Reconciliation 2025
Immigration
EPI Explainers
Rooted in Racism

The Trump administration has set a goal of deporting one million immigrants annually. Although they currently lack the resources to meet that target, the Republican budget bill just passed by the Senate would dramatically boost funding for immigration enforcement. 

If Congress passes the Republican spending bill and Trump succeeds in carrying out his deportation goals, an estimated 5.9 million workers will lose their jobs over the next four years. Of those total losses, 3.3 million fewer immigrants and 2.6 million fewer U.S.-born workers will be employed. Read more

In just a few months, Trump’s deportation troops have repeatedly arrested and deported the wrong people, including U.S. citizens; sent innocent people to gulags designed for terrorists in third countries; separated families and turned children into orphans; detained high school honors students; and engaged in countless other heinous actions.

The Republican budget bill provides $155 billion in new immigration enforcement funding—more than five times the amount of current funding—to supercharge the ability of the Trump administration to carry out more actions like these, as well as further militarize the border and build more miles of the border wall, put immigrants in new and expanded prisons, and carry out worksite raids across the country. Read more

 

Interest in recessions has been elevated lately. Americans often tell pollsters that they think the economy is in recession to express frustration with the state of economic rewards in this country. By economists’ definition, recessions rarely occur. When they do, recessions hurt workers and their families most.

EPI’s Recession FAQ will help you understand what is a recession, what causes a recession, who recessions hurt most and why, among other questions. Get recession informed

Southern lawmakers have neglected basic worker protections and disinvested in social safety net programs while offering hefty subsidies to corporations, privatizing public goods, and giving the wealthy big tax breaks. In fact, in 11 Southern states, the poorest 20% of residents pay more in sales taxes alone than the top 1% of residents pay in all state and local taxes combined. 

When policies in the South fail to raise adequate revenue to pay for public goods and services, these same harmful policies are leveraged as “the cure,” creating a vicious cycle that keeps millions of Southerners locked into poverty and out of the benefits from economic growth. Read more

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