Summary
Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign has reignited fears among undocumented migrants with promises of “mass deportations” and migrant communities are bracing for uncertainty and a new wave of nativism.
His administration plans to target those deemed public safety or national security threats, potentially reinstating workplace raids and using military resources.
Advocates warn that “collateral arrests” could sweep up migrants without criminal records.
Many, like “Dreamers” protected under DACA, fear family separations, while others, such as Carlos in NYC, hope Trump’s economic policies might benefit them.
“A lot of Latinos, those who can vote, did so because they think he [Trump] can improve the economy. That would be very good for us too,” said Carlos, an undocumented Mexican who lives in New York City.
They will be only for “criminals”… And then he’ll classify anyone with skin darker than a certain tone as an “illegal” committing crime by living in this country, then they’ll go on to trans people, then gay people, then “anteefahs!” And so on… there’s a whole poem about it and everything.
This idea that “criminal” is some kind of basic aspect of someone’s being rather than being a status wholly controlled by the government, who can impose or remove it at will, is mind-boggling. And also probably explains a lot of how conservatives keep finding themselves in the jaws of the leopard.
There’s only 11 million undocumented immigrants in the united states. The Trump Administration has pledged to deport 20 million. Which means they are going to be expelling American citizens from their home as well. It’s not just going to be criminals. It’s going to be anyone whose skin tone they don’t like.
Yeah, they’re talking about deporting the children of undocumented immigrants.
Anyone that thinks that it’s going to be only ‘criminals’ that get deported forget that crossing the border without documentation is a crime. Yeah, it’s a misdemeanor, but it’s still a crime, and the Trump administration is still going to deport them when they can.
Adjudicating whether or not someone is guilty of a crime, or in the US illegally, requires a trial. Doing that for millions of people all of a sudden within a system that’s already backed up by more than a year is completely impossible.
In other words, they are absolutely talking about deporting innocent people of the wrong ethnicity without any attempt at due process, and anyone who thinks different is living in a dream world. And then, once they’re done with that batch, they plan to move on to other classes of undesirables.
Maybe they’re going to hold them under detention while trying millions and millions of people. Might need to build new detention facilities, of course, some kind of camps where they can concentrate the population. It’s going to take a long time too, so in the name of government efficiency they can lease them out to businesses and farms for labor while they await their trials. Work sets you free.
