President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration has long been defined by fearmongering and dehumanization — boldly claiming that legal immigrants take advantage of loopholes to suck the country dry, while untold hordes of criminals flock over the southern border to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting citizens of the United States. But his latest moves to maximize deportations are an outright attack on due process, constitutional rights and free speech. While it’s true that the U.S. immigration system is broken, Trump’s response is more than just inhumane — it blatantly disregards constitutional protections and human rights.
It’s been reported for a while now that members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have been entering through the U.S.-Mexico border with relative ease, thanks in part to Venezuela’s refusal to provide criminal background information to U.S. officials. The Trump administration has used this case to justify mass deportations and target the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela humanitarian parole program — aimed at providing temporary residency for immigrants escaping political persecution and unsafe conditions. This removal of protected status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants on a whim is collective punishment. These immigrants have been deported or detained without individual hearings or proof of wrongdoing, which violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee to due process for anyone in the United States — including illegal and legal immigrants — and overrides the legal rights of hundreds who are owed the opportunity to present a case to an immigration judge.
The Department of Homeland Security recently shut down the CHNV humanitarian parole program to slow the rate of migrants entering the country. The program provided a route for immigrants to stay in the United States for up to two years for humanitarian reasons, while requiring applicants to have a U.S. sponsor and pass stringent security screenings. The elimination of this program will terminate the legal status of over half a million people overnight. This abrupt change to immigration policy without a clear legal process violates the Administrative Procedure Act. But it’s only one of the myriad ways the administration is reshaping immigration policy to reduce influx and dictate which political ideas immigrants are allowed to have.
More generally, the Trump administration has scaled back the use of humanitarian parole, which helps immigrants escape hostile political situations back home. This move also impacts migrants coming from both Ukraine and Afghanistan for humanitarian reasons and is meant to combat what Trump deems the abuse of categorical parole programs.
One of Trump’s most deceitful deportation tactics exploits the Order of Release on Recognizance process, also known as the I-220-A form — a form given to immigrants who are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the border and are released to live in the United States for a time assuming they continue to check in periodically with immigration officials. Under previous administrations, Cuban immigrants could apply for permanent residency through the I-220-A process after a year due to the Cuban Adjustment Act. But under this administration, the process has become a means to entrap law-abiding immigrants, who are following the law by showing up to their mandatory immigration check-ins and being detained and deported.
This creates a lose-lose situation for immigrants — they can either comply with the law and risk immediate removal or refuse to attend their check-ins and be hunted down by ICE for failure to show up. This is a direct violation of the Fifth Amendment’s due process, which guarantees fair legal proceedings before conviction, and is being used to manipulate immigrants into deportation, a backhanded and despicable course for the federal government to take.
Trump’s deportation strategy isn’t just about crime and border security, but about weaponizing immigration status based on identity. Trump has attempted to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to suppress immigration, a wartime law that grants the president powers to detain and deport natives of countries deemed to be threats to the U.S. government. The last time this law was used was during the Japanese American internment camps during World War II — a national disgrace which the United States has since formally apologized for. The revival of this act equips Trump with the unprecedented presidential power to remove people not for crimes, but for who they are.
The administration has also weaponized deportation in its efforts to criminalize political dissent. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he’s signed over 300 letters revoking visas for those found guilty of criminal acts and, most concerningly, those who disagree with U.S. foreign policy. This directly translates to punishing critics of Israel, as evidenced by the recent detainment of student activists like Rumeysa Ozturk, Mahmoud Khalil and the attempted detainment of Yunseo Chung for their outspoken pro-Palestinian views. It is completely illegal for the U.S. government to bar entry or deport individuals due to their political beliefs, and is a direct violation of the First Amendment, which protects free speech regardless of citizenship status.
The Trump administration has ramped up unconstitutional border measures, like profiling accused Venezuelan gang members by their tattoos and increasing screening of phones and social media at the border. These are discriminatory practices which violate the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. Given Trump and Rubio’s stated intentions to deport protesters deemed to be promoting antisemitic discourse in the United States — by voicing support for Palestine and criticizing Israel — it’s only natural they’d take these screening opportunities to check for any content they deem undesirable.
So far, the courts have been the only effective counter to these politically repressive immigration policies. Democratic leadership officials like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are too busy appeasing pro-Israel donors to organize any sort of resistance against the Trump administration, so we need to rely on the technicalities of the law to protect us from these autocratic practices. On the ground level, it’s important for those of us who are birthright citizens to speak out whenever possible against these affronts to democracy. For the time being, we can’t be deported for speaking out against our government — it’s vital we take advantage of this privilege to speak out for our friends, family and peers who aren’t as lucky.
The law here is clear. Mass deportations without hearings, punishing political dissent through immigration enforcement and revoking legal status without reason or proper process are all illegal. Today, these policies are aimed at removing immigrants from the United States. But if we allow these illegal actions to go unchallenged, who’s to say which undesirable groups get targeted for removal tomorrow? No amount of wearing red hats and railing about immigration and the border will ever make this administration see one immigrant group as different from the next. To them, we’re all the same, and they want us all out. It is imperative that we fight back now against these illegal actions, because the next targets won’t just be immigrants, but anyone who challenges the administration’s power.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Noah Zaldivar at [email protected].
