Immigration enforcement systems persist across administrations through institutional momentum, creating a "ratchet effect" that transcends partisan politics and electoral cycles.
Several points. There were two policies in President Clinton’s Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that stand out. One was the creation of expedited removal and the second was border security and the expanded US border intentionality pushing immigrants to inhospitable and dangerous areas in attempt to deter crossing into the US. The opposite happened as there was a substantial increase in immigrant deaths.
Also people forget that the Biden Administration started the policy of arresting and detaining Venezuelans as gang members of Tren de Argua based on their tattoos that ICE said were gang related.
And you are correct, Democrat and Republican administrations created immigration policies to deter and stop the flow of immigrants into the US through various forms of detention and deportation.
But what makes trump1 and now trump2 immigration policies abhorrent is the use of cruelty to further his administration’s racism agenda without apology. Look no further than the short lived Family Separation Policy and now in trump 2 the focus on arrest numbers by using masked federal agents to indiscriminately arrest immigrants based on their skin color at car washes, mowing grass, selling tamales as a street vendor and outside immigration courts. ICE has become the federal government secret police.
the war on immigrants is a combination of wanting to remove brown people and a distraction from actual economic issues “look these brown people are taking our jobs and therefore pay is going down and everything is more expensive” — incoherent.
Thank you for writing this powerful piece! One of the most frustrating parts of this work is trying to explain to newly awakened activists that the broken state of our immigration system is the product of both Republican and Democratic administrations. Right now, New Jersey has a Democratic trifecta, but the Immigrant Trust Act has been collecting dust in the Assembly since last September. And to make matters worse, the Democratic nominee for governor, Mikie Sherrill, has explicitly spoken against it.
The Ratchet Effect explains a lot of things about the duopoly. One faction passes the legislation, the other side keeps it from going away and expands it. And both sides take a lot of money from various corporations and interests who want to make money out of private prisons and deportation flights. Follow the money--find out who or what is causing so much grief for so many innocent immigrants and their families.
Several points. There were two policies in President Clinton’s Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that stand out. One was the creation of expedited removal and the second was border security and the expanded US border intentionality pushing immigrants to inhospitable and dangerous areas in attempt to deter crossing into the US. The opposite happened as there was a substantial increase in immigrant deaths.
Also people forget that the Biden Administration started the policy of arresting and detaining Venezuelans as gang members of Tren de Argua based on their tattoos that ICE said were gang related.
And you are correct, Democrat and Republican administrations created immigration policies to deter and stop the flow of immigrants into the US through various forms of detention and deportation.
But what makes trump1 and now trump2 immigration policies abhorrent is the use of cruelty to further his administration’s racism agenda without apology. Look no further than the short lived Family Separation Policy and now in trump 2 the focus on arrest numbers by using masked federal agents to indiscriminately arrest immigrants based on their skin color at car washes, mowing grass, selling tamales as a street vendor and outside immigration courts. ICE has become the federal government secret police.
the war on immigrants is a combination of wanting to remove brown people and a distraction from actual economic issues “look these brown people are taking our jobs and therefore pay is going down and everything is more expensive” — incoherent.
Thank you for writing this powerful piece! One of the most frustrating parts of this work is trying to explain to newly awakened activists that the broken state of our immigration system is the product of both Republican and Democratic administrations. Right now, New Jersey has a Democratic trifecta, but the Immigrant Trust Act has been collecting dust in the Assembly since last September. And to make matters worse, the Democratic nominee for governor, Mikie Sherrill, has explicitly spoken against it.
You’re 100% right. This administration is simply implementing the law. And it’s a breathtakingly cruel law.
The Ratchet Effect explains a lot of things about the duopoly. One faction passes the legislation, the other side keeps it from going away and expands it. And both sides take a lot of money from various corporations and interests who want to make money out of private prisons and deportation flights. Follow the money--find out who or what is causing so much grief for so many innocent immigrants and their families.