The American Immigration Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. The American Immigration Council’s new special report, Mass Deportation: Analyzing the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Immigrants, Democracy, and America, is a guide to the first six months of the second Trump administration, what might be coming, and who is being harmed. This is the first in a series of blog posts lifting up the cross-cutting themes identified in the report, each of which is a way to understand the administration’s immigration policy.
The attack on immigration is the tip of the spear for the attack on American democracy.
It’s an attack on all noncitizens (and even, sometimes, citizens), who now live with the very real threat of being snatched from their homes by masked agents of the state and prosecuted by lawyers who refuse to give their names. It’s an attack on rights of free speech and due process – neither of which have ever extended quite as far for noncitizens as they have for citizens, but both of which have historically offered at least some universal protection before this administration sought to dismiss them entirely.
It’s an attack on the U.S. citizens who love and support immigrants. Telling people what their rights are when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) comes to their door is portrayed as a criminal conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement. Protesting near an ICE operation merits arrest. Simply accompanying an immigrant to a court hearing where ICE sought to detain him (possibly so he could be deported without trial), and asking the arresting officers for a judicial warrant, merits arrest. Even asking a question of the Homeland Security secretary merits arrest. The fact that all of these sentences refer to things that have happened to elected government officials is not irrelevant – it sends a message to everyone less powerful that they are not safe either.
It’s an attack on any effort to build welcoming communities. Nonprofit organizations that seek to integrate immigrants and refugees have seen their funding slashed, and their reputations smeared. State and local laws trying to protect immigrants – from limiting contact with federal immigration enforcement to offering in-state tuition to undocumented students – are subject to federal litigation. The places where local leaders are most outspoken in defending all their residents are the ones ICE targets for high-profile operations, or even sends the National Guard into the streets.
It’s an attack on the structure of constitutional government. The administration has ignored Congress’ spending priorities by commandeering thousands of federal law enforcement agents from other duties to force them to conduct immigration enforcement. Judicial orders have been slow-walked or ignored, and federal judges have been threatened and harassed. Federalism is thrown by the wayside when the government mobilizes National Guard units despite the express refusal of the state’s governor.
The administration is attempting to create a zone of exception, where democratic rights and checks on executive power are stripped away. Ironically, the administration defends its immigration agenda by appealing to “the rule of law.” But the last six months prove that Trump’s immigration policy may be the weapon that tears the rule of law to shreds.
See more about Trump’s immigration policy, and the threat it poses to our democracy, in the special report Mass Deportation: Analyzing the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Immigrants, Democracy, and America
