One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Immigration Provisions

*Updated July 7, 2025*

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Introduction

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) (H.R. 1) is the budget reconciliation bill signed into law by President Trump on July 4 after it passed the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate by a single vote in each chamber. This bill transforms America’s immigration system through significantly increased funding for both border security and interior immigration enforcement, including dramatically expanded detention and deportation operations. Moreover, the legislation introduces fees for immigrants seeking humanitarian protection, imposes a tax on remittances, and restricts federal benefit access for mixed-status families and unauthorized individuals.

The border security and interior enforcement provisions in the bill are included as part of a larger package to extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, introduce new tax reductions, cut spending in certain federal agencies and programs, increase the State & Local Tax Deduction (SALT) cap, and increase military spending by more than $150 billion. Because it utilized the reconciliation process, the bill only required a simple majority of 51 votes to pass the Senate, provided its provisions meet the requirements of the reconciliation process – primarily that the provisions are primarily budgetary – impacting outlays and revenues.

Border Security

The bill provides more than $70 billion in supplemental funding over four years for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to increase border security operations. The funds are available until September 30, 2029.

Physical barriers. Provides $46.55 billion for the “[c]onstruction, installation, or improvement” of physical barriers, access roads, and “barrier system attributes” (i.e., cameras, lights, sensors, and more) along the southern and northern borders of the U.S.

The White House stated the bill would fund the construction of “701 miles of primary wall, 900 miles of river barriers, 629 miles of secondary barriers, and 141 miles of vehicle and pedestrian barriers.”

CBP Facilities. Provides $5 billion for the construction and improvement of CBP facilities, including CBP’s short-term detention facilities and checkpoints on the southern and northern borders.

CBP Personnel. Includes $4.1 billion to hire and train new Border Patrol agents and support staff. It also provides CBP with more than $2 billion in retention and hiring bonuses.

CBP Technology. Funds $6.2 billion in border security technology and for screening processes along the northern and southern borders, including the procurement and integration of new non-intrusive inspection equipment and “associated civil works,” such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and “other innovative technologies” to combat the trafficking of illicit substances.

This provision also funds the implementation of the biometric entry and exit system (calculated at $673 million in the House version of the bill) and the initial screening of unaccompanied migrant children as required by the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008.

Border Support for States & Localities. Provides $12 billion for DHS to reimburse costs for activities in support of securing U.S. borders. This provision does not define who could be reimbursed, likely allowing it to be used to reimburse states, localities, and tribal governments and other agencies within the department for expenses associated with securing U.S. borders.

The OBBA funds additional CBP and border-related measures, including funding for CBP vehicles ($855 million). CBP’s full agency budget for fiscal year (FY) 2024 was $17.1 billion. The overall amount of new border security funding in the reconciliation package is more than four times CBP’s current annual agency budget.

Immigration Enforcement: Detention & Deportations

The bill provides more than $75 billion in supplemental funding over four years for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expand interior enforcement operations, allowing for an unprecedented expansion of immigration detention and deportations operations within the U.S. The funds are available until September 30, 2029.

Immigration Detention. Provides $45 billion for detention capacity including family detention facilities. It also authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to set minimal detention standards for single adult detention facilities without normal review processes.

This would constitute an additional $10.6 billion for detention per year through Fiscal Year (FY) 2029, bringing ICE’s total detention budget to a minimum of $14 billion per year and representing a 308 percent increase on an annual basis over ICE’s FY 2024 detention budget, and would allow ICE to increase capacity to at least 116,000 beds.

Enforcement and Deportation Operations. Allocates $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement and deportation activities, including personnel expansion, transportation and removal operations, and specialized enforcement activities. It also supports the expansion of the 287(g) program.

The Senate version provides this as a single lump sum with allowable uses rather than the House’s $26.7 billion with designated funds for specific activities, giving federal agencies significantly more flexibility in allocation. The House version had separately allocated $14.4 billion for transportation and removal operations, $10 billion for personnel expansion with specific hiring targets, $1.5 billion for operational infrastructure, and $720 million for specialized operations.

State and Local Partnerships. Provides $3.5 billion for grants to be administered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) providing reimbursement to state and local agencies who assist in immigration enforcement.

H.R. 1 represents the largest single investment in interior immigration enforcement since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, prioritizing enforcement infrastructure over humanitarian processing or legal pathways.

New Fees on Applications

Historically, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has operated as a primarily fee-funded agency, with extensive fee waivers and adjustments aimed at minimizing fees for humanitarian immigration filings. The OBBA establishes an extensive new fee structure across immigration processes, creating new financial barriers for immigrant workers and those seeking humanitarian protections.

Asylum Applications. Imposes a $100 asylum fee, an additional fee of $550 to initially apply for work authorization, plus another fee of $275 for renewal of that authorization. The bill also creates annual asylum fees of at least $100 for pending asylum applications. There are no fee waivers for any of these applications. These fees are certain to create financial barriers for individuals seeking protection.

Humanitarian Parole. Requires individuals paroled into the country to pay at least $1,000 to apply for parole, an additional fee of $550 for initial work authorization, and $275 for renewal. Work authorization for humanitarian parole recipients can be granted and renewed for a maximum of one year or the validity of the parole grant, whichever is shorter. There are no fee waivers for any of these applications.

Temporary Protected Status. Imposes fees of at least $500 to register for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), $550 for initial employment authorization, and $275 for renewal. As with humanitarian parole, work authorization for individuals with TPS can be granted or renewed for a maximum of one year or the validity of the TPS grant, whichever is shorter. There are no fee waivers for any of these applications.

Immigration Court Proceedings. Establishes new fees for applications, motions, and appeals in immigration court proceedings, allowing for fee waivers.

Border and Visa Processing. Creates a $5,000 apprehension fee assessed against inadmissible aliens apprehended by CBP between ports of entry or individuals ordered removed in absentia.

All the proposed fees in the bill are the minimum required fees and they could be increased or another fee layered on top by the respective agency/department. In addition, the bill indexes all fees to inflation, ensuring ongoing increases over time.

Tax on Remittances and Limitations on Access to Federal Benefits

The OBBA establishes new revenue streams and benefit restrictions affecting non-citizens across multiple federal programs, limiting access to healthcare, nutrition, and tax benefits by non-citizens and some of their citizen family members.

Remittance Tax. Imposes a 1% excise tax on cash and similar remittance transfers.

This tax would impact overseas family members of individuals in the U.S., but would also have significant macroeconomic impacts on countries with the largest numbers of recipients of U.S. remittances, including Mexico, India, China, and the Philippines.

Tax Credit Restrictions. Requires Social Security numbers for American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credits and the Child Tax Credit.

These changes would make over 4.5 million children ineligible for the Child Tax Credit, the vast majority of whom are U.S. citizens, because one or both of their parents lack an SSN. Nearly a million children each in California and Texas are expected to be impacted by this provision.

Food Assistance. Limits Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs), eliminating food assistance for other lawful immigration categories.

Healthcare Premium Tax Credits. Restricts eligibility for the Premium Tax Credit for health insurance coverage to citizens, LPRs, certain Cuban and Haitian immigrants, and citizens of Compact of Free Association nations, excluding most other lawful residents, including H1-B visa holders and other temporary workers. The bill also disallows premium tax credits during Medicaid ineligibility periods caused by immigration status and limits Medicare coverage to the same group described above.

Medicaid and CHIP. Prohibits federal financial participation for individuals without verified citizenship, or qualifying immigration status. H.R. 1 reduces federal matching rates from 90% to 80% for states providing healthcare to certain immigrants. It also creates additional administrative requirements to verify addresses and ensuring deceased individuals do not remain enrolled.

These changes aim to restrict immigrants’ access to healthcare and other benefits, and they will impact many citizens in mixed-status households

Unaccompanied Children and Families

The legislation significantly enhances screening and verification procedures for unaccompanied children while promoting the use of family detention.

Enhanced Screening Requirements. Provides $300 million for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to conduct background checks and home studies of sponsors, while mandating criminal and gang checks, including searching for tattoos, of children as young as 12 years old.

Family Unity Provisions. The bill emphasizes promoting “family unity” through joint detention of parents and children charged with misdemeanor entry violations.

In this way, some legal experts argue that the bill seeks to “implicitly overrid[e]” the protections regarding the length of time children are allowed to be detained under the Flores Settlement.

This funding and emphasis on detention comes alongside recent policy changes that have eliminated legal services for unaccompanied children and allowed information sharing between child welfare and immigration enforcement agencies.

Immigration Courts and Removal Proceedings

The OBBA provides limited funding for immigration court operations despite the anticipated surge in removal proceedings resulting from expanded enforcement activities. The funds are available until September 30, 2029.

Immigration Court Capacity. Creates a cap of 800 immigration judges, with funding for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) included in the $3.3 billion allocated to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The House version had provided $1.3 billion specifically for EOIR to hire immigration judges and expand courtroom capacity to address court backlogs. As the EOIR currently has about 700 judges, only a small proportion of the funding for the DOJ is likely to be directed towards the EOIR.

Legal Representation in Removal Proceedings. Provides funding for the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) to hire additional attorneys and support staff for the government for removal proceedings as part of the $29.9 billion appropriated for ICE operations.

The bill increases funding for immigration arrests and detention, while providing for additional judges to speed up the immigration court process.

Conclusion

The OBBA represents one of the most significant transformations of America’s immigration system, prioritizing enforcement and border security. The bill’s $145 billion expenditure on border security and interior enforcement, combined with application fees and benefit limitations, fundamentally alter American immigration policy to a degree not seen since the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA). These changes, however, address a limited scope of the larger issue: Congress will have to act on substantive policy issues – not just budgetary levers – to determine how to approach the U.S. immigration system in a way that meets U.S. economic needs and protects individuals who are contributing members of their communities.