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25-11-2024
WASHINGTON: As Donald Trump prepares for his return to the White House on January 20, immigrant rights groups are bracing in anticipation of a crackdown promised by the president-elect and his allies.
With hardliners like Stephen Miller and Tom Homan selected for key positions related to immigration, humanitarian groups in both the United States and Mexico say they are determined to press forward with their work but have no illusions about the challenges ahead.
“I’m expecting it to be exponentially worse than the first term,” Erika Pinheiro, director of the immigrant rights group Al Otro Lado, told media.
“I think political persecution is going to be supercharged,” she added, saying she believes rights groups will face spurious legal challenges meant to take up time and resources.
Interviews, campaign speeches and policies floated by Trump and his advisers suggest an ambition to fundamentally reshape the US immigration landscape, with a blitz campaign of mass deportations as well as potential attacks on longstanding rights such as birthright citizenship.
While rights groups say they are prepared to challenge such efforts, they also concede that a second Trump administration will be bolstered by a popular election victory and Republican majorities in Congress, along with experience gained from battles on immigration during Trump’s first term in office.
Several immigrant rights groups that spoke with media said that not all of Trump’s plans for a second term are clear, but all agreed that one effort, in particular, would be front and centre come January: a campaign to round up and deport large numbers of undocumented people living in the United States.
Advisers such as Miller, an architect of policies such as the ‘Muslim Ban’ and a “zero-tolerance policy for criminal illegal entry” which intentionally separated migrant parents from their children during Trump’s first term have suggested that the number of undocumented people could be in the millions.
“He (Trump) seems far more prepared than in his first term,” Vicki Gaubeca, associate director of US immigration and border policy at Human Rights Watch, told media. “He’s stated over and over again that his day one agenda will be to carry out mass deportations, so we’re fully expecting to see that,” she added, noting that it remains to be seen how the administration will muster the resources necessary to carry out such a large-scale plan.
Miller, who was recently named as Trump’s deputy chief of staff, has previously said that such an effort would include using the armed forces and National Guard units and will come in the form of a blitz meant to disorient rights groups. Trump himself recently stated that a national emergency would be declared and the military mobilized to help facilitate deportations.
“Any activists who doubt President Trump’s resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error,” Miller told media in November 2023, adding that Trump would use a “vast arsenal” of federal powers to carry out sweeping deportations.
“The immigration legal activists won’t know what’s happening,” he added.
Several activists and organizations also expressed concern that humanitarian work at the border and assistance for undocumented people could itself come under growing pressure. “We are not terrorists, we are not promoting irregular migration. We’re trying to help people and save lives. Putting water in the desert is not a crime. Humanitarian aid is not a crime but they can turn it into one, if they choose,” Dora Rodriguez told media. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
