BATON ROUGE, LA – Today, FWD.us released new polling and a new report, “Cutting Health Care, Supercharging ICE,” detailing how federal budget decisions cut hundreds of billions of dollars from health care, food assistance and other programs while dramatically increasing spending on immigration enforcement are impacting families and communities across Louisiana. 

One year ago, Republicans in Congress passed President Trump’s signature budget legislation, cutting $1 trillion from health care. Between that bill and the spending bills since, they have funneled a quarter trillion dollars for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to terrorize communities. The new FWD.us report shows that Louisiana is among the states facing the most significant consequences of these decisions, with an estimated $3.7 billion in federal funding projected to be lost by 2029 as a result of changes to Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, even after offset funds from the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). 

Among the report’s key findings for Louisiana: 

• 85,000 more Louisianans are projected to become uninsured because of the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. 
• Over 170,200 fewer Louisianans are receiving SNAP food assistance, while nearly 209,600 fewer people are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP compared with 2025. 
• Three hospitals and medical facilities have closed or are closing, and Louisiana is projected to lose 18,700 health care jobs as a result of changes to the ACA and Medicaid, even after factoring in RHTP funds.
• At the same time, the state had 21 ICE detention facilities as of July, holding an average of 8,268 people each day, the second highest number of detentions in the country after Texas, and 9,258 immigrants have been arrested across the state since January 20, 2025. 

Read the Louisiana fact sheet here. 

The new polling commissioned by FWD.us shows voters strongly question these spending priorities. In a July national survey of likely voters, 60 percent said spending hundreds of billions of dollars on immigration enforcement while cutting funding for health care is unacceptable, compared with 28 percent who said immigration enforcement should be funded even if it requires cuts elsewhere.

Congressman Troy Carter (D-LA-02) said: “While the Trump Administration is planning on spending a record $261 billion to supercharge policing, arrests, and harassment of our immigrant communities and anybody that appears “foreign,” Louisianans are struggling to make ends meet with higher prices at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office. What we are seeing is not justice or public safety – it is a clear and cruel attempt to terrorize our immigrant neighbors while making it harder for struggling families to put food on the table.” 

Todd Schulte, President of FWD.us, said: “Louisiana families stand to lose billions of dollars in federal support for health care and food assistance, with hospitals closing and nearly 19,000 health care jobs projected to disappear. At the same time, the federal government is dramatically expanding immigration detention and enforcement. These funding decisions reveal a fundamental imbalance in our national priorities. Louisianans deserve investments that help families put food on the table, access health care, and build safer, stronger communities.”

Felicity Rose, Vice President of Research and Policy at FWD.us and author of the report, said: “Louisiana is projected to lose $3.7 billion in federal funding, while more than 209,000 fewer people are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP and more than 170,000 fewer Louisianans are receiving SNAP food assistance than a year ago. At the same time, 21 ICE detention facilities in the state are jailing more than 8,000 people on an average day, and the administration is trying to build a new jail aimed at holding children and families. With many of the most significant Medicaid and SNAP cuts still to come, the data show that the consequences of these funding decisions for Louisiana families could become substantially greater.”

The Louisiana findings are part of a broader national shift in federal spending priorities. The reconciliation bills directed $113 billion to ICE alone, including funding for nearly 100,000 detention beds, roughly 14,600 additional officers and staff, and expanded deportation operations. It also created a $27 billion fund within the Department of Homeland Security without specific line-item allocations or regular reporting requirements.

Read the full report from FWD.us here.