Senate Republicans’ Secret $175 Billion Slush Fund: A Blank Check for Mass Family Separation
18 FEBRUARY 2025
Senate Republicans have buried an additional $175 billion in their budget proposal to tear families apart while gutting Medicaid and food assistance
Washington, D.C. – This week, Senate Republicans are pushing forward a budget resolution with $175 billion in unaccounted-for spending buried in their plan, with no clear purpose, goals, or explanation. While most reports focus on the Senate GOP’s self-reported $175 billion for Trump’s border and mass deportation agenda, the real total is actually $350 billion, including an additional $175 billion quietly assigned to the Judiciary Committee. The GOP’s own explainer doesn’t include this extra $175 billion in their own materials, raising urgent questions: Where is this money going? Who will it target? What essential programs will be cut as a result?
“Republicans are deliberately hiding the true cost of their plan because they know the public would be horrified by what they’re funding—a family separation machine ripped straight from Trump’s first-term nightmares,” said Kerri Talbot, Co-Executive Director of Immigration Hub.
“This missing $175 billion is a slush fund for suffering—bankrolling ICE raids that will tear children from their parents, expanding detention camps that cage families, and fueling a system built to inflict cruelty on an unprecedented scale. The impact will not be limited to immigrant communities, as Republicans intend to fund mass deportations by gutting Medicaid, food assistance, and education for all American families. The public deserves to know the truth—not be blindsided by a blank check for human misery.”
| Senate GOP Budget Resolution Breakdown | |
| Senate Committee | Instruction in the Senate Budget Resolution |
| Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry | Decrease, at least $1b |
| Armed Services | Increase, up to $150b |
| Commerce, Science, and Transportation | Increase, up to $20b |
| Energy and Natural Resources | Decrease, at least $1b |
| Environment and Public Works | Increase, up to $1b |
| Finance | Decrease, at least $1b |
| Health, Education, Labor and Pensions | Decrease, at least $1b |
| Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs | Increase, up to $175b |
| Judiciary | Increase, up to $175b |
If Republicans are so confident in their plan, why are they hiding half of its true cost? The offsets they claim will cover this spending are nowhere to be found and we know that essential programs like Medicaid, food assistance, and education will be the first to go. Americans need to pay attention before it’s too late—before this funding gets rubber-stamped and used to fuel policies that rip families apart, devastate communities, and sacrifice critical resources to fund Trump’s mass deportation machine.
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