Washington, DC — In this month’s elections, Americans voted decisively across the board against the Trump administration’s agenda and priorities. On immigration, exit polls asked all voters whether the Trump administration’s “immigration actions” had “gone too far,” and found that strong majorities of voters registered their disgust: in California (63% “gone too far” vs. 12% “not gone far enough”), New Jersey (53-14%) and Virginia (56-14%). And Latino voters trended sharply away from the GOP, due in no small part to immigration.
Yet rather than adjusting course, the Trump administration is doubling down as they take their violent indiscriminate roadshow to Charlotte, NC. Once again, we have fresh reminders that the anti-immigrant crusade is making all of us, regardless of immigration status, poorer, weaker and less safe.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, America’s Voice Executive Director:
“Just two weeks ago, voters across the country soundly rejected the MAGA assault on our economy, security and safety. Nevertheless, this administration is intent on ignoring that clear message in favor of even more indiscriminate violence, cruelty and chaos. Charlotte, NC is the latest city to experience Trump’s violent roadshow, which is terrorizing communities, racially profiling neighbors, threatening public safety and hurting the local economy.”
Among the key developments underscoring why Americans are calling for a better way than mass deportation:
- Mass deportation crusade stealing money and manpower from actual public safety threats: As the New York Times explores in a deep-dive, “Homeland Security Missions Falter Amid Focus on Deportations,” the mass deportation crusade is diverting agents and resources away from investigations and efforts to combat such threats as child exploitation and abuse, human trafficking and terrorism. Meanwhile, only 2.5% of Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz” arrests had a criminal record, per a Chicago Tribune investigation, highlighting that the Trump administration’s stated rationale for these operations doesn’t begin to hold up to scrutiny.
- Racial profiling on display – U.S. citizens already being targeted in Charlotte: As the Charlotte Observer detailed, CBP agents smashed the window of a pickup truck in order to detain a U.S. citizen originally from Honduras, eventually releasing him after agents finally examined his identification.
- Charlotte economy set to suffer – local businesses close as CBP arrives: Per CNN, some local business owners in Charlotte were shuttering in advance of the immigration operation, including the owners of multiple Latino-focused restaurants and bars and a beloved local bakery. As Chicago, Washington, DC and elsewhere can attest, mass deportation is “crushing local economies.”
