Upon being sworn in on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump abruptly unleashed racist attacks against undocumented workers and migrant families.
Philadelphia, Dec. 10, 2024. (WW Photo: Joe Piette)
Trump used the inaugural address as a forum for his assault. In his speech, he threatened to pass “a series of historic executive orders” aimed at targeting migrant workers and their families. At one point, Trump threatened to invoke the use of the archaic “Alien Enemies Act” of 1798 as a tool for mass deportations.
Day one: executive orders against migrants
Trump reportedly signed more executive orders on the first day of his second administration than any previous U.S. president. Many of the executive orders focused on immigration.
Among the various actions was declaring “a national emergency” to increase military presence at the border with Mexico, suspending asylum and the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and restarting the border wall construction. Trump also made promises to “dismantle” all the previous Biden administration’s immigration policies and programs.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement units made sweeping arrests across the U.S. overnight. The president’s executive orders now allow ICE agents to conduct raids in public places that were previously off-limits, such as schools, hospitals and places of worship.
Immigrants who come from Haiti, Africa or Latin American countries are targeted and abused by ICE officials and agents, as well as by racist, armed MAGA militias, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Due to rampant homophobia and transphobia, LGBTQIA2S+ migrants are particularly vulnerable to vile mistreatment by these government and neofascist forces.
One executive order that is facing major pushback is the new administration’s attempt to overturn “birthright citizenship.” In signing the controversial order, Trump brazenly defied the bourgeois U.S. Constitution by directing government agencies to no longer recognize the citizenship of children born in the U.S.
The 14th Amendment of the Constitution reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
As of this writing, state officials in at least 20 states, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, have filed lawsuits challenging the plan to reverse birthright citizenship. U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenon in Seattle temporarily blocked the order on Jan. 23.
Ruling class strategy: Deception, fear and division
The U.S. ruling class has spread lies and misinformation about immigrants for centuries. Anti-migrant propaganda is commonly pushed by capitalist rulers and fascist demagogues to instill fear and sow division within the working class.
One big lie that is often spread is the false association of immigration with “crime.” This xenophobic narrative has been weaponized against immigrant workers for centuries and was commonly used as propaganda against Catholic immigrants in the early 1900s. Bigoted politicians, the capitalist state apparatus and the corporate media have historically linked immigration and crime to serve their own agenda.
In fact, a 2019 report conducted by the conservative CATO Institute admitted that “undocumented immigrants were 37.1% less likely to be convicted of a crime.” (NPR, March 8, 2024)
A more recent study released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice office determined that “undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of [U.S.]-born citizens for property crimes.” (nij.ojp.gov, Sept. 12, 2024)
Another lie that is often peddled is the incorrect concept that undocumented workers somehow “threaten” job security of other workers. This notion is a blatant attempt to pit working and oppressed people against one another. It is bosses, and not migrant workers, who hire, fire, evaluate and lay off employees.
Undocumented workers are often subjected to the most dangerous and low-paying jobs. Additionally, they pay billions of dollars in taxes each year for government services they cannot legally receive.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: “More than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these workers are barred from accessing. Undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022.” (July 30, 2024)
Statistical facts have not stopped Trump and his ilk from spreading deliberate lies about migrant communities. Trump consciously recognizes the leverage his new administration has in promoting division and fear. The billionaire class that Trump surrounds himself with benefits most when the working class is disunited.
Working-class fight back needed
Workers and oppressed people who remember the last Trump administration are rightfully nervous about the new one.
The Democratic Party leadership is now crying “foul” against Trump’s executive orders, but they are partially responsible for the new onslaught being carried out against undocumented workers and their families. The Biden-Harris administration spent the last four years moving politically to the right on immigration, normalizing attacks against undocumented workers.
Marxist-Leninists unconditionally stand with all workers, regardless of citizenship or nationality. An independent movement of working-class solidarity and collective unity is necessary to combat the vicious attacks against migrant families.
¡Ningún ser humano es ilegal! No human being is illegal!