Donald Trump began his second term as President as a harbinger of hate, dredging one of the most putrid stains on the pages of our American history out of the history book and into his newly weaponized federal government. Mass deportations have never and will never do what they claim to do. They only cause pain, distrust in government, and the destruction of families and communities across the nation. 

In our noble fight against fascism in World War II, we took a dangerous wrong turn in its direction as we imprisoned over 120,000 people of Japanese descent, 70,000 of whom were American citizens in concentration camps. We swerved dangerously close to fascism as the War Relocation Authority and US government adopted policy that had been implemented across Germany and Poland. All in the name of safety. These crimes against humanity did not make us safer.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s adoption of mass deportations was another dark part of this time in our nation’s history. His racistly-named “Operation Wetback” in 1954 was an unsuccessful and extremely destructive policy of mass deportation. While Trump praised this policy in one of his presidential debates in 2015, the brutality and truly evil nature of this operation was astounding. Not only were families torn apart and children left without their parents – some never seeing them again – but this operation also resulted in the deaths of nearly one hundred undocumented individuals. The similarities between Trump’s plan and Eisenhower’s are impossible to ignore. In both cases, the term” invasion” has been used to describe what is happening at the border. The justification for the brutality of the policy has been that these plans will encourage legal immigration. Not only was Eisenhower’s plan unsuccessful in accomplishing this, but it also caused U.S. citizens to mistakenly be deported. 

Trump claims that immigrants with criminal convictions are the primary targets, but sources close to his administration suggest that migrants with no criminal record are also being arrested as "collateral arrests." Trump has been hard at work scapegoating immigrants for crime in the country. The statistics flat out disprove this. Crime statistics in Texas between 2012 and 2018 show that U.S. born citizens were arrested at a significantly higher rate than undocumented people for property crime, violent crime, and drug crime. When all the facts say that a mass deportation does not benefit the American people, why does Trump insist upon following through with it? The only answer is xenophobia and hatred. Many will remember when in December of 2023, Trump proclaimed that immigrants were, “poisoning the blood of our country.”

The only one poisoning our country is the President, sewing fear, hatred, and distrust of our fellow Americans. His constant dehumanization of immigrants becomes ever more terrifying when he sends the former Governor of South Dakota, previously best known for shooting her own dog, to perform a publicity stunt of making one arrest in a city she will never understand or care about. 

In addition to the human toll of an operation like this, the economic impact of mass deportation will be devastating. Undocumented people play an essential role in our economy by providing a crucial tax base and a labor force that allows many of our most important industries to exist. Trump’s operation would therefore not only be hurting Americans who work in or around these industries, but also would threaten Americans who rely on tax-supported services like Social Security and Medicare. 

As surely as our nation was built on the back of immigrants, our history has perpetually echoed with the wails of waves of new Americans being targeted by those who arrived before them. I will forever stand against this hate, violence, and lies about people fleeing violence, oppression, and economic turmoil. 

- Tony

Resources for dealing with ICE

Guidance Report for Communities from the AG's Office

Guidance Report on Schools from the AG's Office

Sanctuary City Laws from the NYC Office of Immigrant Affairs