Since Donald Trump took office on January 20, he’s been signing executive orders left and right — for millions of immigrants, those orders will change their lives forever.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), close to 5,700 undocumented immigrants have been deported during the first two weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term. The impacts of deportations are endless and immigration policies are causing a lot of damage to families across borders, affecting how people live their daily lives.
Jean Reisz, the co-director of the immigration clinic at the USC Gould School of Law, emphasized the realities undocumented people are facing and how they are responding to Trump’s executive orders.
“People are afraid to go to school or send their kids to school, [and] they’re afraid to go to hospitals,” Reisz said.
The question arises of how undocumented people are supposed to continue with their education and receive proper healthcare if there is a huge fear of being detained.
The mass deportations have caused widespread panic and made undocumented people try to change their immigration status as soon as they can, Reisz added.
Reisz said a lot of fear-mongering rumors are circulating, which can be damaging to communities, but that’s Trump’s intention.
She added that other consequences of Trump’s immigration response include people losing their jobs and being separated from their families. Not everyone is informed of their rights, including the right to legal defense. According to Reisz, undocumented people are taken advantage of by notaries and opportunistic immigration attorneys because of desperation.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not supposed to enter someone’s home unless they have probable cause or a warrant signed by a judge, but they may use tricks and ruses to lure people outside, Reisz explained.
On February 24, ICE detained Yolanda Perez and her son Jonathan at their home, claiming they had a warrant, but they never had one. Yolanda’s daughter, Xitali Tejeda, says her mom was surrounded by ICE agents while moving her car on the street.
The family is in a difficult situation because Tejeda suffers from bone cancer and her mom is her caregiver.
These unlawful tricks and ruses show how far ICE is willing to go to take away someone’s rights to defend themselves. Reisz advises to not answer questions, not open the door and to have the authorities hold the warrant on the window or slide it under the door.
Most importantly Reisz said, “If you are in that situation, videotape.” If someone is challenging the violation of the Fourth Amendment right and there is video evidence of an ICE official lying and unlawful entry, that could be used to dispute the case in court.
On Thursday, February 20, most of the Venezuelan migrants that were at the military base at Guantanamo Bay were transferred and taken to an airfield in Honduras, then put aboard a Venezuelan plane to repatriate.
According to Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, 177 migrants were transferred to Venezuelan custody and one was taken back to an immigration facility in the U.S.
Many of the detention centers, according to Reisz, are run by for-profit organizations that do not spend enough money on healthcare and food. There is no incentive to improve the conditions since the centers are supposed to be temporary until a final verdict is reached.
What’s the outcome of this? Reisz said that during Trump’s first administration, a lot of his efforts were stopped by the courts, which is also occurring during his second presidency. She was surprised that the end to birthright citizenship was one of the first executive orders to be signed.
“It’s so clearly a loser,” Reisz said.
It feels like Trump’s second term is to fulfill the promises he didn’t get to accomplish the first time around. He has already begun causing destruction, division and spreading fear among people. However, judges are blocking his orders as much as possible, and we must protect our rights and preserve the democratic nation we claim to have.