As he started to do in his first presidency, and as he threatened to do in his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump is now putting non-European immigrants and refugees in this country through hell. Headed by far right anti-immigrant ideologues like Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, the anti-immigrant political hate campaign has seen raids in a number of cities with large immigrant populations, including Chicago, Newark, New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, and various cities in Texas.
Racist and unconstitutional
Raids so far have included the questioning and even arrest of non-immigrants, including Puerto Ricans and Native Americans. The head of the Navajo Nation and other indigenous leaders have warned their members that they must carry identification documents with them at all times when off the reservation, lest they be swept up in the deportation madness. A Trump administration official has also questioned the U.S. citizenship of Native American people.
In an attempt to alter the U.S. Constitution by decree, Trump has written an executive order denying citizenship to the children of parents without citizenship or legal residency. Blatantly unconstitutional, the administration’s laughable legal theory is unlikely to hold up even in the current extreme-right-dominated Supreme Court.
Trump and the MAGA right have also unconstitutionally revoked the right to due process for all non-naturalized immigrants through the Laken Riley Act, a fascist measure which requires the indefinite detention without trial of any noncitizen accused of even minor infractions, like shoplifting. The same day Trump signed the bill, he signed an executive order for the expansion of Guantanamo Bay to detain immigrants.
Encouraged by these racist measures, Trump supporters have put out the word that people who see somebody who might be an “illegal alien” should report them to the immigration cops. This endangers all people of color, those with clothing associated with certain ethnic groups, or those who are overheard conversing in a language other than English. A similar dynamic unfolded in the wake of the Bush response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with resulting physical attacks on innocent people.
The Trump administration has stated that schools, churches, and hospitals will no longer be off limits for immigration raids. There is the danger that the Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision — which ruled that the right to public education cannot be denied to undocumented children — may be challenged, or just ignored.
Deportation is inhumane
The deportation of whole families, including their children, is highly inhumane. Many of those already deported were even sent back to their home countries in chains, adults and babies alike jammed together in hot plane cabins and deprived of food, air conditioning, or even a trip to the bathroom.
The administration has further threatened Palestinian students with deportation, especially those that oppose the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
In addition, Trump has declared 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada, creating the false narrative that our neighbors have taken our jobs.
These attacks, and the threats of worse to come, ignore the consequences for the U.S. economy, particularly in the agriculture, construction, and human services industries.
A barrage of lies about immigrants emanating from the White House and amplified by local bigots and would-be vigilantes, is aimed at garnering support for the violation of the civil rights of people perceived as foreign-born. Immigrants are wrongly accused of being responsible for a largely imaginary rise in violent crime, for swamping social services — which many of them have no access to, and for “poisoning our blood,” a Hitler concept borrowed by Trump.
Mass immigration to the United States is largely the product of U.S. imperialism
Concealed from people in this country is the fact that mass immigration to the United States is largely the product of U.S. imperialism, which has interfered with the internal governance and ravaged the economies of countries in our hemisphere — and around the world — for more than a century. Unequal trade agreements, vicious economic sanctions, overthrow of progressive governments, military interventions, and climate disasters caused by global warming are all products of the imperialist system and are the main drivers of mass migration to our country.
The fightback
There is a fightback, and there is solidarity with documented and undocumented immigrant workers and their families. A number of states and municipalities — including Chicago; the state of Illinois; Richmond, Va.; and others — have all indicated that they will in no way cooperate with Trump’s brutal deportation campaign. Labor unions, community organizations, and religious denominations are all speaking out forcefully, but solidarity needs to be raised to a higher level.
The Communist Party USA calls for a determined, nationwide fight to stop the raids and other oppressive measures which the Trump administration has unleashed against immigrant workers and their families.
All our members and friends should demand that city, county, and state governments refuse to cooperate with the immigration raids and other repressive measures.
Likewise, we should work to make sure that every union, civic, and professional organization, and every religious group denounces Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign and do everything possible to block the administration’s efforts.
We should also cooperate with efforts in our communities to inform immigrants and their families about their rights if accosted by an immigration agent, and about the tactics ICE agents use to trick people into relinquishing their rights. We should further work to develop rapid response networks to challenge the activities of ICE agents in our communities, and to provide mutual aid and material solidarity to families left destitute due to the arrest of a breadwinner, or the fear of leaving their home.
We must fight against imperialism, which is a major source of mass migration to the United States. We must fight to stop the sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua; to take Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list; and to terminate other coercive measures against sovereign states from which undocumented migrants come.
We oppose the militarization of the border and the threats of military interventions in Mexico, using the pretext of actions against drug cartels. These have been labeled terrorist organizations in order to justify the threats against Mexico.
All of these actions are meant to generate mass false consciousness of an alleged foreign invasion to justify the MAGA right’s political hate campaign against immigrants of color. They are designed to divide the working class and all people, and to create a two-tier system of wages and legal rights, which become the basis for also reducing top tier wages, weakening health and safety regulations, and slashing civil and democratic rights across the board. The final aim of the Trump administration is to enrich corporations and already super-rich individuals by widening their profit margins to the maximum; lowering their taxes to the minimum; and eliminating united, popular resistance to their pro-corporate agenda.
Further reading, information, and action steps:
10-point action guide to defend immigrant communities
Immigration Myths v. Facts: A look behind the anti-immigrant furor
The Laken Riley Act is an attack on all of us!
Video: The scapegoating of immigrants: A racist political campaign
Changing U.S. foreign policy is central to immigration justice
Video: The Immigration Crisis: A Conversation with Juan Gonzalez
Video: Immigration and Immigrant Rights
Understanding issues on the border: a working-class perspective
Images: Photo 1,3: Los Angeles March for Immigrant Rights by Molly Adams (CC BY 2.0); Photo 2: Barcelona protest, 2016 Spain by Brais G. Rouco
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