The Trump administration continues its promise of a mass deportation of immigrants it says are in the country illegally. The problem is that the administration is not going after just the criminal element it said it would target.
Look at the headlines on an almost daily basis. There are documented cases of people with U.S. passports -- and no criminal background -- being arrested by immigration officials.
Native Americans from the Navajo Nation were arrested, along with some people from Puerto Rico.
People who were in the United States lawfully and didn’t pose a threat or a risk to public safety have been caught up in sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The dragnets continue to target immigrant and minority communities. And the chilling headlines indicate many of the raids seem indiscriminate.
You have people who are permanent residents of the United States who have been put in detention and deported. Tourists, people who wanted to visit the U.S., have been literally turned away.
Evidence the Trump administration has cited in its “legal efforts” to detain and deport migrants includes tattoos, deleted photos and pro-Hamas flyers.
The fact is, those who go to immigration court already face a lower standard of due process in proceedings. But what’s happening now under the administration seems to reflect a major deterioration of migrant civil liberties, according to immigration attorneys.
Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council, puts it this way: “Under the Trump administration, what we’re seeing is yes, allegations using flimsy evidence paired with no meaningful opportunity to refute that evidence in any kind of proceeding before any kind of decision-maker. That’s really what makes this different.”
Immigration attorneys are off balance and becoming disoriented because of the quickening pace.
Political targets
And when immigrant rights are brought to the forefront, the Trump administration pushes back against critics who are raising concerns about immigrants’ legal rights.
In fact, border czar Tom Homan has a stock answer: “Due process? What was Laken Riley’s due process?” That’s what he said on ABC. Riley was a nursing student who was killed by an immigrant from Venezuela who was in the country illegally.
Homan went on, “What were all these young women that were killed and raped by members of (Tren de Aragua) – what was their due process?”
Immigration officials are targeting individuals because of their political opinions or for taking part in political activities.
Several incidents were cited in The Independent just last week to showcase a number of people who are legally in this country who have either been detained by ICE or refused entry.
They include a Georgetown grad student from India who was told by masked agents that “his student visa had been revoked.” A judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting him.
The article cited another incident involving an unnamed French researcher who was detained because of texts they sent. The article cited this response from the French minister of higher education and research, Philippe Baptiste: “Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold. I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them while respecting the law.”
There’s the story of a tourist from Wales coming to America for the self-described trip of a lifetime. The 28-year-old spent 19 days in a processing center. No criminal record, but was led on a plane in chains. Why? There was an issue with her visa.
A Canadian was detained while trying to get a work visa. One day, legally going through the process, and the next in detention. And the list goes on.
The Trump administration defends the deportations. The president invoked the Alien Enemies Act. It’s an obscure 18th-century law that has only been invoked three times in U.S. history, all during major military conflicts.
Detentions and deportations that occur under the measure do not go through the immigration court system, which provides immigrants the chance to seek relief and make their case to stay in the country.
More than half of the 261 migrants expelled to El Salvador were sent away under the Alien Enemies Act. It’s been a major point of contention with the courts demanding answers from the Department of Justice and the DOJ claiming it’s a counter-terrorism operation, so it doesn’t have to reveal operational details.
Court battle
Lawsuits are pending. President Donald Trump is taking on the rule of law and has directed the Justice Department to investigate “frivolous” lawsuits against the administration.
Trump declared a widening war on lawyers across the country. In a memo, Trump threatened Justice Department sanctions against law firms and attorneys who attempt to thwart his aggressive campaign to deport millions of foreign nationals in the United States, along with migrants with criminal records.
Some lawyers say what the president is doing is trying to intimidate and attack the rule of law, and they will not back down. They called Trump’s ramped-up retaliation a violation of the Constitution, saying it aims to empower the Republican president and weaken his government’s adversaries.
South Florida immigration attorney Regina de Moraes said, “When you’re an immigration lawyer, you’re always going up against the federal government. I’m not going to back down, but now I’m going to have to be even more careful.”
Legal experts say Trump’s new order applies to potential legal misconduct.
Brian Tannebaum, a South Florida criminal defense attorney, told the Miami Herald: “I think every lawyer in America should be scared, and every lawyer in America should take a stand.”
“He wants to have control over the lawyers and judges,” Tannebaum said, pointing out that motions for sanctions over “frivolous” legal claims in federal court are handled by judges, not presidents. “He wants to destroy the separation of powers in this country.”
Changing attitudes
No one will argue that the criminal element needs to be dealt with. That was what Trump originally put forth.
No one will argue that the border issue needs to be dealt with. It’s been an issue for years.
Go back to the debate on immigration between George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in 1980. The tone was much different then than it is now. What was agreed upon was that the system was broken and needed to be fixed. But boy, the Republican attitude toward immigrants sure has changed.
Let me remind you of that debate exchange:
George H.W. Bush: “I’d like to see something done about the illegal alien problem that would be so sensitive and so understanding about labor needs and human needs that that problem wouldn’t come up. But today, if those people are here, I would reluctantly say they would get whatever it is that their society is giving to their neighbors. But the problem has to be solved. Because we have made illegal some types of labor that I would like to see legal, we’re doing two things. We’re creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family-loving people that are in violation of the law, and second, we’re exacerbating relations with Mexico. These are good people, strong people — part of my family is Mexican.”
You might expect Reagan, the more conservative candidate in the race, to disagree. Instead, Reagan said that he’d like to “add to that.”
“I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors, particularly our neighbor to the south, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we’ve ever had,” Reagan said. “And I think we haven’t been sensitive to our size and our power.”
Reagan worried that if the U.S. was too hostile toward Mexico, it could lead to a Cuban-style revolution there that would cause the U.S. larger problems in the long run.
“Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems, make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit,” he said. “And then while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here.”
Reagan and the elder Bush stressed the importance of treating immigrants—even those here illegally—with compassion and respect. The younger President Bush did as well.
Yes, the problem still needs to be fixed. There is a “right” way to go about it.
Why, in 45 years, have we not fixed the problem? Why have we not, in a nation filled with “thinkers,” thought of a creative, productive solution without infringing on people’s freedoms?
News4JAX Morning Show anchor Bruce Hamilton and his “Politics & Power” guests give you context and perspective on some of the most talked about stories that govern our world.
We are in unprecedented territory. Are we on the brink of a constitutional crisis? Has this nation forgotten that we are a nation of immigrants? Have we forgotten that many of our parents and grandparents hail from other countries and left their homelands because of tyranny and injustice? That they left to seek freedom?
Immigration law expert Juan Carlos Gomez joins me to look at the nation’s immigration issue on Politics and Power. Watch at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Tuesday on News4JAX+ or catch it any time On Demand on News4JAX+, News4JAX.com or immigrants—even.
