The reconciliation bill President Donald Trump signed last month increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention budget by more than 300%, making the immigration enforcement machine’s budget comparable to that of some foreign armed forces. ICE has begun hiring thousands of new agents; it is trying to lure recruits with $50,000 signing bonuses, and last week Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem lifted the age cap for new ICE hires.
Six months into his second term, Trump’s immigration policy is what many feared it would be when he was elected. This goes beyond simply getting “tough” on immigration. The administration is undertaking an unprecedented realignment of the federal government, turning it into a detention and deportation machine that threatens communities, upends legal norms and shakes the foundation of American democracy.
In the next month, detentions under the Trump administration are expected to hit 60,000 people — the highest number in modern history. And the vast majority of those detained have no criminal record, no pending charges and, in many cases, they have a legal basis to be in the country. But that no longer seems to matter. The goal isn’t justice. It’s fear and authoritarian control.
Let’s be clear: The immigration system was broken before Trump returned to office. Our asylum system was overwhelmed, our visa and green-card processes were slow and under-resourced, and our immigration courts were backlogged by years. But instead of fixing any of this, the Trump administration has chosen to make things worse — on purpose. And in doing so, they’ve turned immigration enforcement into a cudgel that is destroying the core pillars of our democracy.
As we at the American Immigration Council laid out in a recent report, Trump’s second-term immigration policies, in just six months, represent an unprecedented and coordinated assault on democratic rights and principles. We are now witnessing the routine violation of rights that most Americans consider fundamental.
Despite the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, the administration revoked student visas because of their political opinions. Despite the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, ICE uses secrecy and sometimes deception to detain immigrants and even U.S. citizens in public spaces. And despite the Fifth Amendment’s promise of due process, the administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s hellhole CECOT prison, based on vague, unchallengeable allegations of gang affiliation.
The Trump administration’s immigration policies aren’t just violating individual rights; they are also an attack on the constitutional structure that upholds American democracy. This system of checks and balances exists to ensure that no single branch or leader can act with unchecked power.
Yet the administration has bypassed Congress, refused to spend funds legally allocated for refugee resettlement, legal aid for children and support for local governments. It tested the limits of federalism by deploying California’s National Guard, without the governor’s consent, to suppress largely peaceful protests. And it has targeted public officials and advocates — prosecuting judges, members of Congress and observers of ICE operations — for allegedly interfering with immigration enforcement. When courts, including the Supreme Court, have tried to impose limits, the administration has responded by attacking the judiciary’s legitimacy and smearing individual judges.
Trump’s immigration policies have become a testing ground for unchecked executive power and the erosion of procedural rights. Sidestepping Congress, defying court orders and coercing states into collaboration are all violations of long-standing democratic norms. So long as they are left unchallenged, they set a deeply troubling precedent.
All of this is feeding into a vast and increasingly punitive immigration enforcement system, which is now operating at historic levels. In addition to hiring thousands of new ICE agents, the federal government is rapidly expanding detention capacity, filling private jails and converted military sites with thousands of people, most of whom have never been charged with a crime. Conditions inside are dangerous and degrading, marked by medical neglect, overcrowding and abuse.
This escalation is being driven by an interagency operation that now spans state law enforcement, the military and multiple federal agencies. People are being arrested outside preschools in front of their children and while attending appointments for their citizenship interviews. Immigration courts have effectively become traps, where immigrants who show up for their day in court are instead detained so that the government can try to deport them without a hearing. The government has tossed aside due process to deport people to war zones and megaprisons without hearings, legal representation or notice.
Supporters of this agenda pretend the policies are about public safety. But they make us less safe. In immigrant-heavy communities, people are afraid to report real crime — like in Tennessee, where, according to a police chief, a child may have died because their noncitizen caretaker was scared to call 911 given the recent immigration raids in the state. And by prioritizing immigration enforcement above all other public safety and law enforcement goals, Trump is diverting resources away from where they’re needed. What’s left is a chilling message: No immigrant is safe, no matter their background, status or contribution to society — and mass deportation comes at any cost, including Americans’ safety.
There is a better way. A fair, efficient and humane immigration system would target the country’s limited enforcement resources on genuine threats, not high school theater teachers, makeup artists and kitchen workers. It would process asylum claims promptly and fairly, offer legal pathways for longtime residents and restore faith in the rule of law. It would cost less, work better and uphold our values far more than mass detention and mass deportation ever could.
What’s at stake is not only the treatment of immigrants but the integrity of our democracy. When the government discards due process and the executive branch wields power without oversight, the legal safeguards that protect all of us begin to collapse. No matter the justification, a nation governed by law cannot afford to normalize lawlessness.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
