Republican 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump and his white nationalist aide Stephen Miller have promised to take their anti-immigrant and nativist assault to a new level of chaos and discrimination in a potential second term, proudly and frequently invoking plans for the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” This plan would deploy a “red state” deportation army of local law enforcement and National Guard troops from sympathetic GOP governors to go into blue states and carry out the largest purging of immigrants in our nation’s history.
Let’s be clear: this promised “great purge” of immigrants would not only devastate families and communities all across the nation but would inflict unprecedented damage on the economy and U.S. industries, forcibly expelling millions of workers who sustain our nation’s food supply, teach our children, care for the elderly, build our homes and repair our roads, care for our children and work in our hospitals.
Using massive detention camps, every level of law enforcement, and even the military, Trump and Miller have promised to round up and deport:
- At least one million farmworkers. Trump and Miller have promised to round up and purge from the country all of the at least one million undocumented immigrants who are the backbone of the agricultural industry and harvest the food that nourishes us and our families. Some estimates say that undocumented immigrants make up as much as 75% of this workforce in some localities, meaning that Trump would purge a majority of the essential workers who feed us and sustain our nation’s food supply. Whether you like Wisconsin cheese or California wine or Florida citrus, Trump wants to put those workers in camps on the road to deportation.
- More than 200,000 food production workers. Trump and Miller have promised to round up and purge from the country more than 205,000 undocumented immigrants who work in food production, including in slaughterhouses, bakeries, and fruit and vegetable preserving. In states like Iowa, these workers have helped reverse challenges posed by an aging population, as well as alleviated key labor shortages. Even when plants like Tyson Foods offered double the state’s minimum wage in efforts to attract workers, employers struggled to find U.S.-born Americans to fill oftentimes grueling and dangerous positions. It was immigrants who helped fill these gaps. If you like steaks, hot dogs or wings, Trump wants to put those workers in camps on the road to deportation.
- 1.6 million workers in the construction industry. Trump and Miller have promised to roundup and purge from the country nearly 1.6 million undocumented immigrants who quite literally are constructing our future through their essential labor building our homes, schools and businesses and building our roads. These workers are construction laborers, painters, roofers, brickmasons, electricians, and many other critical skilled trades. The six immigrant workers who tragically lost their lives in the recent Baltimore tragedy, laboring overnight to repair bridges for the benefit of all drivers? Trump wants to put those workers in camps on the road to deportation.
- More than 20,000 teachers: Trump and Miller have promised to round up and “purge 20,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients“ who are teaching our nation’s children. They include Ivonne Orozco, a New Mexico teacher who in 2018 was named a Teacher of the Year. She’s also an inspiration to many of her students. “We often have conversations in class about what success looks like,” she told CBS News in 2018. “For many, I am the first Spanish-speaking person they know who has gone to college. So they look to me for answers they maybe can’t get at home.” Trump wants to put her and a lot of teachers like her in camps on the road to deportation.
- Broadway actors, drag television stars, and Olympians: In promising to deport all immigrants who lack a clear path to citizenship, Trump and Miller have promised to round up and purge notable and inspiring figures in the arts and sports worlds. Broadway actor J. Antonio Rodriguez, RuPaul’s Drag Race stars Geneva Karr and Xunami Muse, and Olympian Luis Grijalva would be among hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients vulnerable to deportation under a second Trump term. Karr has previously discussed the uncertainty around the program, which Trump sought to end during his term. “At any time they can just be like, ‘You know what? We’re going to take this away from you,’” she said. “And it’s very scary to think that that could be a possibility.” Trump wants to put her and a lot of other artists and celebrities in camps on the road to deportation.
- More than 200,000 frontline workers. Trump and Miller have promised to round up and “purge 202,500 DACA recipients“ who have been working to protect the health and safety of Americans amid the novel coronavirus (COVID) pandemic. These healthcare workers include Jesus Contreras, a Houston-area paramedic who worked for six days straight during Hurricane Harvey to rescue members of the community. Trump and Miller would round up and purge another 11,600 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders who work in health care, including nursing assistants, orderlies, and technicians caring for patients today. Under a second Trump term, all 580,000 current DACA beneficiaries and more than 700,000 TPS holders would be at risk of being purged from their homes, jobs, and communities, put in camps on the road to deportation.
- More than 140,000 childcare, personal care, and home care workers. Trump and Miller have promised to round up and purge the estimated 142,000 undocumented immigrants who work as childcare workers, personal care, and home health workers, many of them TPS recipients. These workers include Maria Barahona, home care provider who cares for two senior citizens, including a U.S. military veteran. “These individuals have dedicated their lives to their families, their communities, and their country, and it’s my job to make sure they receive the dignified care they deserve,” Barahona said. Like the others, Trump wants to put her and a lot of others in camps on the road to deportation
Those who’ve been paying attention to Trump’s escalating rhetoric over the past several months know that he’s used dehumanizing language to attack immigrants, echoing Adolf Hitler by calling them “animals” and saying they’re “poisoning the blood of our country.” But immigrants have been essential in his household and businesses too, working at his resorts, his family’s winery, even washing his clothes. “There are millions of us here without papers, and the country depends on us,” his former housekeeper Victorina Morales said in 2019. “He knows that, because his businesses depend on us and he knows how hard I worked.”
Let’s be clear: when Trump and Miller come for the immigrants – and they will if we let them – every one of us, regardless of where we were born, will pay a very heavy price.
