On the day he took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution President Donald Trump began efforts to rewrite it, issuing an executive order purporting to end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. This unilateral order presaged a series of alarming power grabs in the following months—beginning with immigration.
From the very beginning of his first presidential campaign to his second time in office, Trump has zeroed in on the issue of immigration, not just testing the bounds of power, but consolidating it. Indeed, in my opinion, the path to authoritarianism is being built on the backs of immigrants.
As the head of a legal organization that advocates for immigrants, I’m cursed with a front-row view of the framework that threatens to erode our democracy. While ostensibly targeting immigrants, what is being constructed is both the infrastructure and compliance that will facilitate a broader loss of rights for all Americans.
During the 2024 presidential campaign Trump and Republicans methodically scapegoated immigrants, laying the groundwork for an assault on constitutional checks and balances. Through photo-ops, political stunts, and fear mongering, they manufactured false crises (such as the baseless claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating dogs) to convince struggling Americans that immigrants caused their economic hardships and threatened public safety.
Leveraging fear and his mass-deportation agenda, upon taking office, Trump immediately began dismantling democratic safeguards. Legal scholars argue he has infringed upon First Amendment rights by arresting and attempting to deport student protesters, academics, and immigrant leaders whose opinions he disagrees with and whom he claims have made statements or engaged in activities that run counter to U.S. interests. Experts also warn that Trump has stripped these individuals of Fifth Amendment due process protections, revoking their lawful status without hearings or opportunities to present evidence.
Consistent with the patterns of strongman regimes, these actions seem aimed at terrorizing, silencing, and even disappearing dissenters, while creating a culture of intimidation that compels public compliance. And though the Trump Administration abruptly reversed plans to cancel thousands of international students’ visas, this whiplash has made life more difficult, and disorienting, for many.
Trump has created a new registry requiring millions of undocumented people—even those with pending immigration cases—to provide addresses and fingerprints while carrying proof of registration at all times. Officials have detained a wide range of immigrants, including in some instances those with legal working status and even citizenship. This dynamic has created a cruel catch-22 which forces an impossible choice: register and risk immediate deportation, or refuse and become criminalized for noncompliance, destroying any path to legal status. The strategy deliberately manufactures fear and chaos while criminalizing communities.
This registration policy echoes historical atrocities that enabled severe human rights violations. In the U.S., forced registration led to Japanese American internment during World War II and profiling of male immigrants from 24 predominantly Muslim countries after 9/11.
Trump has invoked wartime powers to expand his reach and suspend constitutional protections. Though many Americans might be shocked to learn that we are under “invasion,” Trump has invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which authorizes the detention and removal of immigrants from hostile nations during declared war. A Trump-appointed federal judge recently rejected the use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan immigrants, but it is this legal precedent that facilitated the deportation of hundreds of people to a notorious prison in El Salvador with zero due process.
One of those people is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father with legal permission to live in the U.S. Even though the Administration admitted to deporting Abrego Garcia by mistake, Trump is refusing to take any steps to bring him back, in open defiance of the Supreme Court and other federal court rulings.
At a White House meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, both countries’ leaders made the outrageous claim that they lack the power to fix this grievous error. Meanwhile, Trump is now publicly toying with the idea of deporting U.S. citizens to that same prison.
This may not be the end of Trump’s use of the “invasion” excuse to illegally claim extraordinary wartime powers. In one of his first executive orders, Trump suggested that he was weighing whether to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act. His secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security reportedly will not, for now, recommend doing so, but the potential impact: mobilizing troops to round up immigrants in American neighborhoods.
While the assault on immigrants demands our concern, we must also recognize it as the opening step toward dismantling everyone’s rights. If we continue to normalize disappearances, silence foreign students, and carry out detention without charges or trial, applying these tactics to political opponents who are citizens will require little extension. And if military forces kick in your neighbor’s door, the moment to speak without fear will have already passed.
Trump is counting on fear to command our silence. Rather than acquiesce, we must speak up to defend our increasingly fragile democracy before it vanishes entirely.
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