Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill seeks to block illegal immigrants from accessing Medicaid while dramatically increasing funding for border security and immigration enforcement.
The legislation targets the misuse of taxpayer dollars by undocumented immigrants, citing recent arrests of criminal suspects in Los Angeles. The bill claims more than 1.4 million illegal immigrants are currently enrolled in Medicaid, receiving publicly funded health benefits intended for U.S. citizens.
“By passing the One Big Beautiful Bill, Medicaid will be protected for generations of American citizens — thwarting Democrats’ attempts at destroying it by funding benefits for illegals on the backs of hardworking American taxpayers,” a White House article stated on Monday.
The bill would bar noncitizens residing in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in Medicaid to preserve the program’s resources for American citizens.
In addition to Medicaid restrictions, the bill includes a broad range of border security measures designed to bolster immigration enforcement. It would fund the hiring of 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and 3,000 new Border Patrol agents, with the stated goal of detaining and deporting at least one million undocumented immigrants with criminal records per year.
The plan also includes substantial financial incentives for enforcement personnel, providing $10,000 annual bonuses over the next four years for frontline ICE and Border Patrol agents.
The bill passed in the House ahead of Memorial Day by one vote. The legislation now continues in the Senate, where Republicans need only a 51-vote majority to send it to the president.
So far, a few Republican holdouts have continued to slow progress alongside Democrats. Among them is Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who was recently criticized by Trump.
“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not. The BBB is a big WINNER!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.
“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!” the president wrote in a second post.
