‘Fear is the point’: Immigrant rights groups brace for fight against Trump

As the blueprint for US President Donald Trump’s extensive immigration crackdown develops, immigrant rights organizations have said they are digging in and getting ready for a drawn-out fight.

In a series of rapid-fire orders during his first week in office, Trump has sought to overhaul nearly every aspect of US immigration.

As part of a wider suspension of the US refugee program, he rescinded guidance limiting the locations where immigration raids can take place, cancelled asylum claims at the southern border, and grounded refugees who have been approved for entry.

Immigration rights advocates said Trump has already sparked mayhem for those seeking refuge in the US and stoked fears among immigrant communities there already.

The Trump administration’s efforts to remove immigrant people from our country have been characterized by a wave of extreme policies that areostentatious, cruel, and chaotic, according to Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of the advocacy group America’s Voice.

“The chaos and fear is the point”.

Unprecedented powers

Trump pledged immediate changes to the US immigration system after taking the oath of office on Monday following a campaign characterized by dehumanizing rhetoric regarding immigrants and asylum seekers.

His administration has already passed more than a dozen executive orders and policy updates that establish strict guidelines.

On Friday’s call with reporters, Nayna Gupta, the policy director for the American Immigration Council, said Trump’s actions reveal ambitions beyond his stated desire to arrest immigrants with criminal records.

“What Trump’s orders make clear is that they are outlining immediate actions to hurt all immigrants: the 13 million undocumented people with years of life in the US, people with lawful protections, asylum seekers, those with non-immigrant visas already in our country, and those seeking to immigrate here legally”, she said.

She said many of the administration’s early actions “invoke unprecedented powers”. Several have already been challenged in court, with more legal action expected.

The changes to the policy were significant.

Trump is expected to speed up deportations of undocumented immigrants who are already living in the US and strengthen cooperation with local law enforcement.

His Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also removed a decade-old policy prohibiting immigration arrests at “sensitive” locations including schools, hospitals and churches. His Department of Justice, meanwhile, has ordered federal prosecutors to investigate local officials who obstruct immigration enforcement.

According to US media reports, Trump’s DHS has also authorized its agents to detain people who have been granted access to the country through former president Joe Biden’s humanitarian parole program. Nationals from four countries — Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela — would be affected.

Meanwhile, those seeking safety at the US’s southern border face new obstacles under Trump.

Trump declared a border security emergency as one of his first moves into office and sent troops there. Additionally, the president halted asylum applications and canceled the CBP One app, which was used to schedule asylum appointments.

An estimated 270, 000 individuals who had used CBP One saw their meetings annulled this week, despite waiting for weeks, if not months, for their appointments in Mexico.

Prior to the United States Refugee Admissions Program’s (USRAP) being suspended for 90 days, Trump’s administration also temporarily placed refugees who had previously undergone extensive security checks and pre-approval for relocation.

“Utter propaganda,”

Gupta of the American Immigration Council claimed that Trump’s first two terms had given him an “even more premeditated and thought-out blueprint for how to upend the US immigration system.”

Gupta added that Trump and his advisers “clearly have an understanding of where there are openings” in current US law to assess the issue’s limitations.

Many neighborhood advocates claim they are getting ready for the “mass deportation” campaign that Trump officials have promised in upcoming media interviews.

One raid in Newark, New Jersey, has already attracted nationwide attention. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered a neighborhood business without a warrant on Friday, according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.

He claimed that they were holding American citizens and undocumented people, and that it was an “egregious act” in “plain violation” of the US Constitution.

“I was appalled, upset, angry that this would happen here in this state, in this country”, Baraka said.

The Biden administration’s policies, which had a moratorium on workplace immigration enforcement, appear to have been altered by the raid.

In its last official update on Thursday, ICE said it had made 538 arrests during the first four days of the Trump administration. The agency averaged about 310 arrests a day in 2024 under the Biden administration.

Additionally, White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt shared photos of a line of people boarding military aircraft on social media with the hashtag “deportation flights have begun.”

Critics, however, &nbsp, noted that deportation flights were weekly occurrences under the Biden administration, with the only change under Trump being the use of military planes.

In a response on the social media platform X, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called the post “utter propaganda”. Another immigration activist, Thomas Cartwright, called it “theater of the absurd”.

Prolonged fight

The legal battle over Trump’s early orders has already started in the courts as advocates continue to monitor how they are implemented.

An early victory came on Thursday, when a federal judge deemed Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship unconstitutional, blocking its implementation.

Trump’s decision to increase the number of appointments scheduled via the CBP One app and his decision to cancel has also received legal challenges.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Karen Tumlin, the director of the Justice Action Center, predicted further challenges in the days ahead.

She explained that Trump’s military deployment to the southern border, the policy change on “sensitive” locations, and his order to end so-called “humanitarian parole” programmes could all face legal complaints.

Tumlin added that in order to change the US’s immigration policy, lawsuits are not a magic bullet.

The courts are a crucial tool for preventing damage, Tumlin said, but we really need to hear what those who are hurt if we want to alter how we operate.

The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)’s vice president for US legal programs, Laurie Ball Cooper, also made an appearance in Al Jazeera about Trump’s suspension of the refugee program USRAP.

Despite the program’s frequently years-long vetting process, the order cites national security concerns as part of its justification for cancelling refugee flights.

Additionally, she said, “relies in part on the assumption that American communities are not willing or prepared to welcome refugees.” “I don’t think that’s consistent with facts on the ground”.

Source: Aljazeera