more and more numbers Law enforcement officials and Democratic leaders across the country are speaking out against plans to stop mass deportations, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s top immigration priorities. Many have learned the lessons of the first four years of the Trump era and pledged to stand their ground and not cooperate with federal law enforcement when it comes to apprehending undocumented immigrants. They are also preparing a countersuit to prepare to take the incoming administration to court as soon as officials attempt to begin deportations, which they promised to begin on day one.
in an interview Politico Announced on Saturday, prosecutors in six Democratic-led states outlined plans to file legal challenges to steps Trump may take to implement his immigration agenda.
These include the possible deployment of U.S. troops into the country to search for undocumented immigrants, violations of immigrants’ due process rights, withholding funds from so-called sanctuary cities, and attempts to deputize National Guard troops in red states to carry out arrests and arrests. . Blue detention.
These prosecutors also said they are preparing to fight scenarios in which the administration seeks to send immigration agents to schools and hospitals or withholds federal funds to force local law enforcement to comply with deportation plans.
Earlier this week, President Trump reaffirmed his plan to declare a national emergency to use federal troops to round up people for deportation.
“As he said, if we were to achieve the largest deportation in American history, by definition we would have to go after American citizens, targeting people who are here legally,” said Matthew Platkin of New Jersey. the attorney general said PoliticoPerhaps a reference to the fact that millions of undocumented people, including children born on U.S. soil, live with U.S. citizens. Those children will have to leave the country with their deported parents to stay with their families. “We will not support that,” Platkin added. Goals of top prosecutors Sean Rankin, president of the Blue Statewide Democratic Attorneys General Association, said: ABC NewsIt’s about putting up a “unified front” against Trump’s immigration agenda.
If the Trump administration attempts to fulfill its promise to launch an unprecedented mass deportation campaign, it will face both legal and logistical obstacles. As Dara Lind of the American Immigration Council recently wrote: new york timesdeport a million people The annual influx of undocumented immigrants (a tiny fraction of the approximately 11 million people living in the country) will cost the country $88 billion a year. A limited number of detention facilities and years of backlog in immigration courts would deter large-scale raids.
Nonetheless, Tom Homan, Trump’s new “border czar” who does not require Senate confirmation, has indicated that the administration will press hard on any jurisdictions that stand in the way. “If we can’t get support from New York City, we may have to double the number of agents we send to New York City,” Homan said in a recent interview with Fox News. Because we will do it. We will do it without you and with you.” And indeed, Homan has a history of pushing extreme immigration policies. As a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official during Trump’s first term, he was the architect of the “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of parents from their children. At the border. Even today, many Not reunited.
Several Democratic leaders have publicly said they will not join large-scale deportation efforts. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who sued the Trump administration 100 times as attorney general, said she would use “every tool in the toolbox” to protect state residents. A Rhode Island State Police spokesperson said in a statement that while they are cooperating with ICE, “they are not immigration officers and will not expend time or resources to support mass deportation efforts.”
Top prosecutors in states like Massachusetts are trying to dismiss Trump’s repeated, unsubstantiated claims that immigrants are prone to crime. Instead, according to PoliticoAs reported by , they hope to make the case that mass deportations would be bad for the U.S. economy. As I have previously reported, mass deportation of undocumented workers would drastically reduce GDP, increase inflation, and even reduce the number of jobs available to American citizens.
