Washington, DC — Two important articles from this weekend underscore a point we’ve been emphasizing at America’s Voice, including in our video, “In Trump’s America:” despite talk about going after the “worst of the worst,” the Trump administration’s early immigration enforcement efforts are instead indiscriminate in nature, including multiple reports of U.S. citizens being ensnared in enforcement efforts.
Writing for ProPublica, Mica Rosenberg and Perla Trevizo offer a deep-dive look at the array of immigration and related policies announced and promised by the Trump Administration during its first weeks in office, including regarding interior immigration enforcement. As they note:
Trump has “launched his promised effort to round up and remove millions of unauthorized immigrants starting with those accused of violent crimes, though less than half of the approximately 8,200 people arrested from Jan. 20 through Feb. 2 so far have criminal convictions, according to government data obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.”
Meanwhile, writing at The Bulwark, Adrian Carrasquillo continues to examine the larger implications, harms, and details of the Trump enforcement push, with his latest, “Trump’s Deportation Dragnet Widens and Puerto Ricans Are Getting Caught in It” highlighting examples of U.S. citizens being ensnared. As he writes:
“Tom Homan acknowledged that collateral arrests would be part of the coming immigration raids. Yes, the administration was going to focus on those with criminal histories, he stressed, but if undocumented immigrants without criminal records got detained, so be it. After all, they too were here illegally.
What was never part of the deal was U.S. citizens being swept up in ICE raids. But less than three weeks into the Trump administration, that’s exactly what’s happening. And the Puerto Rican population on the mainland is bearing the brunt of it. Already, there have been a handful of documented examples of raids and confrontations at Puerto Rican businesses, despite Puerto Ricans having automatic U.S. citizenship. The raids have startled Puerto Ricans, who are rushing to get passports out of fear that they could be targeted just for speaking Spanish or having brown skin.”
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Mixing fear, ramped up ICE quotas, and the end of common-sense immigration enforcement priorities is a toxic brew that is already harming our American families. No wonder we’re seeing stories and statistics underscoring the indiscriminate nature of the early Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, including on U.S. citizens. We fear we haven’t seen the worst yet – Trump’s cruel, chaotic and costly agenda targets our families, communities, our economy, and the values we hold dear.”
- Watch America’s Voice video: “In Trump’s America”
- Read the new America’s Voice Substack post, “Trump Administration Admits It Believes all Immigrant Workers are ‘Criminals’ Even If They Have No Criminal Record”
