Parasites. Rapists. Poison in the American blood. These are just some of the dehumanizing epithets Donald Trump uses to describe Latin American immigrants in the United States. Now he's vowing to carry out "the largest deportation attempt in American history." His vision of a gathering of millions of people is unlike anything seen in a democratic country and is more reminiscent of the Nazi occupation of France.
Try to imagine what Trump's plan would entail. Immigration agents raid farms and factories, drag away workers. Teachers and school administrators are forced to inform about students. Secret surveillance in Catholic churches helps catch Spanish parishioners after they receive communion. Families are separated: Deported parents potentially lose contact with minor children.
Trump says the operation would only target undocumented immigrants, who Republicans claim are 20-30 million in the country, much higher than independent estimates of around 12 million. In the US, however, there are more than 60 million people of Hispanic origin (2020 data). Could US citizens be caught in the net cast by Trump? U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has hardly an unblemished record here and has never carried out anything like a mass deportation on the scale envisioned by Trump.
Trump will try to give his operation a semblance of legitimacy by invoking the old, half-forgotten Enemy-Alien Act of 1798, which authorizes the president to "apprehend, restrain, control and expel" non-citizens to the US from "hostile" countries. The law was intended for wartime to prevent espionage and sabotage, but President John Adams did not sign it for that reason. He actually wanted to intimidate the supporters of his vice president, Thomas Jefferson, whom Adams believed was unduly influenced by the French revolutionaries.
Since America was not at war with France, Adams included a provision that the law could be used against citizens of a foreign country who threatened "attack" or "predatory invasion." In practice, the Law on Enemy-Aliens was applied only three times, always during major conflicts.
During the War of 1812, all British citizens in the United States were required to register. During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson used the law against citizens of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires, as well as their ally Bulgaria, declaring that these "enemy aliens" could be considered prisoners of war.
An infamous example is when President Franklin Roosevelt recalled this law after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941: The Japanese, Germans and Italians were designated as "enemy-foreigners". Most of those sent to the camps were Japanese, but some German Jews, who escaped the Nazi death camps by immigrating to the US, were also arrested and imprisoned.
According to Trump, today the USA is being invaded by the immigrants themselves (and not the countries they came from). As the Brennan Center for Justice warns, the Alien Enemy Act could "be used against immigrants who have done nothing wrong, shown no signs of disloyalty, and are perfectly legal" in the United States. There's no reason to believe Trump won't take full advantage of this opportunity, especially given the Supreme Court's recent ruling that current and former presidents have virtually complete immunity from prosecution for acts committed while in office.
Discussions of Trump's anti-immigrant policies tend to focus on their economic consequences: Bloomberg estimates that they could cost the US economy about $4,7 trillion over a decade. Who Will Do the Harvesting in California's Central Valley After the Trump Purge? Who will change the sheets and clean the floors in hospitals and nursing homes? Who will bury the dead and maintain the cemeteries?
Since Trump's anti-immigrant purge would cost the US economy dearly, the prices of food and other basic goods would skyrocket. In addition, deportation itself is expensive. It is estimated that deporting one million undocumented immigrants each year, a dynamic proposed by Trump's running mate, JD Vance, could cost $88 billion annually.
Yet the economic costs of mass deportation pale in comparison to the damage it would do to America's soul. When I moved to the United States nearly 35 years ago, I thought my experience of life in the USSR would be very different from living in a country considered a bastion of freedom and the rule of law. But today, in Trump's shocking campaign rhetoric (in his menacing talk of "enemies within," in his complete disregard for the rule of law, norms, and the rule of law), I hear something very familiar: a dangerous dictator who longs to rule a weak, divided, paranoid society.
What would happen if the "sharp night bell or rough knock at the door" (the horror of my homeland during the darkest years of Stalin's terror) became a part of American life? Will Americans turn a blind eye to the rapid expansion of immigration camps? Will people start reporting neighbors and associates to Trump's immigration police?
Trump is already terrorizing America. This becomes evident whenever powerful leaders begin to humble themselves to gain his favor. The latest shameful example was the behavior of New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who at a state dinner did his best to smile and laugh at Trump's countless vulgar remarks.
There is no doubt that sections of the population, including the Republican establishment, would react with the same cowardice to mass deportations. However, anyone who wants to vote for a man who plans to lead a policy of state terror should remember the famous post-war confession of pastor Martin Niemeler: "First they came for the communists, and I remained silent because I was not a communist." Then the same thing happened to socialists, trade unionists and Jews. In the end, "they came for me" but "there was no one" who could stand up for me.
The author is a professor of international affairs at the New School of New York University
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024. (translation: NR)
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