The Trump Administration has caused an influx of high-profile arrests of international students across the United States by the Department of Homeland Security over the last few weeks, following the administration’s decision to deport students based on a provision in immigration law. According to NBC news, the provision states that the secretary of state reserves the right to deport someone based on if they pose a “serious adverse foreign policy consequence” for the U.S. That rhetoric has caused 10 students attending universities in Colorado to be arrested, and even one student local to the Boston area who was attending Tufts. Many of the arrested students were simply exercising their freedom of assembly, speech, and expression, therefore this provision is extremely unfair. This decision has altered the lives of many deserving and hard working students, causing them extreme confusion, along with the rest of the undocumented students. 

According to The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, “the legitimacy of a democratic regime rests on the brief in the right of those legally elevated to authority to issue certain types of commands, to expect obedience.” Trump continues to push his paranoid ideas onto America, and exercise his powers in such a way that disservice others. By making exclusionary statements that focus on eliciting a sense of unity among those who support him, to reinforce the idea that those Americans are the “worthy Americans,” whom he pits against the “bad Americans” by painting them as freeloaders and criminals, through racist rhetoric and comments. 

Trump attempts to rally people through his misconceptions, which although may actually hold some truth, are misconstrued in order to fit his perspective and continue to drive right-wing populists to do the same. Illegal immigration has been an issue Trump has been extremely vocal about, whether that be on social media, during rallies, or on the news. For example, Trump would “leverage” crime facts about illegal immigrants by only sharing one side of the story. It is true that, according to the Cato Institute, the “illegal immigrant criminal conviction rate was 782 per 100,00,” which without context seems high. However, the other side of the story is the fact that the native-born Americans criminal conviction rate was 1,422 per 100,000 people,” meaning 40% higher than illegal immigrants. Trump continues to dehumanize certain groups of people whom he deems are “threats” to American security, while uplifting and literally pardoning others who are the actual perpetrators. Even in terms of the January sixth United States Capitol attacks, the culprits were very clearly Trump loyalists, who beat officers, trespassed, and damaged property. According to BBC, not long before these attacks did Trump give a speech claiming, “We fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” My point being, Trump has extreme power and influence over other Amercian’s, which perpetuates stigmas and encourages extremist emotions. His power and influence in the Presidential seat allowed him to make many undocumented immigrants vulnerable to revoking their visas which allowed them to stay in the United States. In conclusion, these irrational decisions made by Donald Trump have created extreme states of uncertainty for many scared immigrants that have called the United States home for many years, and posed a threat to the sense of security legitimate documents should be providing to people that are righteously here in America and exercising their rights.