Budgetary Effects of Immigration-Related Provisions of the House-Passed Version of H.R. 240
CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have analyzed sections 579 through 583 of H.R. 240, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015, as passed by the House of Representatives on January 14, 2015.
Sections 579 and 580 would permanently prohibit the executive branch from exempting or deferring from removal certain categories of aliens considered to be unlawfully present in the United States. Those two sections of the legislation also would prohibit the executive branch from treating the affected people as if they were lawfully present or had lawful immigration status, or providing them with the authorization to work legally.
CBO and JCT expect that enacting those sections of the House-passed legislation would reduce both revenues and outlays for direct spending programs. Specifically, JCT estimates that, under those sections, revenues would be lower by $22.3 billion over the 2015-2025 period. In addition, CBO and JCT estimate that direct spending would be lower by $14.9 billion over the same period. On net, deficits would be higher by $7.5 billion over the 2015-2025 period.
We estimate that enacting sections 581, 582, and 583 of that act would have no significant budgetary effects.