Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish. It ran in several Spanish-language media outlets earlier this week:
The Trump administration’s barrage of measures in its assault on legal immigration will face challenges in the courts, but as the back-and-forth continues, the damage to individuals, families, communities, and the economy is real and palpable. It is like death by a thousand cuts, where inflicting pain and terror is a central part of the strategy.
This plan aims to pressure immigrants into leaving on their own and to intimidate anyone defending their rights, including legal advocates and immigrant rights organizations.
The news headlines and videos about raids, detentions, and their aftermath are also distressing.
A review of the press over the past few days offers a glimpse of the bigger picture.
In Florida, a group of 58 children, including U.S. citizens, have been sent to Guatemala and other countries they do not know to reunite with their deported parents, assisted by the state’s Guatemala-Maya Center.
Part of the group traveled in recent days. “Families of the seven travelers – ages 3 to 15 – have been torn apart this year by the Trump Administration’s deportation campaign. The children left the United States on Thursday for a new life in the mountains of Guatemala. For some, Florida is the only home they’ve ever known,” says the article in the Miami Herald.
Children are one of the sectors most affected by Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade, which does not exempt schools or churches in its hunt, not only for undocumented immigrants but for anyone who looks “foreign,” even if they are citizens.
Videos of violent interventions and arrests by ICE and Border Patrol agents underscore that not only undocumented immigrants are affected, as seen in the case of a U.S. citizen violently dragged from her car by masked agents in Key Largo, Florida, demonstrating disregard for constitutional protections.
In a letter to the Miami Herald, the woman stated, “This is not the America I grew up in, and this is not the America that we represent. I refuse to allow anyone, identified or not, to violate my rights or take away my dignity.”
ICE and the Border Patrol even detain those with visas or special protections because they are considered “collateral damage.”
And if the operations were violent before, they are even more so now after the death of a National Guard soldier in an ambush in Washington, D.C., at the hands of an Afghan citizen. This resulted in the freezing of asylum requests from citizens of 19 countries, including Cuba and Venezuela. And it covers all immigration adjustments, from green cards to naturalization.
In Boston, El Planeta reported that “on Thursday, immigrants approved for naturalization went to Faneuil Hall—known as the Cradle of Liberty—to experience that long-awaited moment. But upon arriving and lining up, some were informed by USCIS officials that they could not proceed due to their countries of origin.”
It is not just a matter of canceling naturalization ceremonies. Trump is already talking about revoking people’s citizenship, and on Friday, the creation of the USCIS Background Check Center was announced to review all pending and approved immigration adjustment requests. In this hemisphere, immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela are being scrutinized.
Not to mention the deaths of immigrants in unsanitary detention centers, where they do not receive prompt and adequate medical care. An estimated 20 to 25 immigrants have died in ICE custody this year, one of the deadliest on record.
Worst of all, various analyses continue to confirm that the operations are detaining immigrants with no criminal history.
NBC News reported that between January 20 and October 15 of this year, ICE detained 75,000 immigrants with no criminal record, representing one-third of the 220,000 arrested during that period. For those with criminal records, there is no distinction between misdemeanors and felonies. The figures do not include those detained by the Border Patrol in violent operations across the country.
This year, now in its final month, has been an annus horribilis, a year of great misfortune for immigrants and non-immigrants alike.
But there are rays of hope thanks to the support of the community and U.S. citizens for their immigrant family members, friends, neighbors, and employees. The resistance is still alive and well.
The original Spanish version is here.
