Trump agenda item #1: target immigrants for violence and deportation
9 June 2024
Donald Trump has made it clear that if elected President, his top priority will be targeting immigrants for deportation and violence, particularly Arab-Americans, Muslims, Hispanics and other immigrants from countries he considers “not-nice”. We can also expect Trump to revoke the Constitutional provisions granting citizenship to individuals born in the United States.
Trump has promised his supporters that in a second term he would launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” To deport as many as ten million of what he called “foreign national invaders,” Trump advisor Stephen Miller explained on a November podcast, the administration would federalize National Guard troops from Republican-dominated states and send them around the country to round people up, moving them to “large-scale staging grounds near the border, most likely in Texas,” that would serve as internment camps. Source
In a public reference to his plans, Mr. Trump told a crowd in Iowa in September: “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” The reference was to a 1954 campaign to round up and expel Mexican immigrants that was named for an ethnic slur — “Operation Wetback.”
The constellation of Mr. Trump’s 2025 plans amounts to an assault on immigration on a scale unseen in modern American history. Millions of undocumented immigrants would be barred from the country or uprooted from it years or even decades after settling here. New York Times
As noted previously, I believe immigration and immigrants are good for the United States. But if Trump becomes President, it means that too many Americans disagree or are blind to reality.
If Trump becomes President, on January 20, 2025, we can expect the beginning of a massive transformation of the federal government to deport ten million or more American immigrants. However, the troubles for immigrants, or those who look like immigrants, will likely begin November 6, the day after the election. We can anticipate that the Proud Boys and other Trump followers will start attacking immigrants throughout the United States based on subtle or not so subtle instructions from President-elect Trump. If Trump appears to be winning, the attacks may begin even before election day.
Who will stop these attacks against immigrants?
Already, Trump is above the law. Despite huge verdicts against him, he has paid out very little, and that may be primarily from campaign funds, not his assets. Despite threatening election officials in 2021, starting an insurrection and retaining highly classified documents, these criminal trials don’t even have trial dates.
It seems unlikely that the police will protect immigrants when Trump’s thugs attack immigrants, even in Michigan, home to a large Arab-American population in Dearborn and elsewhere. The Police Officers Association of Michigan recently endorsed Trump. Other police are also strong Trump supporters.
It seems unlikely that the courts will protect immigrants. Trump has threatened anyone who opposes him. Today, when Trump has no political power, many Judges have slowed criminal proceedings against him. When Judges are threatened by a President who acts like a dictator, they will likely follow his lead, the law be damned. As noted:
In 1944, the US Supreme Court upheld President Roosevelt’s Executive Order in its Korematsu opinion calling for the internment of Japanese-Americans. Although considered one of the worst US Supreme Court decisions ever, it was not repudiated until 74 years later in Trump vs. Hawaii. The current ultra-conservative Roberts Court has already issued some of the worst decisions of all time, including Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (abortion rights, my vote for the worst decision due to its profound impact), Citizens United v. FEC (campaign financing) and Shelby County versus Holder (civil rights). Thus, all immigrants, undocumented and perhaps even documented, should anticipate deportation proceedings under the Trump administration.
Many of us support immigrants and we will do what we can. But we will ourselves be threatened by opposing Trump.
In addition, it is hard to find sympathy for self-destructive people. Immigrants who are supporting Trump, and even those who are not actively supporting Biden, are their own worst enemies. Shouldn’t survival be one’s top priority? Isn’t that more important than finding fault on a particular issue? It’s hard to imagine a bright future for immigrants who are Trump supporters.
The Jewish sage Hillel said: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
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Great collum, as always 👏.
Well done Nat. As usual you are concerned for everyone