So happy that many of you made it to the demonstrations on April 5th. I wish I could have joined in. Democrats Abroad had organized events all over France, but unfortunately, not in Marseille. We are organizing one in my town (Marseille) on April 19th though. Some people are nervous about attending because it might incur the wrath of customs officials when they come visit the States.
Today, I want to discuss immigration, a subject that is of great importance to me as the son of immigrants to the US. The front page has been consumed lately by the tariff discussions, but the administration’s other attempts to undermine our polity, society, and economy continue unabated. And central to this is the aggressive attempt to punish the immigrant community through threats of and actual imprisonment and deportation.
For example, the New York Times reports that the administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Biden by revoking their social security number. The move moves individuals to the “death list” of the Social Security system with the objective that they would “self deport”. Without a social security number, it because exceedingly difficult to find work, housing, credit, or anything else needed to live normal lives. The initial names are limited to people the administration says are convicted criminals and “suspected terrorists.” But officials said the effort could broaden to include others in the country without authorization.
The immigrant community is made up of persons with a diversity (can I still use that word?) of different administrative statuses. There are many who are American citizens, others who have green cards, others with temporary visas of varying lengths of time, and yet others who have acquired one of a panoply of authorizations to remain in the US. Then there are those in “limbo” awaiting a change in status and finally those who have no status at all (either they never could acquire one or the one they had “expired”). The line between these different categories is blurring as the administration attempts to lump everyone into the same category.
The administration has basically used the argument that the US is at “war” with immigrants, who should be treated as “enemy combatants”. This is the underlying logic of using the Alien Enemies Act as a legal justification for imprisonment and deportation without due process. It is important to keep this in mind as actions proliferate against the US immigrant community. It is an effort to transform many who live in the US into less than human.
The legal arguments over the use of the Alien Enemies Act are very telling. Sotomayor wrote that the implications of the administration’s legal stance is that “not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal.”
There have been court cases galore to challenge the administration’s immigration policies. Some successful and others not. For example, although the Supreme Court has allowed the use of the AEA, it has ruled that the administration cannot deport people without giving them a chance to defend themselves. The Supreme Court also endorsed a trial judge’s order that requires the government to “facilitate and effectuate the return” of a Salvadoran migrant it had wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Federal judges in both New York and Texas have blocked the deportations of Venezuelan.
Even with the courts against them, the administration seems to find ways to ignore the rulings. In the case of Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran who the administration admits was wrongly deported, they are claiming that because he is in El Salvador, the president has the only authority (not the courts) to determine whether Mr. Garcia’s return should be pursued because it has become a matter of foreign policy!
The administration is also prioritizing those who express opinions that it considered counter to its ideological stance. Foreign students who demonstrated against the treatment of Gaza’s Palestinian are being rounded up. More than 300 have had their visas revoked. Even lawyers who are US citizens who defend these students are being threatened. The U.S. border officials are using more aggressive tactics at ports of entry as the administration scrutinizes green card and visa holders who have expressed opposition to its policies.
Whatever the legal tussles that are happening, people are being treated with cruelty. Men, women and children are being traumatized by these actions. These are our neighbors, friends, colleagues, employees and we have a responsibility towards them.
What can we do? First and foremost, we must protect those of the immigrant community who are threatened. In Sonoma County in California, the North Bay Rapid Response Network has a hotline that can reached if someone is being threatened by ICE. There are certainly similar resources available in your community.
The National Immigrant Law Center has many resources for immigrants and those who want to support them. For example, they delineate what you should do if you are arrested or detained.
Voting and the SAVE Act
This is another good week to call your members of Congress and express outrage. The House passed the SAVE Act, which will make it dramatically more difficult for millions of eligible American citizens to register to vote if the Senate passes it too, so it’s time to start campaigning for the Senate to reject it. The Capitol switchboard phone number, where you can ask to be connected to your members’ offices, is (202) 224-3121.
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