Trump admin cancels funding for refugees, immigrants and others in move lawmakers argue is illegal

The Trump administration is moving to cancel $810 million of funding that has been appropriated by Congress for refugees, immigrants and other services it argues are unnecessary, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget.

In what is called a pocket rescission, the package of proposed cuts, sent from Trump to House Speaker Mike Johnson in a notification letter, includes proposed rescissions at the Departments of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development and the Justice Department. Several cuts were for international assistance programs.

The White House argues that President Donald Trump is targeting “the most harmful government spending,” though some lawmakers are criticizing the move as an illegal “line item veto” that bypasses Congressional authority. Once the rescissions are submitted by the White House, the funds are paused while Congress has 45 days to act. But given the fiscal year ends on September 30, it sets the funds up to essentially be canceled.

One of the proposed rescissions seeks to cancel $10 million of the $50 million for Minority Business Development Agency programs, which the Trump administration claims are funds appropriated for “unconstitutional race-based purposes.”

“The MBDA grant programs direct grants to businesses based on race. Divisive and discriminatory programs are at the core mission of MBDA, which is why the FY 2027 Budget request proposed to eliminate the agency,” the notification letter said.

Another rescission cancels $567 million for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance account, which funds Office of Refugee Resettlement programs under HHS.

The White House argued that the office is “overfunded,” given that Trump’s border policies have curbed border crossings. Refugees typically enter the US after extensive background checks through a network of non-government organizations working with the State Department.

Some of the rescissions pull back funds for DHS, including the $15 million for the Alternatives to Detention-Case Management Pilot Program that provides case management services for people under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision but are not detained. The administration argued that the move would “eliminate unnecessary and wasteful spending.” Another $10 million would be cut from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Citizenship and Integration grant program meant to help lawful permanent residents learn English and about US history on their way to becoming US citizens. The Trump administration said DHS “has already paused” the program and “cancelled previously awarded grants from prior years.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in an X post that the pocket rescission “shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law.”

“Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” Collins wrote. “I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.”

Calling pocket rescissions “an illegal line item veto,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley urged his Republican colleagues to consider how they would feel about a Democratic president doing the same.

“He is canceling the lines of spending he doesn’t like. This violates the core separation of powers embedded in our constitution in which it is the Congress, not the president, who decides what programs are designed and at what level they are funded,” Merkley said.

But this is not the first time the White House has canceled funds that Congress had already approved.

The White House lauded Trump’s use of “long-neglected Presidential authorities,” also through the Impoundment Control Act to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid through a pocket rescission last year. Jimmy Carter was the last president to do so in 1977.

The White House defended its effort to claw back the appropriated funds.

“Last year, President Trump took the historic step of utilizing long-neglected Presidential authorities provided to him under the Impoundment Control Act to deploy the first ‘pocket rescission’ in 50 years. This year, he is continuing his commitment to the American taxpayer by utilizing a pocket rescission for another nearly $1 billion of the most harmful government spending,” the White House said in a release.