NEW REPORT: Virginia Families Face More Than $3 Billion in Health Care and Food Assistance Cuts as Trump Administration Pours Resources into Immigration Enforcement

From FWD.us, ” a policy organization working to advance better and more politically resilient solutions on criminal justice and immigration” – thanks to Republicans like Rob Wittman (R-VA01), Jen Kiggans (R-VA02), John McGuire (R-VA05), Ben Cline (R-VA06) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA09), “Virginia is projected to lose $3.5 billion in federal funding, with over 128,000 fewer adults and children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP in the last year and 16,400 health care jobs projected to disappear.” Vote them all out!

NEW REPORT: Virginia Families Face More Than $3 Billion in Health Care and Food Assistance Cuts as Trump Administration Pours Resources into Immigration Enforcement

FWD.us interactive tool shows Virginia could lose $3.5 billion in federal funding as 50,000 more Virginians face losing health coverage 

RICHMOND, VA – 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 Virginia.

One year ago, Republicans in Congress passed President Trump’s signature budget legislation, cutting nearly $1 trillion from health care. Between that bill and the spending bills since, they have funneled a quarter trillion dollars to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to terrorize communities. The new FWD.us report shows that Virginia is projected to lose an estimated $3.5 billion in federal funding 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 Virginia:

• More than 128,000 fewer Virginians are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP compared with 2025.
• 50,000 more Virginians are projected to become uninsured because of the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
• 19 hospitals and medical facilities have closed or are closing, and Virginia is projected to lose 16,400 health care jobs as a result of changes to the ACA and Medicaid, even after the creation of the RHTP.
• The Trump Administration has terminated $4.3 million in Department of Justice grant funding for substance use and mental health in Virginia.
• At the same time, the state had 37 ICE detention facilities as of July, holding an average of 1,152 people each day, and 15,536 immigrants have been arrested across the state since January 20, 2025.

Read the Virginia 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.

Todd Schulte, President of FWD.us, said: “Virginia communities are already seeing the consequences of cuts to health care, with hospitals and medical facilities closing and thousands of health care jobs at risk. At the same time, the federal government is directing enormous resources toward expanding immigration detention and enforcement. Virginians deserve investments that protect access to health care, support families, and strengthen communities — not funding decisions that put those basic needs further out of reach.”

Felicity Rose, Vice President of Research and Policy at FWD.us and author of the report, said: “Virginia is projected to lose $3.5 billion in federal funding, with over 128,000 fewer adults and children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP in the last year and 16,400 health care jobs projected to disappear. Food banks and hospitals are already under strain in the state, and with major Medicaid and SNAP cuts still ahead, the impact on Virginia families could become even more severe. Meanwhile, over 15,500 immigrant community members in Virginia have already been arrested by ICE; these are not the spending priorities Virginians deserve. ”

The Virginia 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.