By Jaimie Seaton
In his Jan. 20 inaugural address for his second term, President Donald J. Trump said, “I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
Within hours of taking the oath of office, Trump declared that migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border were a national emergency, and he would deploy the U.S. military to control them. He went on to issue 10 executive orders and proclamations aimed at remaking United States’ immigration law and policies, including suspending the Refugee Admissions program, which provides legal migration to the U.S. for people who have been persecuted or fear persecution, and ending birthright citizenship.
The Migration Policy Institute reported in late April that while the Trump administration had indeed already reshaped the U.S. immigration system, it had fallen short of meeting its mass deportation aims. “Even as the number of immigration arrests is up significantly, the current pace of deportations suggests the administration will fall well short of its stated goal of 1 million deportations annually,” the MPI article says.
The Trump administration has taken 181 immigration-specific executive actions through April 29, according to MPI analysis.
Two days after the inauguration, the pro-immigration advocacy group American Immigration Council characterized Trump’s flurry of executive orders and proclamations as a signal to immigrant communities that they were under attack. Within those communities are families with children who surely will be in the crosshairs of the administration’s agenda. Trump has plans to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, which is not possible without separating families. Nearly half of undocumented adults are parents to minors, and an estimated 5.5 million U.S.-born children live with at least one undocumented parent, including 4.5 million who were born here, making them U.S. citizens.
Read the full story in the NASW Social Work Advocates magazine.
