As the frenzy for candidate Donald Trump’s nomination began building last summer, the convention hall was brimming with all the campaign kitsch you expect. But the signs flooding the hall along with a chorus of approving chants were unlike any seen or heard at any nominating gathering before.
They were ugly, they were racist. ‘Mass Deportation Now,’ ‘Deport Illegals NOW!’ But more than that, they were reflections of a month’s long campaign promise Trump made and now, as President, is keeping even as the government he oversees is shutting down.
Trump voters were giddy with the promised ICE roundups in cities across the country. But polls show a majority of Americans deplore the often soulless and brutish nature employed by masked agents.
A recent Homeland Security raid on a Chicago apartment complex took on the look of a Hollywood movie. In the dark of night, ICE agents repelled down from helicopters, dozens of vehicles jammed the streets, doors were kicked in, and chaos ensued. Immigrants as well as American citizens were detained or arrested.
Similar images of young and old, men, women and children, even infants, being swept up and taken to detention facilities have become daily fare in newscasts with some detainees flown to places as distant as Africa.
The roundups are exactly what so many of Trump’s acolytes wanted. Then something happened and they weren’t so happy. His party, failing to get everything it wanted from Democrats who didn’t rubberstamp a funding bill, allowed the government to shut down.
Then things got worse. Trump greenlit the plan he once denied knowledge of. Project 2025, a blueprint for thinning government, and orchestrated by OMB Director Russell Vought, kicked in.
The two men met to finalize a blueprint for culling the federal workforce or as Trump said to “clear out dead wood, waste and fraud.” The plan would target up to 750,000 federal workers in “Democrat Agencies” (sic) including IRS, EPA, FDA, the U.S. Forest Service and more.
Taking it further, by the weekend eight states, all blue, including Colorado, had billions in federal dollars designated for various projects suddenly cut. In Colorado, $550 million for clean energy projects simply vanished.
Because of the overlap between the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado, Kristy Burnett, Communications Manager for the State Forest Service said, it is still too early to gauge the effects of the federal shutdown. But state workers, she said, will continue “to work every day to serve Colorado residents.”
Colorado’s federal workforce is estimated at 50,000, a number that has shrunk since Trump took over as President in January. Several thousand government workers were fired by Trump’s friend Elon Musk in his DOGE sweep. But nearly every county will feel some pain.
While Pueblo has less than 700 federal workers, said city councilman Dennis Flores, the lost income and uncertainty of the shutdown are still painful. “What he’s (Trump) doing to blue states who did not support him,” he said, “is actually harming people,” including people who voted Republican. “It’s a form of cruelty.”
A pillar of the budget that Democrats cannot abide is the cut Republicans are making in healthcare. But Republicans disagree, saying the fundamental cause of the shutdown is Democrats desire to extend healthcare benefits to undocumented immigrants.
Republican leadership, including Vice President J. D. Vance, Senate leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson have repeatedly stated as much in defending the shutdown. While there may be some gray in their positions, some immigrants—though not undocumented—do receive health care benefits.
Cuban and Haitian entrants and citizens of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau are entitled. But to suggest a new arrival or even a long residing undocumented person qualifies, as the Vice President said recently, is not accurate.
Still, the thread Republicans are using to sew their argument, is that Democrats are ready to provide billions in healthcare for “illegal aliens.” But on a number of occasions over the past week, television news anchors have interrupted these officials to correct the record on just who is and who is not eligible for healthcare benefits.
The reality is this: Undocumented immigrants can get certain healthcare under the 1986 EMTALA legislation signed by President Reagan. EMTALA, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, provides emergency medical care to all patients. EMTALA also provides for all hospital patients whether they have Medicare or Medicaid coverage or not.
Denver Health and Hospitals, which serves one of Colorado’s highest number of Medicare and Medicaid patients, has so far not been affected by the shutdown, said Dr. Steve Federico, Chief Government and External Community Relations Officer. Also, Federico said, “We do not ask patients to disclose their immigration status as part of the care process.”
In justifying health care cuts, Republicans want to prevent “able bodied” men over age 18 from receiving Medicaid. “When you make young men work,” he said, “it’s good for them.” There are plenty of cuts the two parties differ on in the budget. But none is bigger than health care.
Republicans have voted to cut as much as $1.1 trillion in federal health care spending through the decade. The cuts would reduce spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. Democrats call the cuts draconian and will result in as many as twelve million Americans losing insurance by 2034.
Democrats want to extend health care premiums provided through the ACA and keep insurance costs at current levels. Currently, these subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year. If the Republican budget holds, premiums, say Democrats, could rise by hundreds if not thousands of dollars in 2026. House Speaker Johnson said there is “zero chance” his party would capitulate to Democrats on Medicare and the ACA. With majorities in both houses, Democrats know they are in very difficult battle.
