Trump's War Against Immigrants
Trump 2.0: Coming to a School, Hospital or Church Near You
About 11 million undocumented migrants live in the U.S. They are not “illegals” but they don’t have legal immigration status. During the campaign, Trump proudly announced he would begin the largest deportation program in American history to “kick them the hell out of our country.”
“I think the first 90 days is going to be hell.”
Jason Houser, former chief of staff for ICE, couldn’t have been more accurate with this prediction. The day after the inauguration, Trump ordered the expansion of “expedited removal” to open the door to mass decorations. Any person, criminal or not, can be deported without a court hearing. Any person who lacks legal status or who can’t prove they’ve been in the US continuously for more than two years. Even people who were allowed into the country by the Biden administration!
What could possibly go wrong? People mistakenly swept up in raids could be denied the chance to prove their legal status and be deported. People here under special visas or parole authorities could be deported. A New Jersey citizen who is a military veteran has already been detained.
To make his mass deportation raids even bigger and nastier, Trump lifted the ban on arresting people in sensitive locations, like hospitals and places of worship. On Day 4, agents attempted to enter an elementary school in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago.
Why Did Trump Do This?
Trump claims that his deportation program has specific goals, namely, to stop illegal immigrants from invading the US, to secure the borders, and to make US communities safer.
But let’s get real. Trump has never hidden his dislike for certain (read: non-white) groups of immigrants. He’s called them criminals, rapists, and animals. He’s said they are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He’s claimed they are dangerous, coming from prisons and mental institutions.
During his first term, he supported:
Electrifying the border wall with Mexico and placing spikes on top of it.
Building a moat at the border and putting snakes or alligators in the water.
Shooting migrants in the legs.
Using armed citizens to help enforce immigration.
This time around, Trump has surrounded himself with yes-men. He is now free to lean into his innate cruelty and racism.
The Bottom Line
For just a moment, put aside the inhumanity or your lack of personal connections to anyone who could be deported. You will still feel their sting.
The cost. To deport a million people a year will take about $88 billion. That kind of cash could build over 40,000 elementary schools or almost 3 million new homes. Trump, however, says it’s “not a question of price tag.” This translates to, “I have no idea how much money this will cost and I don’t care.”
Food prices. About half of all food workers are undocumented migrants. Upon hearing stories of ICE raids thousands of Californian farmworkers stayed away from the fields. What happens when the people who pick our crops and process our foods can’t do their job? Food production will decrease and prices will increase. It’s simple supply-and-demand economics, which is why Trump doesn’t get it.
Government budgets. Undocumented immigrants may not have papers but they do pay billions in taxes. The American Immigration Council figured that the loss of payments to Social Security and Medicare would make it hard to keep these programs afloat. This is just the cherry on the top for Trump.
The fear. Trump’s plan involves launching military-style raids with the sole purpose of making people afraid. After all, self-deportation would be a hell of a lot easier for the administration.
No matter how you slice it, evidence, data, and history show that mass deportations will lead to the loss of jobs for US workers. As we all know, learning from evidence, data, and history is not on Trump’s short list.
What can you do?
Join the ACLU to send a message to the US government that you oppose Trump’s deportations. Sign on here.
Educate yourself on the importance of immigrants to our country so you can educate others. This video by Robert Reich is a great place to start.
Print red cards to share with members of your community so they will know their rights and understand how they can push back against ICE.
Subscribe to this newsletter - The Digital Drumbeat - to keep up-to-date on what’s going during the first 100 days and beyond.
THE entire motivation for all of this is white supremacy. And that is still ridiculously underreported.
Read in Bloomberg: China wants our undocumented migrants. What!!??? We need those migrants for our economy. According to data from the National Electrical Contractors Association (NCEA), 7,000 new electricians join the industry each year, but 10,000 retire from it, leaving contracting firms and their customers struggling to manage a net deficit of skilled labor. According to ABC, the construction industry will need to attract nearly 650,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2022 to meet the demand for labor. According to the Home Builders Industry shortages for labor are ranging from 39 percent for building maintenance managers to 55% plumbers, and a high of 74 percent for framing crews. And, according to the Premier Nursing Academy, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there are over 1.5 million people employed as nursing assistants, with a projected growth rate of 9% between 2019 and 2029—faster than the rates of most occupations - but there are not enough of such workers to fill the vacancies. Etc.
So we'll send that labor force to China!? Are we stupid? Talk about crippling our potential!
And, according to the US Customs and Border Protection during FY24 they arrested 1,084 undocumented migrants for assault, battery, domestic violence and 29 for homicide, manslaughter. That's a total of 1,113 people. Trump pardoned close to 1,600 Jan6 insurrectionists arrested for similar charges, which by the way marks the beginning of the end of one of the largest investigations in FBI history. I'm sure that there is other data that would illuminate the number of felonies committed by undocumented persons in more detail. Still, my point is that the claim that migrants need to be deported because they make our country unsafe is totally aberrant when our own president releases felons back into our communities (and is a convicted felon himself).