Washington, DC — Last week, we highlighted the costs and unpopularity – when described in detail – of Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportations, while branding the intersecting focus of John Kelly and military leaders’ warnings about Trump and the billion dollar effort to appeal to voters based on anti-immigrant fear and dangerous conspiracies as “21st-century American Fascism.”
Last night, both elements were on display for America in the openly racist and authoritarian Trump Madison Square Garden rally and a concurrent interview with former and promised future ICE Director Tom Homan on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” where he pledged that the largest ever mass deportation effort would be indiscriminate and unsparing, including targeting Grandmas and U.S. citizen children of undocumented parents (see more details below). Note: A new report from FWD.us estimates that 28 million people – including 20 million Latinos – are vulnerable to family separations in 2025.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Trump is running an openly fascist, authoritarian, and racist campaign and isn’t trying to hide it anymore. It’s about blaming immigrants, targeting Latinos and stoking fears for political power, then unleashing the power of the government as retribution against political enemies, including long-settled immigrants, immigrants with legal status and U.S. citizens caught in the mix. It is not about immigration status or legality; Republicans are clear that all Latinos and people of color – even the millions of U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico – are in the crosshairs.
This mass deportation of millions is the most consequential policy Trump has put on the table. And as Tom Homan makes clear in the ‘60 Minutes’ interview, this wouldn’t be targeted at actual public safety threats or recent border crossers, but grandmas, long-settled residents, Dreamers and TPS holders, and even U.S. citizens including children. Yes, the economic costs would be catastrophic for working families, regardless of immigration status, but the humanitarian and moral costs would be incalculable.”
Madison Square Garden Rally: Racism, Great Replacement Theory, and 1939 Redux: As The Washington Post described in their article about the rally, “Trump rally speakers lob racist insults, call Puerto Rico ‘island of garbage,’” the open racism and authoritarianism on display was jaw-dropping. Beyond the racist comments of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, Stephen Miller made the parallels to the 1939 Nazi MSG rally all the more apt by invoking a Nazi German slogan from that era, stating, “America is for Americans and Americans only!” as part of a rabidly xenophobic speech (see more on the parallels here).
Meanwhile, as the Post recapped, Donald Trump Jr. “alluded to the white supremacist conspiracy theory known as ‘replacement theory’ that has inspired recent violence against minorities. ‘The Democrat Party has forgotten about Americans … Rather than cater to Americans, they decided you know what, it would just be easier to replace them with people who would be reliable voters.’”
Notably, the Trump team’s embrace of the Great Replacement Theory, which underlies the Big Lie 2.0 centerpiece of their post-election plans to contest the election should they lose (see here), came the same weekend as the sixth anniversary of the 2018 Tree of Life shooting, when a gunman motivated by the replacement theory killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue because he heard that Jews were facilitating the “invasion” of the United States.
On “60 Minutes”, former acting (and promised by Trump, future) ICE Director Tom Homan described more chilling details about the unsparing nature – including U.S. citizens – of Trump’s pledged mass deportations: In an interview with Cecilia Vega of CBS, Homan stated:
“Cecilia Vega: Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?
Tom Homan: Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”
…[Vega]: “Why should a child who is an American citizen have to pack up and move to a country that they don’t know?”
Tom Homan: “’Cause their parent absolutely entered the country illegally, had a child knowing he was in the country illegally. So he created that crisis.’”
As Ron Brownstein noted of Homan’s remarks, “I’m not sure people are grasping the full implication of what he’s saying here: that to avoid family separation in mass deportation, Trump would also remove millions of US citizen children-a prospect that takes his deportation plan much deeper into the realm of ethnic cleansing.”
Also during the interview, Homan reiterated pledge that enforcement priorities would be eviscerated and that even “grandmas” could be targeted for arrest and possible deportation. As CBS recapped, “Homan’s suggestion that grandma might face arrest would mark a major shift in policy. Under President Biden, ICE is mostly targeting those deemed national security or public safety threats — and people who just crossed the border illegally.”
Resources and Background
- Read the joint statement organized by Voto Latino and signed by Latino leaders including Vanessa Cárdenas: “Trump Rally Unleashes Racist, Degenerate, and Dangerous Attacks on Latinos”
- Read America’s Voice, “10 Things We Know With Confidence About Immigration & 2024 Elections”
- Read America’s Voice Substack analysis, “He’s Running a Fascist Campaign,” detailing how Republicans’ nativist populism is more than a ploy to scare up votes, but underwriting a fascist project in America.
- Read America’s Voice analysis, “Republicans’ Billion-Dollar Bet on Nativism”
- Read America’s Voice analysis, “Key Finding: Americans Don’t Support Trump’s Mass Deportation When They Know The Details”
- Read about the economic catastrophe of mass deportation: The Boston Globe op-ed from leading expert Michael Ettlinger, “Trump’s plan to vaporize the economy” and find related economic analyses: “Literature Review on the Economic Consequences of the Deportation of Unauthorized Immigrants,” by Robert G. Lynch (Washington College – Department of Economics) and Michael Ettlinger (University of New Hampshire) and “The Economic Impact on Citizens and Authorized Immigrants of Mass Deportation” by Robert Lynch and Michael Ettlinger.
