Trump escalates war on immigrant workers
2017Mark Ugolini 2017-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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VOL. 35, NO. 3, MARCH 2017 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. $1 / CANADA $2 Trump’s war on immigrant workers has moved into high gear as new orders unleash the full force of the U.S. government to greatly expand deportations, ha rassment, and provocative police actions in minority communities.
Under Barak Obama, deportations reached a record high 434,000 for the single year 2014. Known as the “Deporter-in-Chief,” Obama, during his entire presi dency, oversaw the deportation of over 2 million im migrant workers, more than any previous president.
However, fearful that the Democrats would lose support in the 2016 elections, Obama subsequently implemented guidelines that slightly limited depor tations during his final two years in office; 2015 saw a 23 percent reduction from the 2014 record high.
Trump’s new plans scrapped some second-term Obama guidelines and issued new ones that signal the dawn of an all-out offensive that could end in mass roundups. All new measures are designed to broaden and aggressively expedite deportations.
The Feb. 22 New York Times reported: “Documents released … revealed the broad scope of the presi dent’s ambitions: to publicize crimes by undocu mented immigrants; strip such immigrants of privacy protections; enlist local police officers as enforcers; erect new detention facilities; discourage asylum seekers; and, ultimately, speed up deportations.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s new offen sive would:
• Hire 15,000 new Immigration and Customs En forcement officers and agents • Greatly expand lists of immigrants prioritized for deportation • Speed up deportation hearings • Greatly expand the capability of Immigration en forcers to bypass due process protections by allow ing “expedited deportations,” which totally bypass judicial review • Establish “partnerships” with local police to assist in patrols, with full authority to make arrests • Allow detainment of immigrants until brought before an immigration judge and throughout legal proceedings. Court backlogs currently delay hearings more than one year • Allow for federal prosecution of parents of “paper less” minors who cross the border unaccompanied by a parent • Allow enforcers to bypass personal privacy pro tections previously provided under past administra tions Consistent with practices of the Obama administra tion, Trump continues the racist branding of “paper less” immigrant workers as “criminals” who pose a threat to “public safety.” The new orders vastly ex pand the definition of what Trump during his cam paign called “criminal aliens,” which “routinely vic timize Americans,” ignore the “rule of law, and pose a threat” to society.
Under new guidelines, virtually all immigrant work ers without papers are subject to arrest, ICE/police harassment, and deportation at any time. The orders expand the list of immigrants targeted for deporta tions to include anyone either sentenced or accused of any crime.
Dreamers under threat The only group not yet included is that of the Dreamers, 750,000 immigrants under protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Having come to this country as children, many have been issued work permits and are not included in Trump’s new policies. But they remain under signifi cant threat since Trump loudly touted termination of this program during his campaign, calling it “execu tive amnesty.”
In addition, Dreamers are threatened by the new provision eliminating privacy protections, which en ables enforcers to violate personal privacy of “paper less” immigrants and even those in possession of a green card. This means that any personal data previ ously provided to U.S. immigration agents could be (continued on page 4, in “Crackdown on Muslims: Trump makes Obama’s program worse”)
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Marty Goodman / Socialist Action
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