On Authoritarian Immigration Policies

ICE and mass deportations

Photo by K E on Unsplash

I know I have written about this topic before, but unfortunately since then things have only gotten worse. The Trump administration, particularly under the influence of Stephen Miller, is hyper focused not on public safety (despite all their propaganda otherwise—more on that in a minute), but on mass deportation. They have shifted their focus from deporting high risk criminal offenders to deporting anyone who is not an American citizen. According to Pew Surveys, only about a third (which is still a lot) of Americans believe all illegal immigrants should be deported. But more than 50% believe that some should be deported depending on their circumstances (for example, have they committed crimes, do they have a job, ect. The survey is worth reading). I am not a political scientist, so the following is just my independent, private citizen musings on the topic. Take them as that. But as a citizen, I am deeply concerned about the administrations roughshod, authoritarian, “law and order,” ideological, and I believe unjust (in means and ends) quest to rid America of immigrants. I think it’s based on dangerous, duplicitous, and dehumanizing propaganda. I think it ignores our responsibilities for the injustices we’ve done by failing to have a functional immigration system. And I think it is harming innocent people. I understand that immigration is a complex issue. And I don’t have a “solution” to fix it. I believe we need secure borders so that we know who is entering for the health and welfare of our nation. But I don’t think that is our only obligation. And I worry that if citizens and especially Congress, does not hold the administration in check, we will look back on this moment in history with great lament.