Trump’s racist rage puts 11 million migrants in the US at risk

The confirmation of billionaire Donald Trump’s return to the White House, re-elected this Tuesday (5), will put the safety of 11 million immigrants without legal documentation for residence in the United States at risk. Supported by 72.6 million votes, the businessman secured his electoral victory through a campaign with a racist tone, based on the false relationship between illegal immigration and the population’s loss of purchasing power.

In the 2016 American presidential campaign, when the rise of an eccentric tycoon in the USA seemed to be a collective daydream, the Republican already had the immigration issue as a political platform, but with less organization than was seen this year.

In his debut in politics, Trump and his activists chanted the slogan “Build That Wall” during the campaign, a promise to prevent illegal crossings of the border in Mexico. Although an aggressive slogan, Trump’s incipient anti-immigration rhetoric at that time can already be considered mild, compared to what the presidential race in 2024 has become.

This year, the campaign advanced its anti-immigration logic and posters calling for “Mass Deportation” were seen alongside others “Peace Through Strength”.

“The United States is known throughout the world as an occupied country. We are being occupied by a criminal force”, he said in a speech in Aurora, in the state of Colorado, one of the few states that Kamala Harris won. “But I promise you: November 5, 2024 will be liberation day in the United States,” he threatened.

“I will send a bill to Congress to ban all sanctuary cities,” he said, referring to places that protect immigrants from expulsion. “We will begin the largest deportation operation in American history,” he promised in a speech.

In his electoral platform, Trump promises to shorten deportation processes, carrying out expulsions without holding hearings, currently required by law. The businessman also promises more federal investment in local police forces and the use of the National Guard to assist in operations.

Trump also wants to use the army to assist in operations to crack down on illegal immigration. Federal troops abroad would head to the country’s southern border, which gives access to Latin America, where the military would have authorization to arrest immigrants.

The use of the military and the National Guard in internal operations in the USA, however, is prohibited by the country’s Constitution.

Under American law, Trump would violate Due Process Law rights. The U.S. Constitution guarantees that “no person […] shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” (5th Amendment). Mass and rapid deportations can result in a violation of this fundamental right, especially if immigrants are not given the opportunity to challenge their deportation in immigration courts, which is required by law.

Another Trump campaign promise plans to raid workplaces to identify and arrest illegal immigrants. The strategy would discourage industries from hiring this workforce, benefiting American workers, according to the far-right theory. The measure, however, would affect local economies and result in social chaos, with the separation of families and worsening the vulnerability of entire immigrant populations.

Racist statements brought together supremacist militancy

Shortly after the end of his term, Trump found himself immersed in a series of accusations and lawsuits for a range of crimes that ranged from the attempted coup d’état on January 6th, to attempted bribery and falsification of documents. To try to unite the hard core of his activism and regain political prominence, the billionaire released a series of racist statements.

In 2017, in his first year at the helm of the White House, the far-right leader stated that there were good people on both sides of the confrontation between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters. At the time, the “Unite the Right” demonstration was marching in Charlottesville against the removal of the monument to Confederate Robert E. Lee, a symbol of the defense of slavery and racism in the American Civil War.

In December 2023, outside the White House and mired in criminal proceedings that put his candidacy at risk, the Republican stated that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”.

“They [democratas] they let 15, 16 million people into our country. They are poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in New Hampshire.

In 2024, in the middle of the campaign, irregular immigrants commit murders because they have “bad genes”. “How can they allow people to come in through an open border, 13,000 of whom were murderers,” Trump said in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, when discussing his Democratic opponent’s immigration policies.

“Many of them have killed many more than one person and are now happy living in the United States. You know, a killer, I believe that, is in his genes. And we have a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”