TRUMP’S MASS DEPORTATION AGENDA TAKES AIM AT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN AMERICAN
During a recent interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker, President-elect Donald Trump reiterated that his “bloody” mass deportation agenda would ensnare U.S. citizens and attack basic principles of what it means to be an American, including making clear that he intends to deport U.S. citizens along with their undocumented loved ones, as well as making the U.S.-born infants of undocumented parents stateless by seeking to halt issuing birth certificates and other citizenship documents as a step towards eliminating birthright citizenship. “There’s a growing consensus that the Trump mass deportation agenda will hit American consumers and industries hard, but the scope of what Trump and his team are proposing goes well beyond the economic impact,” responded America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “Trump and allies are making clear their mass deportation agenda will include deporting U.S. citizens, including children, while aiming to gut a century and a half of legal and moral precedent on birthright citizenship. In total, their attacks go well beyond the narrow lens of immigration to the fundamental question of who gets to be an American.” Other key recent articles have also captured the far-reaching nature of what the Trump team is planning and the larger resultant damage, including a recent report that the Trump team plans to attack faith communities by rescinding current ICE guidance and making churches, as well as hospitals and schools, vulnerable to mass deportation raids. “Many of the outlandish proposals that people said could not possibly come true are driving the President’s agenda as he prepares to take office,” Cárdenas cautioned. Read more here.
SENATE JUDICIARY WITNESSES SHINE LIGHT ON ECONOMIC AND PUBLIC SAFETY HARMS OF MASS DEPORTATION
During a Senate Judiciary hearing on mass deportation on Wednesday, witnesses including a DACA recipient raised alarms about the vast consequences that Trump’s mass deportations and red state deportation army will have on the economy, U.S. military readiness, and homes all across our country. “I’m currently the breadwinner in my family,” said Foday Turay, a Dreamer and assistant district attorney at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. “If I were to be deported, my wife and our son would be left without to pay the mortgage.” But as a prosecutor, Turay also knows that mass deportation impacts all families. “When you have ICE agents patrolling courthouses and police stations,” he said, “you create a category of people who are less willing to report crimes and less willing to cooperate with law enforcement in solving crimes.” Major General Randy Manner, a former Army official, told lawmakers that deploying the military to engage in mass deportations “would negatively impact the military’s readiness and capability to accomplish its core mission of national defense.” And the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said that “economic chaos” would follow the mass deportation of workers who are essential to critical industries. “As millions are expelled, the US population and labor force would shrink.” Ahead of the hearing, Cárdenas said there was no disagreement that public safety and an orderly border are priorities. However, “Trump’s mass deportation plan will not achieve either of these goals and will in fact set us back on both border control and public safety.” Read more from the Senate Judiciary hearing here.
TRUMP’S ANTI-IMMIGRANT CRUSADE DOESN’T EVEN RESPECT U.S. CITIZENS
In her weekly column, America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings writes that Trump doubled-down on his pledge to attack birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed in the 14th Amendment and was approved at the end of the Civil War to clarify the citizenship of recently-liberated slaves born in the United States. The experts and academics say that attempting to alter birthright citizenship would require support from two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of state legislatures, all of which would be no easy feat for any president. “Trump could issue an order, but it’s anticipated that it would be immediately challenged in the courts for being unconstitutional,” Hastings writes. Reportedly, the Trump team has already been mulling plans to stop issuing citizenship-affirming documents to the U.S.-born infants of undocumented parents, which would certainly be challenged in court. “Although consensus exists that amending the Constitution to deny birthright citizenship is nearly impossible, it’s also recognized that if the case reaches the Supreme Court, there is a conservative majority substantially aligned with Trump,” Hastings concludes. “It would no longer be so far-fetched that Trump’s extremist proposals could be held up by the highest court.” Her column was also published in several outlets, including La Opinión, Radio Bilingüe, and Hispanic LA. Read her column in English here and Spanish here.
THE FACES OF MASS DEPORTATION
Trump’s first term offers a preview of his dangerous and incoherent plan to toss aside common sense immigration enforcement priorities and making everyone a target for violent mass deportation. Far from solely targeting threats to public safety (though we should remember that immigrants commit crime at lower rates than U.S.-born Americans), the arrest of folks with no criminal record more than doubled during his first year in office, targeting Dreamers, the parents of U.S. citizen kids, U.S. military spouses, and immigrants simply following the rules by regularly checking in with ICE. Jesus Lara Lopez, a Pepperidge Farms worker and dad of four American children, was one of the most high-profile examples of Trump’s cruelty, ordered to leave despite having no criminal record and regularly checking in with ICE. In heart-wrenching footage shot at the airport on the day of his deportation, Lara Lopez’s U.S. citizen kids – one of them wearing a U.S.-flag style hoodie – tearfully clutched at their dad. His deportation was also an example of the negative impacts that deporting a breadwinner has on American families. The family had taken out a $62,000 mortgage to purchase a home just one year prior. However, concerned community members were able to raise thousands of dollars to help the family keep their home. Despite his years of hard work and contributions to the U.S., Lara Lopez was deported with no possessions other than some paperwork and the clothes on his back. “I came to this country with nothing, and that’s how I’m going to leave,” he said. Read more here.
EXPOSING TRUMP’S SPIN
Vanessa Cárdenas joined Greg Sargent’s The Daily Blast podcast to discuss the immigration issue, including the Trump team’s attempt to spin his looming mass family separations. Trump attorney Alina Habba has claimed that “nobody is breaking up families,” but that entire families – including American kids – need to be removed so they can come in “the right way.” As Cárdenas told Sargent, they’re trying this spin because they know that most Americans will be repelled at seeing their true agenda actually play out. “Once Americans see the real impact that’s going to have not just at a human level, which of course is devastating, but also in our economy, they’re going to reject it.” Click here to listen.
YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS
On Wednesday, Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) held a press event with immigration advocates and Temporary Protected Status recipients to continue urging President Biden to use his remaining weeks in office to protect Dreamers and TPS holders. Trump has vowed to strip protections from long-settled workers like Jose Cabrera, a Salvadoran TPS holder who has lived here for over 30 years. “I’ve worked hard in landscaping to support my loved ones, and I’m proud to be part of this community. But right now, there’s so much fear among immigrants like me, especially with the new administration coming in,” he said. “President Biden, you have the power to make a real difference, but time is running out. Please, protect immigrants who have been part of this country for so long. Don’t wait—our families and our futures depend on it.” Last week, the senators issued a letter urging the president to “act decisively,” noting that Trump’s mass deportation pledge even includes those with DACA and TPS status and who regularly go through and pass criminal background checks and contribute to the formal economy. “This isn’t just immoral — by taking away lawful status and work authorization for these individuals, we’d be gutting critical sectors of our workforce,” said Senator Padilla. “President Biden has the power to prevent these harms, and I urge him to use this moment to protect long-term immigrants and strengthen our economy.” Read more here.
Not a subscriber to our weekly immigration policy and politics updates? You can sign up right here.
