Washington, DC — The Trump administration is making clear the scope of their coming immigration crackdown and mass deportation agenda – and America’s Voice alongside other experts and observers are highlighting the potential damage.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice: “The scope of what the Trump team is planning is coming into sharper relief and goes well beyond the narrow lens of immigration policy. From the push to deport mixed-status families, including U.S. citizens; to the ending of common sense immigration enforcement guardrails and priorities; to the plan to strip protections from immigrants with various forms of legal status; to the effort to gut 150 years of settled law by ending birthright citizenship, it’s part of a larger effort to reshape America’s future by moving this nation backwards. 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 also has been featured in multiple recent media articles and appearances expounding on the above points, including:
- In The Hill, Rafael Bernal quotes Cárdenas saying: “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. 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,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice.
- Cárdenas also appeared on Greg Sargent’s podcast on The New Republic (transcript here and podcast audio link here), contextualizing Trump team comments about deporting mixed status families en masse, noting: “It’s really important for us to understand that the reason that they’re trying to spin this now is because they know that most Americans are going to be very uncomfortable seeing, again, families being separated, seeing their coworkers, their neighbors being forcibly removed. They understand that, and that’s why they’re trying to spin it. They’re trying to say that they’re going to go after ‘criminals.’ 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.”
- In Common Dreams, Jessica Corbett quotes Cárdenas saying: “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 … 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.”
In addition to the above coverage and commentary, other key recent articles capture the far-reaching nature of what the Trump team is planning and the larger resultant damage. See:
- Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez break the news for NBC, “Trump plans to scrap policy restricting ICE arrests at churches, schools and hospitals,” noting, “The policy preventing agents from making arrests in sensitive locations without approval started in 2011 with a memo sent by then-ICE Director John Morton, and continued through the first Trump and Biden administrations. It was meant to allow undocumented people to operate freely in certain public areas with the idea that doing so will ultimately benefit not just them, but also the larger community.”
- In the New York Times, Alan Feuer writes, “Far-Right Militias Seek Role in Trump Deportation Plan,” noting, “The push by some militia groups to help Mr. Trump reflects how one of his signature policy proposals mirrors ideas that once existed solely on the fringes of American politics. Militia groups, especially in border states, have a long history of supporting enforcement efforts, sometimes taking migrants into custody on their own and turning them over to lawful authorities in agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol.”
- Also in the New York Times, an op-ed by economist “Prepare for Guacamole to Be a Luxury Item“ notes, “Just as a reminder to the incoming administration, about two-thirds of vegetables and almost half of fruit and nut imports to the United States come from Mexico. And how many avocados? Ninety percent. It’s not just tariffs. American farmers and ranchers, many of whom have supported Mr. Trump, would struggle to find enough workers if he delivers on his vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. And financial aid from Washington to offset the damage might not be forthcoming, given the giant size of the federal deficit. Farms and related businesses would be most directly hit, but the impact would be felt at kitchen tables around the country. The quality and supply of grocery-store staples would suffer and prices would probably rise, something consumers have little appetite for after the pandemic-era inflation spike. The American food ecosystem, including farms, ranches and processors, has heavily relied on immigrant labor for decades.”
