USA – Workers are being deported by Dianne Feeley, 7/1/2025

USA – Workers are being deported

Trump’s war on migrants

by Dianne Feeley

[This article posted on 7/1/2025 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.sozonline.de/2025/07/usa-dreitausend-abschiebungen-am-tag/.]

The promise to deport millions of immigrants is a central part of Trump’s Make America Great Again program. In both presidential campaigns, he described immigrants as “terrorists, murderers, rapists” or “mentally ill.” After his re-election, he promised to close the border between the US and Mexico and deport several million people.

Even before his re-election, in December 2023, the Biden administration introduced restrictions, after which the number of migrants fell sharply. This continued when Trump issued a series of executive orders that ignore the protocols of the US asylum system: The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must quickly deport migrants to their countries of origin without considering their right to a court hearing.

Seven thousand soldiers were deployed to assist the CBP in detaining migrants and erecting a barbed wire fence stretching for miles. Armed combat vehicles now patrol a 180-meter-wide and 1,100-kilometer-long military zone parallel to the border.

In its first 100 days, the Trump administration has arrested 168,999 immigrants and deported 152,000. At this rate, by the end of 2025, just over half a million people will have been deported. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the average cost of deporting an immigrant is $17,121.

In disregard of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,” Trump complained to Kristen Welker, host of NBC News’ Meet the Press, that compliance with this provision would prevent him from carrying out the rapid deportations he had promised. He again claimed that immigrants must be deported because thousands of them are “murderers, drug dealers, and some of the worst people on the face of the earth. I was elected to get them out of here, and the courts are stopping me from doing that.”

Immigration and racism – an old story

The US is often portrayed as a “nation of immigrants.” But over the past 150 years, both major political parties have passed anti-immigrant laws, militarized the borders, and increased surveillance. A majority of US citizens now accept that border controls are necessary but want a “fair” system, however vague that term may be.

The reality, however, is that immigration is necessary for the US economy. Nevertheless, immigrants are confronted with a multitude of laws that force them to overcome numerous hurdles in order to obtain and maintain legal status. This has been the case since the 19th century, when Chinese workers were recruited to build the North American railroads, only to be confronted with restrictions and lynchings.

Researchers point out that more than one million workers are needed each year to sustain the US economy, but immigration is limited to 650,000 people.

Immigrants applying for US citizenship must fall into one of the following four categories: family reunification; valuable skills; humanitarian aid (the number of such asylum applications is limited to 125,000); or contribution to the country’s diversity. Given the backlog of cases, the process takes years. In fact, 3.6 million asylum seekers are living and working in the US while awaiting their hearing.

Broken lives

Of the 11 million people whom Trump describes as “illegal” and who come from “shithole countries,” many have temporary legal status: 3.6 million have applied for asylum, one million have been granted protection because their country has been affected by a natural disaster or war, half a million are young people who are temporarily protected by a special program (DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and over one million are stateless because they have lost their legal status but cannot return to their home country. Most migrants come from Mexico, India, China, the Philippines, and El Salvador.

The remaining three to four million people crossed the border unnoticed or entered on a visa and stayed after it expired. They have started families, often “mixed” families consisting of US citizens and foreigners. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration sent back to El Salvador due to an administrative error, had found work, married a US citizen who already had two children, and had a child with her.

The American public believes that there are too many immigrants. But when the media tell their stories—what they had to go through to get into the country, how they built a life here—the majority, unlike Trump and his team, do not think that deportation is a fair solution in many cases. No one accepts the cynical remark by “border czar” Tom Horman that deporting one member of a family would not separate families, but would allow the others to “go free.”

Economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimate that deporting 1.3 million immigrants by 2028 would lead to a 1.5 percent increase in prices, while deporting 8.3 million immigrants would result in a 9.1 percent increase.

The solution proposed by the far right, to increase the birth rate, seems unrealistic. No industrialized country, even with generous social programs that do not exist in the US, achieves such a high reproduction rate.

Temporary status

Workers are sought after by the high-tech industry, construction companies, agriculture, manufacturing, and the service sector. Given the strict immigration regulations, they are working with the government to find solutions.

One method is to sponsor employees, which binds them to their employer—this is the practice of Elon Musk and many farmers. Other companies hire immigrants with temporary (and renewable) status (TSP), which was introduced by Congress for people fleeing countries affected by natural disasters or wars.

Currently, nearly one million people from 16 different countries have this temporary protection. The program gives them the right to live and work in the US, but only as long as they are granted this status.

However, during the 2024 election campaign, Trump and his vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance falsely referred to Haitians protected by this program as “illegals.”

They dehumanized 15,000 Haitians living and working in Springfield, Ohio, by claiming that they were taking away other citizens’ livelihoods and, to make matters worse, “eating their cats and dogs.”

Trump has repeatedly promised to deport the Haitians from Springfield. On August 3, he revoked the right of residence for 200,000 Haitians, and on September 10, he revoked it for 242,000 Venezuelans. Although the decision can be challenged in court, he is also threatening to revoke the right of residence of 180,000 Salvadorans, 54,000 Afghans, and 50,000 Ukrainians.

Many have put down roots in their cities. Statistics from April 2017 show that 94 percent of people with right of residence are employed, and 130,000 are classified as “critical infrastructure workers.” Although most of them are not entitled to the benefits their taxes contribute to under social security and health insurance, they still pay more than $6.9 billion in taxes every decade.

Another group enjoys protection under the DACA program. It was created ten years ago by President Obama for people who came to the US before their 16th birthday. Many only found out that this did not protect them from deportation when they were preparing to enter university or the army.

Under the DACA program, 580,000 people are allowed to work or study in the US. Another 400,000 young people would be eligible but are excluded due to legal challenges, leaving their future uncertain. According to United We Dream, a network of young immigrants, DACA recipients have lived in the country for more than 16 years on average. Today, they are around 30 years old, nearly half are married, and half have at least one child.

Deportations to third countries

Immigration judges reject 56 percent of the asylum applications they review. The asylum seeker then loses their legal status. Currently, about 1.3 million people are affected by deportation but cannot return to their country. While the Trump administration is violating federal and international law by suspending asylum applications, it is trying to find third countries willing to take in people who cannot return to their home countries or other migrants.

The administration has contacted various governments, intimidating some and offering financial incentives to others. Several Latin American governments, including El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama, have agreed to do so—Panama, however, only reluctantly.

In February, Washington deported nearly 300 people to Panama. Many of them had fled civil wars or political or religious persecution in Iran, China, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Cameroon. However, they told the media that they were unable to apply for asylum. When they arrived in the capital, they were locked up in a hotel and forced to return to their country. Those who refused were sent to a remote camp on the edge of the Darién jungle.

Thanks to the intervention of human rights organizations, the authorities brought them back to Panama City by bus and told them they could stay in the country for 90 days. Some of them are trying to find a country that will take them in. In the meantime, they are sleeping on mattresses in a gym.

An enthusiastic response came from Salvadoran President Bukele, who was delighted to be able to imprison more than 238 men, mostly Venezuelans accused of gang membership, in a high-security prison for $6 million. However, after reviewing the files, Bloomberg News could only find ten people who had been charged or convicted of a crime.

Although the Supreme Court has ruled that detainees must have the opportunity to have their case heard by a judge before being deported, the Trump administration claims that nothing can be done for those who are now in El Salvador.

The Washington Post has access to government documents showing that the administration even approached Ukraine despite the Russian invasion, but to no avail. Talks with Libya have also failed. However, a DHS statement said that a charter plane carrying over a hundred deportees had landed in Uzbekistan at the end of April – not only Uzbeks, but also citizens of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Washington Post also reported that Rwanda had agreed to take in one Iraqi and ten other deportees of various nationalities in exchange for a one-time payment of $100,000.

Individuals targeted

Many initially assumed that Trump meant to deport immigrants who had just arrived at the border or those who had committed crimes during their stay in the US. But Trump’s team, led by Director Stephen Miller and border czar Tom Horman, is thinking much further ahead, especially now that the southern border is effectively closed.

Those awaiting a hearing can be arrested if they show up for their annual appointment. Already, 183,000 people are being monitored by electronic ankle bracelets, wristbands, or phone checks, but there are plans to increase the number of people monitored and force everyone to report every month or every two months. This is intended to give the border police ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) the space and time they need to carry out massive raids.

Since the administration has neither the financial resources nor the personnel to carry out raids on the scale it desires, it is trying to terrorize as many migrants as possible and force them to choose the “dignified” method of self-deportation. This includes the arrest and detention of people associated with social movements. Here are just three examples:

– Alfredo Juarez Zeferino (25), who immigrated from Mexico as a child, was appealing a deportation order when he was arrested. As a teenager, he founded Familias Unidas por la Justicia. He is being held in an ICE detention center in Tacoma.

– Nearly a dozen workers from seafood processing plants who were organizing a union in the New Bedford area were arrested, including Juan Francisco Méndez, who had applied for asylum. ICE smashed the rear window of his car with a hammer and took him into custody.

– Rümeysa Öztürk (30), co-author of an opinion piece in the Tufts University student newspaper, had a student visa; she was arrested by masked men in plain clothes.

In early April, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the revocation of more than 300 visas, stating: “We gave them a visa to study here and get a degree, not to become an activist who causes unrest on our university campuses.” No one has been charged with a crime. Rubio claims that the mere presence of political activists poses a threat to US foreign policy.

The Department of Homeland Security has launched a multi-million dollar advertising campaign urging migrants to leave the US voluntarily, otherwise they will be deported with no possibility of return. In May, it offered $1,000 and travel assistance to those willing to return to their country and announced that a Honduran had already accepted the offer.

However, the deportation policy does not apply to all foreigners: the government has accelerated the asylum process for white South Africans, mainly of African descent. The State Department organized and financed the transport of the first 49, who arrived on May 12. They are being assisted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Trump claims that white South Africans, who on average have more than twenty times the resources of black South Africans, are being discriminated against on racial grounds. Meanwhile, the future remains uncertain for 20,000 refugees who have been vetted and accepted for resettlement under the US refugee admission program.

Given the contradiction between the need for labor and the harsh rhetoric of Trump and Vance, it is questionable whether their administration will be able to deport more people than Biden or Obama. Companies will negotiate various exemption programs for the workers they need. They will live in the shadows and will not be able to get stable jobs. The various categories of refugees exist mainly to prevent migrants from entering the country. They will prove untenable.

May 16, 2025

*The government has now banned foreigners from entering the US if they want to study at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dianne Feeley was an auto worker and is a member of the left-wing union organization Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), the socialist organization Solidarity, and the editorial board of Against the Current.