Mass Deportations

The reason the president-elect’s plan to deport millions of immigrants will fail has little to do with his ability to strong-arm law enforcement, and potentially the U.S. military, into corralling people in large, fenced-in Texas prisons. He may be able to do that. Missing is that immigrants are a part of the fabric of American society in a way that promotes and values the individual nature of people. While Trump talks about mass deportations of millions of people, each of the targeted people will have a name, a face, and a presence in the community in which they find themselves. To treat them as a fungible commodity, thus dehumanizing them, goes against the American grain and Trump will encounter that. I believe this is a significant enough obstacle that whatever the plan is, it will fail.

Where will federal officers find all these undocumented immigrants? They may have some records, like those Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is trying to obtain regarding non-citizens who registered to vote. Voter fraud is so rare that will not fill Texas stockades.

When children of immigrants attend public schools, they are visible. Will teachers turn them over to federal authorities? It’s an open question. I suppose they are counting on people to snitch on their neighbors. In my neighborhood, I suspect that fellow who flies the Gadsden flag near his Trump 2024 flag might serve as a MAGA snitch. I hope not, yet this sounds a bit like North Korea, actually. It is like the North Korea portrayed in Barbara Demick’s book Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea where neighbors snitch on neighbors. Maybe that’s what Republicans want in the United States.

In his book, The Audacity of Hope, then Senator Barack Obama recounted the story of how in 2006, Senator Chuck Grassley and he worked together on immigration reform. According to Obama,

Under the leadership of Ted Kennedy and John McCain, the Senate crafted a compromise (immigration reform) bill with three major components. The bill provided much tougher border security and, through an amendment I wrote with Chuck Grassley, made it significantly more difficult for employers to hire workers illegally. The bill also recognized the difficulty of deporting twelve million undocumented immigrants and instead created a long, eleven-year process under which many of them could earn citizenship.

The reasonableness of this story makes it seem more like a fairy tale than actual behavior of U.S. Senators.

Locally, the story we hear in the community is more granular and personal. There is an increase in the number of immigrants from countries other than Mexico. Parts of Iowa, especially university centers are international communities. We find landlords rent to immigrants more often and schools enroll more immigrant children. People who work in social safety net organizations like free medical clinics, food banks and neighborhood centers see a large number of immigrant clients. Public Health workers in Northwest Iowa require some staff members to speak Spanish to work effectively with immigrant communities. An increasing number of churches are being founded by immigrants. These are some of the things we see. The point is we know these people as individuals with a personality and a life woven into ours.

Because of the way Trump framed mass deportations, people are running scared, and I don’t mean undocumented residents. If the expectation is that undocumented residents will be found harboring kilos of fentanyl, there will be disappointment, especially here in Iowa. Anyone who has read Methland by Nick Reding or Dream Land by Sam Quinones knows that’s not how illegal international drug trafficking works.

The problems caused by a flawed immigration system are many. Native born workers have seen a decline in standard of living. Businesses want access to inexpensive labor provided by immigrants. Undocumented workers compete with native born/naturalized workers on an uneven playing field for jobs. Guest workers and work visa programs replace permanent jobs with temporary jobs without benefits or the legal protections guaranteed to most U.S. workers. Undocumented immigrants are most likely to receive abuse and mistreatment in social situations and in housing and employment. There is a language barrier and skin color may be different. Non-Christian religious backgrounds result in discrimination and mistreatment. All of these are symptoms. So what can we do?

Whatever that is, I expect the Trump administration to pay it little attention. Remember, Trump was the person who begged Republican Senators to kill the long negotiated immigration reform bill because he wanted to use the issue to get elected. Well, Mr. Trump. When your program deteriorates into chaos, what then? We all know you aren’t concerned about immigration. Let’s hope some of the real people involved as targets in the proposed mass deportations get a lifeline from the rest of us.