What the New Budget Law Could Mean for Immigrant and Refugee Programs

BY ERIC SIGMON, LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE SERVICE*

On August 2, after a number of press conferences and late-night negotiation sessions, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control of Act of 2011, legislation that prevented the U.S. government from defaulting on its debt and requires deep cuts into future federal spending. While deficit cutting laws may not sound very interesting to the average reader, this new law will decrease the size and role of the federal government over the next decade. Over the next four months, Congress will have to make decisions that will shape the government’s capacity to provide protection and life-saving assistance to refugees, adjudicate immigration benefits, and enforce U.S. immigration laws along the border and in the interior (apprehensions, detentions, deportations).

Depending on what is cut, there could be a huge impact on the budgets of the immigration agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, which, in turn, would have a huge impact on immigrant and refugee communities.

The Budget Control Act mandates $917 billion in cuts over the next ten years by implementing spending caps on discretionary federal spending. (Note: Federal entitlement programs are exempt from these spending caps.) The bill also places an additional cap on “securityâ€