Image From: Chicago Council of Global Affairs
Since he first ran for office in 2016, one of Donald Trump’s biggest concerns was clear: illegal immigration. President Trump has won millions of votes from the American people, making it clear that at least some people in this country agree with his stances on certain policies. In the United States, there are 11 million unauthorized immigrants, and Trump wants them all gone. Now that he is the 47th President in the history of the U.S., Trump has signed numerous executive orders involving becoming stricter with immigration, and he hasn’t even hit the thirty-day mark. He has implored the help of the military as well as local and federal law enforcement to detain illegal immigrants, something that is now stoking a significant amount of fear in millions of immigrants, as well as their families. The plan is to hold illegal immigrants in detention centers, and then eventually if it is deemed they should be deported, they will be flown to their home countries or any other place they are ordered to go. Trump’s main focus at the moment is those who are undocumented, have a criminal record or have been deported prior, which could be anywhere from the tens to hundreds of thousands. He even went as far as to try and end birthright citizenship, although this order was blocked by several federal judges and would be a violation of the 14th Amendment which states
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
If this order were to go into effect, it would affect millions of Americans who automatically became citizens once they were born here. This would affect families and put them at risk of being separated without knowledge of what would be to come. Although Trump wants his immigration orders to go into effect immediately, the U.S. government will have to build or buy/rent detention centers to hold those who are potentially to be deported. There is also the issue of certain countries not allowing deportation flights from the United States, either because they can not handle the number of people or because they want to resist the U.S. government’s orders. This could be met with an increase in tariffs or certain threats from Trump’s administration in order to get these nations to agree to these deportation flights. As estimated by the American Immigration Council, these plans could cost the United States government billions, $88 billion a year to be exact. Trump himself even suggested declaring a state of emergency in order to pull money from the military government, which is a very fine line to walk. At the same time, the United States is trillions of dollars in debt. All in all, these orders from the Trump administration could separate families and create terrible conditions for those in detention centers. Not only is Trump prioritizing deportation before meeting the needs of America’s other problems, such as poverty, homelessness, inflation, etc., but he is also acting out of xenophobia, a quality he has shown since his time in office from 2016 to 2020. The future of America is looking grim amongst the dozens of strict orders being signed into law every day. If this is just within the first thirty days, how will the rest of Trump’s term look, and how will it affect America and its people?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/briefing/donald-trump-immigration-plans.html
Hello, I really enjoyed your article. One of Donald Trump’s main worries, since he first entered the ballot in 2016, was obviously immigration. Millions of Americans have voted for President Trump, thus it is abundantly evident that at least some of them share his opinions on particular issues. I wonder how this is going to affect the U.S international trade. I liked how you mentioned tariff, I wonder how this will play out.