‘We haven’t seen anything yet’ – Trump’s mass deportations will only increase from here

When Donald Trump He won a second term as President of the United States a year ago, members Violent militias and Right-wing extremist groups Who spent years Which reinforces the lie that the 2020 election was rigged They were willing to help the president fulfill one of his key campaign promises: mass deportations.

“I’m willing to help,” said Richard Mack, the former mayor who founded the far right Association of Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officershe told WIRED magazine at the time, claiming that he had been in contact with Tom Homan, the man Trump had appointed as his “border czar.” Tim Foley, president of Arizona Border Recon, which also describes itself as a “nongovernmental organization.” He told WIRED He was in contact with administration officials. wrote William Thier, head of the far-right Three Percenters militia in Texas Message to Trump He offers his help. Homan even met with one of the Proud Boys’ affiliates after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center open. According to reports about the meeting, they discussed deportations.

Although all these militia leaders and far-right groups salivated at the prospect of spreading out into the streets of American cities to arrest immigrants at gunpoint, the call never came.

Instead, the Trump administration has completely reshaped the federal government to the point that it no longer needs far-right formations from outside the government to take over its duties. Terrorizing and intimidating migrant communities All over the country. Instead, it relies on a greatly increased federal force that includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, state and local law enforcement officers, and others. This expanded power is emboldened not only by the massive influx of money, but also by the tacit agreement from the White House to do whatever it feels necessary to counter Trump’s unruly policies. Migration objectives.

“What we’re seeing now is the Trump administration effectively reorganizing the federal government to support mass deportations,” says Naina Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. “This means diverting law enforcement resources from many agencies that had not previously been involved in low-level immigration arrests, so that they now focus solely on profiling and arresting immigrants.”

Although the past 12 months have been devastating for immigrant communities in the United States, experts believe the worst is yet to come. Install Customs and Border Protection, which has Documented history of alleged human rights violations, as is the agency at the forefront of the immigration crackdown A sign of deep concernThey say.

“I think we’re just getting started,” says Noreen Shah, director of government affairs at the ACLU. “I think we haven’t seen anything yet. Their size will increase dramatically in the coming (months),” he added.