CETRI
Yet the stakes are enormous. It may still be too early to say whether, in sheer numbers, the current occupant of the White House will “outdo” his predecessors—Trump’s first term saw more illegal entries than Obama’s, fewer deportations than Obama or Biden, and significantly fewer miles of border wall built—but the sheer inhumanity of the current political decisions and actions is already undeniable.
Examples abound, blending arbitrariness with brutality, confusion with illegality. A visceral racism, expressed in the crudest terms, permeates it all. And the incompetence of the approach—if not the outright foolishness of its architect—is now beyond dispute. Human rights organizations across North and Latin America, as well as the UN Human Rights Council, have converged in denouncing the growing dehumanization and criminalization of human mobility since the new Trump administration took office. Yet the exceptional measures, hate-filled rhetoric, and relentless repression show no signs of restraint.
From day one, the populist leader—catering to the deep anti-immigration resentment of his base—declared a “national emergency” at the southern border, appointed hardline enforcers to ensure systematic “pushbacks” and mass “deportations,” set daily deportation quotas, and unleashed the military. The hunt for undocumented migrants followed, targeting mostly long-established Latin Americans working in agriculture, construction, caregiving, and food services. Paradoxically, to offset labour shortages and appease employers, Washington has issued a record number of seasonal work visas—over half a million in just six months, mostly to migrants from Mexico and Central America.
Soon added to the hunt for the undocumented was the targeting of those whose protected status—granted under Biden or even earlier, dating back to the 1990s—was abruptly revoked. Hundreds of thousands of asylum recipients from previous administrations are now in the crosshairs. To ease the task of enforcement agents, a 2011 rule banning arrests in sensitive locations (schools, churches, hospitals, funerals) was repealed, detention centres expanded nationwide—and even abroad (Guantanamo, Panama, Uganda)—through outsourced migration containment in client states.
This has led to surreal and unjust scenarios : 200 individuals from Nepal, Russia, India, Congo, Yemen, Afghanistan, and others were expelled overnight to Costa Rica, without judicial warrant, held in makeshift facilities, denied international protection, linguistic assistance, or guarantees against refoulement. Venezuelans granted asylum in the U.S. were deported to El Salvador and imprisoned in President Bukele’s “Terrorist Confinement Center” (CECOT), now a close ally of Trump.
Progressive U.S. media have raised alarms about the disturbing indifference to the humanity of immigrants, and some state governors and city mayors have criticized the economic costs of this policy. Yet despite protests and occasional constitutional reminders from the judiciary, the White House presses on : suspending legal asylum pathways, abolishing birthright citizenship, dismantling reception services, invoking emergency laws and resurrecting old statutes to allow military detentions outside civil jurisdiction, creating anti-immigration registries and “remigration” bodies, and more.
Let us not forget : the millions of people affected—migrants to the U.S. or long-term residents now deemed illegal—have fled their countries of origin, mostly Mexico and Central America. They fled, often at great personal risk, the insecurity that reigns in these regions—physical, social, climatic, economic, political— rooted in a predatory and unequal development model shaped by U.S. dominance. In return, the remittances they send home sustain the basic needs of countless families. But these remittances too, now taxed by Trump and undermined by the crackdown on undocumented migrants, are collateral damage of the current U.S. migration policy.
