While all eyes are on Los Angeles, President Donald Trump is still methodically attacking immigrants all across the country, in every way. These attacks are currently less visible, but they are no less awful.
On Thursday, CNN broke the news that the Trump administration will end the Biden-era parole program that allowed nearly 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to remain in the country legally. The administration will also cancel all work permits.
None of these people entered the country illegally. They underwent an extensive review by the government, needed an American sponsor, and underwent security checks. None of that matters to the Trump administration, of course. Indeed, it’s an easy way to keep hitting those deportation numbers, because now all of these people need to get out of the country as quickly as they can or face dystopian and violent removal.
A flag flies at half-staff as seen from Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.
As with so many things, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court gave Trump a permission slip to do this. Last month, they ruled that while the case over whether Trump could strip 350,000 Venezuelans of Temporary Protected Status proceeds through the courts, Trump could start deporting people anyway. This isn’t the same program that Trump is in the process of terminating, so in theory, the Supreme Court’s willingness to look the other way on the TPS program doesn’t mean they would feel similarly about ending the parole program. But the nation’s highest court keeps coming through, so why not take a shot.
Thursday also saw 12 immigrants sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The move was announced by the official U.S. Transportation Command account on X, which said the agency continues to support the “southern border mission in defense of the homeland” and that a flight containing undocumented immigrants had landed at the notorious detention camp.
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There are now 43 immigrants being held at Guantanamo, where Trump once dreamed of building a tent city jail for tens of thousands of migrants until everyone figured out that was both dangerous and expensive, even by this administration’s standards.
Back on the mainland, active-duty troops at the border are now detaining border crossers. In that instance, Trump got around the prohibition on having the U.S. military perform law enforcement actions within the country by designating a strip of land along the border as a “national defense zone.” That way, if a migrant crosses there, they can be said to be trespassing on a military installation and detained by the military.
A New Mexico judge has already thrown out over 100 of these security charges against immigrants for trespassing in the zone, saying there was little evidence they knew they were in a national defense zone, because how would they? Nonetheless, Department of Justice attorneys say they’ll keep bringing the charges, and the administration is planning on setting up more of these zones.
Protesters gather after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided an Omaha, Nebraska, meatpacking plant on June 10.
And finally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents continue their rampage through the businesses of America, arresting people who, quite frankly, are doing the jobs Americans have no desire to do. You really think Sen. Ted Cruz wants his daughter to work at a meatpacking plant one day? Or harvest vegetables in the fields? Come on, man.
On Tuesday, ICE raided Glenn Valley Foods, a large meatpacking plant in Omaha, Nebraska. Over half of the plant’s 140 workers were detained, and many others didn’t show up on Wednesday because they were too afraid. The plant is running at about 20% of its normal capacity right now, a stark reminder that America’s economy relies on a supply of undocumented people working at grueling jobs.
Of course Trump himself admitted Thursday that these raids are hurting farms and hotels, who are losing “very good, long time workers” thanks to his horrible policies. He made a vague promise that “Changes are coming!” but considering his utter inability to tell the truth about anything, no one is holding their breath.
The Trump administration’s capacity for cruelty toward immigrants is truly astonishing—not just in terms of the government resources it is deploying, but in terms of how it acts from a space of bottomless hate, an infinite ability to revel in the harm they can cause. It’s the only work that Trump and his minions actually want to do.
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