Kids can be deported over their tattoos under Trump's megabill: expert

An expert with the libertarian Cato Institute sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" to slash taxes on the wealthy and cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid, food stamps, and green energy subsidies, highlighting a lesser-known provision that could codify one of the president's most controversial deportation policies — and turbocharge it into overdrive.

Specifically, posting on X, David J. Bier pointed to a subsection on page 529 of the bill that deals with the increase in funding for immigration enforcement.

"In the case of an unaccompanied alien child who has attained 12 years of age and is encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the funds made available under subsection (a) shall only be used to conduct an examination of such unaccompanied alien child for gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings," said the section.

In other words, wrote Bier, "You've heard about how ICE deported a bunch of adults to a Salvadoran torture prison based on their tattoos. Did you know that the Big Beautiful Police State Act includes $40 million to identify 'gang kids' the same way?"

In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has come under fire for arbitrarily deporting people to the Salvadoran CECOT megaprison based on tattoos they declare to be gang-affiliated, often relying on shaky or questionable sources to decide what people's tattoos mean.

In one case, a number of Venezuelans were summarily declared without any clear evidence to be members of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua and set for deportation, and the family of one deported individual, Jhon Chacin, believe that his tattoos of "a flower, a watch, an owl, skulls, my father's name, my mother's name, [and] those of his children" were interpreted by U.S. officials as gang symbols.

The budget bill narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday and is headed to the House, where GOP leadership hopes to persuade a handful of reluctant lawmakers to back the bill as written and send it to Trump's desk by the 4th of July.