Thread by @ACLU

President Biden released his first full budget proposal today, and it's a mixed bag.

The exciting news: This budget marks the first in decades without the Hyde amendment, a discriminatory ban on insurance coverage for abortion.

But it also funds 30,000 beds in ICE detention.

In Spring 2019, an ACLU Rights for All volunteer secured a commitment from Biden that he would work to end Hyde if elected, which was a reversal of his long-held stance.

Today is a historic moment towards finally ending coverage bans that have perpetuated inequality for decades.

For more than 44 years, Hyde and related abortion coverage bans have pushed abortion care out of reach for people working to make ends meet, particularly impacting women of color.

Now Congress must pass appropriations bills that are free from all harmful abortion restrictions.

While President Biden's proposed DHS budget includes positive measures to increase accountability and oversight, it fails to make a sharp enough break from the Trump administration's wasteful and harmful spending on the detention and deportation machine.

After promising to end 'countering extremism' programs, Biden has instead allocated more than $100M for programs that have not only failed in previous administrations, but also stigmatized, surveilled, and discriminated against Black and Brown communities — especially Muslims.

We've been encouraged by Biden's rhetoric, which speaks of building a just, humane immigration system.

Until he funds that vision appropriately — divesting from programs that abuse and criminalize immigrants and reinvesting in our communities — these promises will ring hollow.