Donald Trump’s Obsession with Immigrants Makes America Less Safe

Donald Trump envisions a violent America — an America where the military is weaponized to invade sovereign U.S. states and tear families apart.

Donald Trump’s promise to deport over 12 million immigrants would drastically reshape America in ways that are difficult to imagine. Mass deportation is a fundamental repudiation of the fabric of America’s promise of opportunity and hope. It is cruel, and it is unworkable.

Donald Trump claims he is fighting an invasion. But to claim the roughly 12 million undocumented people currently living in the United States are part of a current invasion is farcical. Over 80 percent of those who reside here without documentation arrived before 2010. Over 5 million people entered the country illegally between 1999 and 2007. The average undocumented person has lived here for over 16 years. Many who were brought as young children do not remember their native countries and some did not know they were undocumented until they reached adulthood.

Mass deportation is based on a violent fantasy of revenge that is meant to divide us and help only one man: Donald Trump. But beyond that, it misunderstands the fundamentals of the American economy and the role immigrants play in it. And it’s dangerous. Here’s what implementation would look like:

TAKING RESOURCES AWAY FROM NATIONAL SECURITY AND ANTI-TERRORISM INVESTIGATIONS

Donald Trump’s plan would cost the government over $1 trillion and reshape how its departments work. He would dismantle the Department of Homeland Security and task Homeland Security Investigations officers with immigration, taking them off other security-related investigations.

The plan would also shutter the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), which helps train law enforcement agents across the country and offers over 300 different training programs. According to the Centers for American Progress, FLETC training “is tailored to the specialized needs of federal law enforcement, including an extensive unit on counterterrorism.” Dismantling it would be yet another blow to American safety.

POLICE AND THE MILITARY ROAMING THE STREETS AND INVADING HOMES

Logistically, there are not enough ICE employees to handle the task of mass deportation. Donald Trump’s plan to solve this is to use local police, the National Guard and the military to fill the gap.

The majority of undocumented immigrants living in America arrived before 2010. About one-third have arrived since then. This creates two challenges: ICE does not know where most of these people are, and over 20 million Americans live in a mixed-status household, meaning a parent or relative is undocumented, but a spouse or child is not.

The only way to find and deport millions of people is for the military to go door to door and raid homes. This is not hyperbole; it is the reality of mass deportations. Militarized police, the National Guard and soldiers with artillery walking the streets — your streets — and invading your neighbors’ homes. And maybe yours. This is not a recipe for safety.

According to Jason Houser, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s chief of staff from January 2022 until March 2023:

“You’re talking about officers in tactical gear going into communities, being videotaped in the streets, putting kids in car seats, carrying baby formula. Then what do you do with those families? Are you going to go into neighborhoods and start tugging people out of communities? That’s what they want. It puts law enforcement and the communities at risk.”

In Donald Trump’s America, you pay more for food while soldiers walk your streets and private contractors line their pockets with your tax dollars.

NATIONAL GUARDS INVADING NEIGHBORING STATES

The Supreme Court has granted presidents almost unlimited power, and Donald Trump plans to use that power to pit states against each other. He would like to think he can simply wave a wand and get everyone to cooperate with his plans, but the truth is that mass deportation requires the cooperation of state and local officials. And not all states or localities will want to participate.

However, that doesn’t matter because states’ rights are only important when Donald Trump agrees with what states are doing. He plans to call up National Guard forces from red states and use them to invade blue states to force them to comply. This is basically a call for civil war.

What happens if states resist the invasion? What happens if families try to block the removal of neighbors? Do we have open fighting in our streets? How does that solve inflation?

“In his own words, he is promising to rule as a dictator on ‘day one,’ use the military against the American people, punish those who stand against him, condone violence done on his behalf, and put his own revenge and retribution ahead of what is best for America.

America can’t afford to indulge in Donald Trump’s bloody fantasies.