Donald Trump promised mass deportations in the style of arrests during his 2024 presidential campaign. He’s now following through with that promise by allowing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest undocumented migrants in churches, courthouses, and schools.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is scrapping the Biden era’s guidelines for arresting migrants at “sensitive” locations such as schools and churches. The statement from a DHS spokesperson reads, “This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including murders and rapists—who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.” Additionally, this spokesperson also accused the Biden-Harris administration of abusing the humanitarian parole program.
Several social media users felt disgust and repulsion against the policy. One X user wrote, “Y’all voted for evil.” Another X user brought up that these places were supposed to be safe havens, or sanctuaries.
Although there were many who were disturbed by the new policy, the online sentiment is still split. Many who agree with Trump have largely bought into the assumption that many of these undocumented migrants were bad apples. Others were dismissive and had even used the death of a woman to forward their political rhetoric against migrants.
Nothing Trump hadn’t promised
Trump’s supporters didn’t merely vote for evil. They voted for what exactly Trump promised, regardless of its humanitarian consequences. He was transparent about wanting to deport undocumented migrants as part of his campaign pledge.
Tom Homan, Trump’s appointed ‘border czar,’ has already started operations with ICE. While he prefers that they won’t be called raids, they’re still “targeted enforcement operations” directed against undocumented migrants. Homan has stated that those who’ve committed crimes are the target of the operation, but other undocumented migrants without criminal convictions will also be caught.
Published: Jan 23, 2025 06:40 am