In the age of President Trump, having a scapegoat is necessary. With a faltering economy and many citizens living in third world conditions, it would be “weak” to accept responsibility, or actually do something about it. Instead, it must always be someone else’s fault.
Right now, the scapegoats are immigrants.
Sonoma State communications major Daisy (who chose to keep her last name anonymous to protect her family), speaks out about her experience being raised by an undocumented mother right now. “Since Trump entered the presidency, my mom has definitely tried not to go out for unnecessary things,” said Daisy, “It’s scary to think about.”“Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States,” Trump said at a joint session of Congress “many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members, and other criminals.”
The truth is, it’s not about crime.
Statistically, undocumented immigrants have been known to have lower crime rates than natural born citizens. Plus, if Trump really wanted to keep crime out, he wouldn’t have made his no-questions-asked gold visas priced at $5 million, a price only the extremely wealthy, including crimelords, can pay.
Trump then stated his administration has made the most sweeping immigration crackdown in American history (which is perhaps one of the only true things he said at the session). “We are getting them out and getting them out fast.”
And Trump’s plans for mass deportation are dangerous to the economy, as they could shrink America’s GDP by over $1 trillion.
A study by Americans for Tax Fairness found that Under President Joe Biden in 2022, undocumented immigrants collectively paid more in taxes than 55 of the richest mega-corporations, including Bank of America, PG&E, and Tesla. Human rights violations aside, the country has become dependent on immigrant labor for taxes and economic production.
“Illegal immigrants pay a lot of taxes, and they don’t get anything back,” said Daisy. “They don’t mind paying their dues, even when they’re giving and not receiving.”
But in a cruel twist of fate, taxes might be what puts Daisy’s family in danger.
“There have been mentions of Trump wanting to gain access to the IRS. My mother pays taxes with her TIN number… if that were to happen, my mother would probably be taken away.” Another fear for Daisy is the possibility of ICE entering college campuses. “I have several friends who are DACA. If that were to happen, I can’t imagine the anxiety and panic that brings. For me, my mom lives 10 minutes away. So to know that if she wants to stop by to drop lunch off, it [could] be a consequence.”
When faced with an already struggling economy, why is Trump’s solution to deport many of the people making our food, building our homes, and already working under minimum wage conditions?
The unfortunate reality is that Trump’s immigration crackdown is only masquerading as being “for the people”, while actually working in the interests of billionaires like Elon Musk, who played a crucial role in getting Trump elected. All in exchange for having his policies enacted, many of which were anti-welfare and immigration.
Visual Capitalist, a statistics graphing website made a diagram this year showing how the richest 1% of Americans now own 37% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% own less than 2% of it.
The Trump and Musk administration has been exploiting the country’s most vulnerable for profit.
Right now, they are targeting immigrants. But when the immigrants are all deported, who will be Trump’s next scapegoat? The LGBTQ? The disabled? …The Jewish?
For many groups that have been oppressed historically… The rhetoric used by Trump gives them flashbacks to dark times in history. With an overtly Nazi salute done by Musk at a Trump rally, and Trump praising several dictators, around the world.
Trump has been on record saying immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” Hitler said the same thing about Jewish people.
I do not want to sound too extreme and the status of the country is nowhere near Germany in World War 2 or other dictatorships in the world (yet), but the fact that the president is reflecting rhetoric used by these figures is unacceptable.
Even though it is threatened, this country is still a democracy. We need to stand up for the people who are being disenfranchised and silenced.
Trump’s decisions are in direct conflict with some of the founding ideas of America. The inscriptions written for the Statue of Liberty were welcoming immigrants in. “This nation wouldn’t be what it is without its diversity,” said Daisy. “Every culture makes the American culture.”
Deportations ruin lives, separate families, erase cultures, and lead the country one step closer to facism.
Immigrant students are what this country needs right now to tell their stories and help rebuild when the dark times have passed. We must stand up for those being threatened, and fight back against ICE and its attempts to enter college campuses.
