The next Democratic speaker of the House promises to work with the Trump administration on immigration but will not give a dime for its mass-deportation policy.
Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat in line to become speaker when his party takes control of the House in January, told reporters at the Capitol that the immigration system is “broken” and needs a comprehensive, bipartisan fix, as USA TODAY reported.
He said House Democrats “are not going to give a dime” to what he called the administration’s “violent mass deportation machine,” according to the same report.
Jeffries pointed to the American Dream and Promise Act and urged Republicans to take it up before the new Congress is seated, saying bipartisan action could come in November or December if they join, USA TODAY reported.
The bill, H.R. 1589, would affect Haitian immigrants directly.
It was introduced in February 2025 by Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Texas Democrat, with Florida Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar as a co-lead. It would create a pathway to lawful permanent residence for immigrants brought to the country as children and for people who held Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), including those whose status has been revoked, according to the bill text and the sponsors’ offices.
Applicants would need to have been in the United States since 2021, as USA TODAY reported, pass a background check, and qualify through education, military service, or employment.
Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House until the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027, and most Republicans oppose legalizing undocumented immigrants, which they describe as amnesty.
The bill has not received a floor vote since its introduction. In July, Garcia filed a discharge petition that would require 218 signatures to force a vote on H.R. 1589; it has not reached that number, according to congressional records.
House Democrats are also expected to seek to redirect the roughly $75 billion that Congress provided to Immigration and Customs Enforcement through 2029 under last year’s reconciliation law. Jeffries has repeatedly called the money a “slush fund” in floor speeches and in interviews with CNN and PBS. At the Capitol, he linked the funding to the deaths of American citizens and to the targeting of immigrant communities, USA TODAY reported; the administration disputes those characterizations.
Trump told CBS’s “60 Minutes,” in the interview that aired Nov. 8, that his deportation policy may have been “too tough” and that a bipartisan deal was “doable”.
After Democrats won control of Congress, he promoted Stephen Miller, who directed the enforcement crackdown, to White House chief of staff. Speaking later at the White House, Trump said his policy to remove “the worst of the worst” had not changed, and that there would be no amnesty. “We have a very strong deportation policy,” he said, according to USA TODAY.
Haitians who lost TPS are now without work authorization and legal status and can be placed in deportation proceedings. The bill that would offer some of them permanent residence has bipartisan sponsors and the support of the incoming speaker. It remains stalled in a Congress whose current majority opposes it, and any version that passed would require the president’s signature.
https://ctninfo.com/next-house-speak…eportation-funds/
Source: USA Today
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