Latino Congressmembers and Organizations Warn: New Republican Budget Law Punishes Latinos with Higher Costs, Deepening Inequality and Worsening Pollution

Republican law forces Latinos to pay more for energy, food and health care while gutting environmental protections, boosting immigration enforcement, and cutting taxes for billionaires.

WASHINGTON — Today, leading Latino voices, including Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chair Rep. Adriano Espaillat, Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz and leaders of Latino organizations Climate Power En Acción, America’s Voice and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda hosted a press briefing to sound the alarm on the budget law that President Trump and Congressional Republicans recently passed and its devastating impacts on Latinos. They warned that the law is reversing decades of hard-fought progress for Latino communities across the country. 

As Congress heads into a month-long summer recess, the group of Latino leaders called out the real cost of the new Republican legislation, stressing that by eliminating clean energy, increasing barriers to health care, revoking environmental protections, and boosting immigration enforcement that largely targets Latino communities, it places punishing burdens on Latinos already battling the high cost of living, discrimination, pollution, and the threat of extreme weather. They also emphasized that the law is a direct attack on vulnerable communities, punishing them while rewarding the top earners in the country.

“This law is a betrayal and brutal assault on working families. It rips away health care, food, and clean resilient energy to bankroll tax breaks for the ultra-rich,” said Congressman Adriano Espaillat, Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. This Summer, we’re pushing back against H.R. 1, demanding immigration accountability, and organizing with our communities to fight for real solutions that put people first.”

“This Big Ugly Law is a direct attack on the health, well-being, and future of Latino families and underserved communities in my district and across the nation. It rips health care away from working families, closes their hospitals, and blocks their children from becoming the doctors and nurses we desperately need,” said Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz (CA-25). “All the while, it showers billionaires with trillions of dollars in massive tax breaks, putting their profits over the health and futures of hardworking families. This is a recipe for pain and suffering that will be devastating for Latino families.”

“Whether it is Obamacare or $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid or dealing with the issues of SNAP and clean energy, this is going to hurt all families, including in the Hispanic community,” said Rep. Darren Soto, Deputy Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (FL-09). “We also see terrible deportations happening right now in Florida. Over a million people have also lost their status — whether it’s parole or whether it is TPS — in families from the Cuban, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan and Haitian communities. We need to come together to fight the big ugly law now that it’s passed and I’m looking forward, over this district period, to helping our constituents know what’s in it, what we can do to stop it, and how we can come together.”

“Despite Republicans’ desperate attempts to spin this law, we are not going to be fooled. On top of large cuts to health care and food assistance programs, Republicans eliminated clean energy tax credits, wiping out thousands of job opportunities and ensuring Latino families will see their energy bills rise by hundreds of dollars,” said Antonieta Cadiz, Executive Director of Climate Power En Acción. “Republicans made a choice to sacrifice our children’s future by gutting longstanding environmental protections meant to keep our air and water safe from toxic pollution— and they will be hearing from their displeased constituents over recess.”

“This monstrous legislation turbocharges mass deportation with over $170 billion—giving ICE more funding than the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice.

“That translates into more grandmothers torn from their families, more children terrorized, and more American citizens caught in Trump’s deportation dragnet. Americans see what’s happening and they’re rejecting it—poll after poll shows voters oppose this abuse of power. They want common-sense immigration solutions and pathways to citizenship for their neighbors, friends, and coworkers. The Trump administration is bulldozing past public opinion and basic human decency. They’re on the wrong side of voters, morality, and history.”

“What cannot get lost in this conversation about the big disastrous bill is the real human lives that are at stake,” said Amy Hinojosa, Chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda. “This bill is centered around taking food away from the tables of hardworking people, all while benefiting from our hard work and sweat. No child should have to go without seeing their doctor or getting their vaccines, and no one should have to wonder if they can buy groceries this week. That is not what the American dream is about. The members of Congress who voted for this new reality will soon see the suffering of their constituents all around them; they need to know the truth of their actions.”

You can watch a recording of the call here.