FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2025
MEDIA CONTACT
Magaly Smith, magaly@weareoneamerica.org, 206-452-8403
Seattle, WA – On May 22, 2025 Republicans in Congress passed a budget bill that cuts Medicaid and SNAP benefits to give tax breaks to billionaires and fund mass deportations. Here in Washington, this bill would strip approximately 444,000 people of health insurance coverage, cut food assistance of nearly 149,000 people, and put 8,500 jobs at risk of elimination.
Additionally, the bill will deeply impact immigrants. It would provide $150 billion in largely unrestricted funds for immigration enforcement, make changes to immigration law, expand detention of immigrant children, and cut approximately 4.5 million children from the benefits of the Child Tax Credit.
Roxana Norouzi, Executive Director of OneAmerica, released the following statement regarding the vote:
“This bill will cause great harm to all Washingtonians, no matter our race, immigration status, or where we live. Instead of working to lower the costs of groceries or childcare, Republicans in Congress decided to put their interests before their constituents and rip away the core programs that so many of us rely on to keep our families safe.
They blame our immigrant neighbors for any and every problem, using this as an excuse to rip our communities a part and detain or deport people with no due process. The reality is that this betrayal of a bill is the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in our history and who is to blame? Republicans, corporations and their billionaire backers who want to avoid paying what they owe in taxes.
Working people like us are the ones sweating, sacrificing, and building a better future for each other. But right now, billionaires and the Republicans who passed this bill are not just watching us struggle; they’re actively destroying the things we worked to build for our communities.
They are attacking our livelihoods to make it harder for us to fight back. But we won’t back down. We refuse to be divided, and we will continue to bring Washingtonians together, no matter where we come from, to demand our Senators put people first and stand in strong opposition to this bill as it heads to the Senate.”