“At What Cost?”: The Truth (Facts) About Who the Trump Immigration Agenda is Really Targeting

Access online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC – The Trump administration continues to escalate its ruthless effort to expel immigrants, block refugees, and sow fear within the immigrant community. As our “At What Cost?” campaign highlights, all Americans will pay a high price because of Trump and Republicans’ chaotic and cruel immigration agenda and mass deportation obsessions.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“The Trump administration’s deportation dragnet is indiscriminate, harming people with no criminal records with devastating and harmful consequences for our families and our communities. Every day more and more stories come to light of families being deprived of their loved ones, businesses of a valued employee and co-worker, and communities of a long-standing resident and taxpayer. It’s part of a larger effort to use mass deportation as a tool to remake the nation in MAGA’s preferred image. This scorched earth policy comes at a high cost for all Americans.”

Among the many recent cases and examples of the Trump administration’s unsparing deportations of parents, long-settled immigrants, and others far removed from the “worst of the worst” pledge of this administration include:

• USA Today: “He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center,” featuring examples of those detained and deported during the first eight weeks of the Trump administration, even those married and engaged to U.S. citizens. Examples included, “A woman in her 50s who has lived in the country more than 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen; A woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency, whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teen; A European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21; A woman engaged to a U.S. legal permanent resident, with whom she has lived for nine years.”

• NBC: A 10-year old U.S. citizen recovering from brain cancer deported with her family to Mexico: NBC highlighted the story of a Texas family on their way to an emergency medical check-up for their 10-year-old, U.S. citizen daughter, who is recovering from brain cancer, was detained by immigration authorities and hastily deported to Mexico in February

• The Washington Post, “Border patrol grabs Venezuelan parents in D.C., despite protected status,” noting that the arrest took place “weeks before TPS is set to expire for many Venezuelans” and stoking fears “the Trump administration is again willing to separate parents and children.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Milwaukee-area woman deported to Laos though she’s never been there, doesn’t speak the language,” a Hmong American mother of five who “has lived in the Milwaukee area since she was 8 months old was deported last week to Laos, a country she has never visited, and says she is stranded in a rooming house surrounded by military guards” following a marijuana arrest.

The New York Times, “We Finally Got You.’ Immigrant-Rights Advocate Arrested in Colorado,” 53-year-old immigration-rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra, was arrested “at work on Monday by federal immigration agents” in Denver, Colorado.

Politico, “Trump’s mass deportation plans hit riskier phase with legal immigrants, court fights,” highlights how Trump “…spent his first weeks in office emphasizing a mass deportation campaign aimed at criminals who are in the country illegally. But late last week, immigration agents arrested a Lebanese doctor on a legal visa, despite a court order temporarily blocking her immediate removal. That followed the detention of German tourists, a former Columbia University graduate student with a green card and multiple immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens or have long lived in the United States.”

The Guardian: Jasmine Mooney, A Canadian woman was detained by ICE after crossing the San Diego border writes an op-ed in The Guardian detailing her experiences in ICE custody. She states, “There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an ICE detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.”

Politico, “Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawsuit says,” noting: “A Georgetown University researcher, who was studying and teaching on a student visa, has been detained by federal immigration authorities amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on student activists whom the government accuses of opposing American foreign policy … Masked agents arrested Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow, outside his home in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night …Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, his petition says. His detention and petition have not been previously reported.”

Follow Vanessa Cárdenas and America’s Voice on BlueSky: vcardenas.bsky.social and americasvoice.bsky.social and Twitter: @VCardenasDC and @AmericasVoice

America’s Voice – Harnessing the power of American voices and America values to win common sense immigration reform www.americasvoice.org