Washington, DC — Two weeks into the Trump administration and it’s already clear: despite talk about going after the “worst of the worst,” the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts are – as we suspected – focusing well beyond immigrant “criminals” and are instead targeting and ensnaring U.S. citizens, immigrants who arrived here legally, spouses of U.S. citizens, teenagers, and long-settled and deeply rooted immigrants, with harms and ripple effects spreading even further and well beyond the immigrant community.
In a new video released today by America’s Voice, “In Trump’s America,” we highlight harms and heartbreaking early examples of the Trump team’s indiscriminate enforcement.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“No one is safe: U.S. citizens, legal immigrants, and even teens in school buses are being targeted and terrorized by Trump’s ugly PR campaign. Two weeks into Trump’s second term and both enforcement data and local stories show what happens when you mix the goals of the administration, with ramped-up ICE quotas and removing common-sense immigration enforcement priorities. Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda is focused on generating ugly publicity and stoking fear at the expense of families, communities, our economy, and the values we hold dear. Stirring fear and anger is the point – not how to have a functioning immigration system or how to best safeguard our public safety.”
Among the examples of those targeted and those in fear of Trump’s indiscriminate enforcement include:
- U.S. citizens and U.S. military veterans. A Newark, NJ ICE raid led to the detention of a U.S. military veteran and U.S. citizen while multiple other reports highlighted the detention of a Puerto Rican family in Milwaukee.
- Teenagers who arrived legally: See this NPR story, “ICE has arrested scores of migrants in the U.S. who have no criminal records” for the troubling details of a Texas family who arrived via the CBP One app and are now grappling with the absence of their 18-year old son, recently detained by ICE.
- Fear in schools – including about potential enforcement on school buses: As Fox News reports, the Alice, TX “school district sent parents a letter Wednesday warning that Border Patrol agents may be boarding school buses and their children may be detained or deported.”
- Ensnaring Native Americans via racial profiling: As NBC News detailed in, “Trump immigration raids snag U.S. citizens, including Native Americans, raising racial profiling fears,” “American citizens, including citizens of Native tribal nations, have been pulled into the vast immigration operations ordered by President Donald Trump … Those who are getting caught in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raids are being targeted because of their race or skin color, according to witnesses. The Navajo Nation Office was flooded with calls from tribal members living off-reservation, with many reporting being questioned about their identity by ICE officers … Questioning of Navajo Nation citizens, who are American citizens, by ICE has been problematic enough that Navajo President Buu Nygren took to the airwaves to address it.”
