Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy has been his frontline issue since he announced his presidential campaign in 2016, where he called Mexican immigrants “drug dealers, criminals, rapists.” In his first term, Trump implemented an immigration policy that emphasized “zero tolerance.” Now, in his second term, his immigration policy has taken a dangerous turn.
The Trump administration’s current policy threatens not just the human rights of undocumented people in the United States, but the rights of every single American, regardless of legal status. It threatens to send anyone who speaks out against the government, anyone who is accused of being a gang member or an illegal immigrant, of being sent away to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, El Salvador’s largest prison, without due process or a way of getting back.
Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, recently visited the White House to discuss policy with Trump amid the sending of illegal immigrants — many from Venezuela, not El Salvador — to CECOT. The visit comes as Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who had lived in the US for 14 years, was wrongfully deported to El Salvador without due process under allegations from 2019 of being a member of El Salvadoran gang MS-13. Bukele told the media at the White House that he would not “smuggle a terrorist” back to the US.
However, there is zero evidence that Garcia is a member of MS-13. The Trump administration deported Garcia in defiance of a court order against his deportation, citing it as an “administrative error.”
In no way should it be possible for anyone to be sent to a prison in El Salvador accused of violating human rights on the unconfirmed allegations that they are a gang member. Furthermore, the government should not be allowed to deport Venezuelan immigrants to a different country simply because they cannot deport them to Venezuela. The Trump administration’s ignorance of the court order to stop Garcia’s deportation mirrors the similar ignorance of the Supreme Court’s order to stop Andrew Jackson from removing the Cherokee from Georgia.
A second worrying development occurred at the same White House meeting with Bukele and in other media meetings since. Trump floated the idea of sending “homegrown criminals” to CECOT, later telling Fox Noticias, “We are looking into it, and want to do it.”
This is a clear and linear escalation of Trump’s methods of deportations. If the Trump administration were to deport so-called “homegrown criminals” to CECOT, it would spark a constitutional and humanitarian crisis.
Furthermore, if this escalation continues, we could see unwanted minority groups and political opposition facing threats of being sent to CECOT in the future.
One might argue that I am fear mongering, that there is no way Trump would ever do this, but take note of one important thing: We haven’t even reached 100 days of Trump’s four year term, and the idea of deporting US citizens to the humanitarian mess that is CECOT is already being floated around. This should especially worry the Cuban community of Miami, because if Trump decides it’s less expensive to send migrants in South Florida to CECOT instead of to Guantanamo Bay, I doubt he’ll think twice about taking that action.
For decades, Cubans in Miami have enjoyed special treatment separate from how U.S. politics treats other groups of migrants, regardless of party. Trump deviates from this norm, with Cuban exiles already under threat of losing their privileged migration status. The Cuban-American community’s support for the Republican Party goes back decades, and they have been one of the few non-white ethnic groups that fiercely support Trump and the MAGA movement.
Venezuelans of Miami-Dade should also worry. Miami-Dade, a county that just recently turned red in the 2024 election, is now seeing the direct impact of Trump’s immigration policy on the community. Trump’s immigration policy threatens to destroy our community, regardless of citizenship status. The MAGA movement does not care about your citizenship status; they care about your ethnicity. They will come after the Hispanic community of Miami-Dade, regardless of who is here legally.
Trump’s immigration policy is a threat to all Americans. However, he is not all-powerful. He is already seeing opposition from his own party, both in Congress and from voters. If he continues to escalate his deportations and harm not only human rights but the general economic welfare of the states, he could quickly see his support plummet, especially amongst the many people who voted for him because of “the economy.”
What matters most is whether the Supreme Court and Congress will forgo their responsibilities as checks and balances on the president’s power and whether Americans will allow him to go through with his agenda without a fight.
The Hispanic community is not alone. This new era of immigration policy, one that will most likely involve racial profiling to harass our community, can easily be defeated by one thing: unity. The Hispanic community of Miami-Dade has always found support from people of all walks of life, and organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union continue to fight on behalf of all immigrants. Our brothers and sisters in the African-American community, which has historically been discriminated against and racially profiled, will already have experience against fighting this sort of tyranny. We must stand together against tyranny, regardless of legal status, race and ethnicity.