On March 14, 2025, the Senate approved a short-term funding bill known as a “Continuing Resolution” or “CR” which funds the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year (end of September). This stop-gap measure gives additional funding for defense spending—including billions for deportations—and cuts about $13 billion for non-defense programs.
Unlike previous Continuing Resolutions and other spending bills that have come with specific funding directives and restrictions on how money can be spent, in this Continuing Resolution hundreds of those directives were removed. This gives the current administration far more leeway to decide where money goes and the ability to steer funding away from certain programs and use it on mass deportation.
Many consider the Continuing Resolution a “blank check” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other elements of the administration’s anti-immigrant priorities.
Impact on Survivors
It is hard to know exactly which social safety net programs will be hit by these funding cuts and how badly because, for the most part, the Continuing Resolution did not include specific language about the intent of the non-defense funding cuts and the specific programs to strip funding from. This leaves it up to the heads of individual agencies (like the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, etc.) to decide where to cut funding, all without Congressional input. This makes anticipating and planning for what comes next far more challenging for survivors and the advocates that serve them.
Unfortunately, what we do know is that cuts of this size will inevitably hit social safety net programs that survivors rely on to get and stay safe. This could include programs related to housing, transportation, legal aid and social services, health care, food assistance, and more. It is likely the cuts will also impact processing times and increase backlogs at USCIS, resulting in fewer rights conferred despite survivors being eligible for humanitarian visas, green cards, and citizenship under the law. This attack on funding for programs that support survivors to leave and rebuild their lives on their own terms will mean that women and girls in communities across the country have diminished resources and fewer pathways to a life of safety and justice.
Increased budgets for detention and deportation efforts that terrorize communities means that immigrant survivors face greater risk of being improperly arrested, detained or deported. All of this combined will result in immigrant survivors feeling far less safe coming forward to report crime and ask for help.
In addition, the budget of the District of Columbia faced the threat of steep cuts as part of the Continuing Resolution. However, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill to allow DC to continue spending its local dollars at fiscal year 2025 levels. While this was a hard won and promising win for the people of Washington, DC and the survivors and Tahirih clients that call our nation’s capital home, this standalone bill must now be passed by the House of Representatives and be signed into law by President Trump in order to truly protect DC’s budget and spending power.
