national No ICE in the Cup campaign, and follow our Washington for All coalition for local updates.
Additional News
ICE Cruelty
“My God, why?” (Washington Post)
A warning before reading: this is an incredibly hard story.
Wendy Hernandez Reyes was deported to Honduras. She begged ICE to deport her 3-year old son, Orlin, with her too, but was told no. In her absence, he was murdered by his caretaker.
This mother was stopped in a routine traffic stop in a state where law enforcement was required to hand her over to ICE. Now her child is dead.
This is why laws like Keep Washington Working are so important. When any interaction with local law enforcement required to cooperate with ICE on things like a traffic stop becomes a life or death situation, no one is safe.
Hernandez Reyes was allowed back in the country this week for her son’s funeral.
Airports
“[Where] the local radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws – then we shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities, either.” (The Guardian)
If the chaos at the airports because of the last government shutdown wasn’t enough, now DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has threatened to shut down customs processing at international airports in “sanctuary jurisdictions.” DHS seems to have backed off this plan, for now.
Hunger Strike at Northwest ICE Processing Center
“People are organizing amongst themselves to really fight back and call to end the horrific conditions and life-threatening conditions that people have been facing.” (The Stranger)
More than 200 detainees at the Northwest ICE Processing Center were prepared to participate in a hunger strike. Then, their leaders were transferred elsewhere by ICE with no notice. NWIPC is run by the same private prison company as Delaney Hall in New York.
Spokane 3
“[The] whole point of the Constitution, the right to protest, the right to dissent, the right to assemble, all of those things are now in question because of this case.” (Spokesman Review)
A federal grand jury found three Spokane residents guilty after the three were arrested last summer as part of an ICE protests to prevent detained immigrants from being transferred to the Northwest Detention Center.
Before the case began, the U.S. Attorney heading the local prosecuting office resigned and has spoken out against the case. This case is an example of the federal administration using the Department of Justice to suppress free speech and punish anyone who disagrees with them. The defendants have asked the judge in the case to set aside the verdicts. More to come on this one.
Take Action
Tell Congress No More Funding for ICE. The House of Representatives is expected to take up the budget bill giving $70 billion more to ICE and CBP. Your lawmakers need to hear from you today. Send an email — then send it to three people you know.
Finally, two quick programming notes:
Tomorrow, OneAmerica Votes’ leaders are gathering in Yakima, Vancouver, and Seattle to screen candidates for the primary elections. Keep an eye out for our members’ endorsements soon.
Additionally, July’s immigrant rights updates will be coming out a little later due to the July 4th holiday. Look for it on July 10.
That’s all for today!