Trump Rescinds $810 Million in Funds Tied to Illegal Immigration, Race Programs

President Donald Trump on Friday moved to cancel $810 million in congressionally appropriated federal funding, including money tied to programs involving illegal immigrants and race-focused initiatives, using a budget maneuver known as a “pocket rescission.”

The move, reported by the New York Post, comes as the Trump administration continues a broad effort to tighten immigration enforcement and impose tougher rules across the immigration system while redirecting federal spending toward the president's policy priorities.

 

A rescission is the cancellation of money that Congress has already appropriated but that has not yet been spent.

Under the normal process established by the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, the president can ask Congress to rescind the money, but Congress has 45 days of continuous session to act on the request.

If Congress does not approve a presidential rescission request within that period, the funds generally must be made available for obligation, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, which published an updated explanation of the process this month.

A pocket rescission is different because of its timing: The president submits the rescission request close enough to the expiration of the affected funds that they can lapse before Congress has completed the 45-day review period.

The Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Impoundment Control Act does not permit a president to withhold funds proposed for rescission through their expiration date if Congress has not affirmatively approved the cancellation.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, however, noted this month that no court has definitively ruled on the merits of whether the Impoundment Control Act permits pocket rescissions, making the legal status of the maneuver disputed.

The Trump administration has nonetheless embraced the tactic, previously arguing that it is a lawful tool for eliminating federal spending that conflicts with the president's priorities.

In August 2025, Trump used a pocket rescission to seek the cancellation of about $4.9 billion in foreign-aid funding, with the White House describing the move as the first use of the mechanism in nearly 50 years and saying the spending violated Trump's “America First” priorities.

That 2025 action was challenged in court, but the Supreme Court allowed the administration to continue withholding the funds while the litigation proceeded, without resolving the underlying question of whether pocket rescissions are lawful, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The administration's latest action comes as Trump has made immigration enforcement a central focus of his domestic agenda, moving beyond border security to address deportations, visas, asylum, federal benefits and other aspects of the immigration system.

The administration has expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and deportation efforts while seeking to restrict access to federally funded programs for people who are ineligible for them.

Trump also has pursued tighter rules affecting legal immigration.

On Sept. 18, Trump extended for another year restrictions on H-1B nonimmigrant workers that require employers seeking to bring certain workers into the country to make a $100,000 payment, saying the program had been exploited to replace American workers with lower-paid labor.

The administration also this month restored broader discretion for immigration officers to determine whether certain applicants are likely to become a “public charge,” allowing officials to consider a wider range of factors involving an immigrant's potential reliance on government benefits.

The Department of Homeland Security said the rule, which took effect Sept. 18, was intended to restore the principle that immigrants should be self-reliant and that government benefits should not incentivize immigration.

The funding move therefore comes amid a broader administration effort to align federal spending and immigration policy with Trump's stated priorities, including stronger enforcement against people in the country illegally and tighter scrutiny of people seeking to enter or remain in the United States.

The latest action also follows Trump's use of rescission authority in 2025.

In July 2025, Trump signed the Rescissions Act of 2025 after Congress approved roughly $9 billion in spending cancellations involving foreign aid and public broadcasting.

That was a regular rescission, however, because Congress ultimately approved the cancellations. The Congressional Research Service said the law marked the first time since 1992 that a president had successfully invoked the Impoundment Control Act to secure passage of a rescission bill.

The roughly $5 billion pocket rescission Trump pursued a month later was a separate action and did not require Congress to enact a rescission bill before the affected funds expired.

The distinction is significant because a regular rescission follows the congressional process established by law, while a pocket rescission relies on the timing of the request and the approaching expiration of the funds — a practice GAO has said is not authorized by the Impoundment Control Act.

Friday's $810 million move puts the administration back into that disputed territory as the fiscal year approaches its Sept. 30 end and Trump continues using federal spending decisions as another means of advancing his broader policy agenda.

Credit:  

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.