Unfulfilled Promises and Fear Tactics: Trump's Second Term Along the Border
Trump reportedly planning to oust or imprison political adversaries.
In the opening phase of his second term, Donald Trump has fallen short of his promised mass deportations. Yet, he's succeeded in creating an atmosphere of anxiety that greatly surpasses worries about the future of undocumented residents. Is the president laying the groundwork to detain his adversaries? An escalating number of observers believe so.
First off, the threat to retaliate against those whom the president perceives as his foes has been frequently articulated. From the start of 2022 until October 2024, according to an NPR compilation, Mr. Trump expressed support for government force against American political opponents over a hundred times.
Mr. Trump also made it clear to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who agreed to house more than 250 men at his massive terrorism detention center (CECOT): "The homegrown criminals are next." He was alluding to "homegrown criminals" who grew up in the United States.
It is indeed prohibited to deport American citizens from the United States, regardless of their criminal status, as stated by numerous legal experts.
This doesn't imply that the current president isn't enticed to do so. "I can't conjecture about Mr. Trump's intentions, but what I can say is that this administration appears unfazed by the boundaries of law and the Constitution," says Matthew Boaz, an immigration law professor at the University of Kentucky.
There absolutely are "legally valid tools" to imprison individuals who have transgressed the law or expel those without valid immigration status. "However, this government seems to favor a disorganized approach, one that often violates laws," he continues, a previous practitioner of law.
Ultimately, it's rather "ineffective," he remarks, as one then has to contest in court, with the number of lawsuits multiplying at an alarming pace.
Accumulating Cases
Despite differences, the cases where laws are indeed violated are accumulating, experts highlight.
There was the detention of a permanent resident, Mahmoud Khalil, whose transgressions, as per Senator Marco Rubio, could "affect foreign policies."
Following, even though his status would have protected him, the expulsion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, carried out "by mistake," according to the administration's belated admission, but initially under the pretext of criminality. Mr. Trump refuses to repatriate him. Then there was the case of another man whose family couldn't even locate him after his arrest and swift expulsion by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
To many, the case of Abrego Garcia is employed to "establish a truly terrifying proposition: that the Trump administration can imprison anyone, anywhere in the world," wrote two prominent law professors in the New York Times.
The term "disappearance" is increasingly used to describe arrests made in broad daylight by masked, unknown agents in civilian clothes. People whose views differ from those of Mr. Trump "are silenced from public discourse and punished," says Mr. Boaz, referring to Rumeysa Ozturk, a student at Tufts University in Boston.
Parallels are also drawn to shed light on the present, said analyst Kate Doyle of the National Security Archive in an online conference on the topic on Wednesday. "We can't help but connect what's happening here with the many forced disappearance phenomena in Latin America. We can't view these actions solely through the lens of immigration."
Additional Reading
- Trump fires his national security advisor
- Judge blocks expulsions under an 18th-century law used by Trump
- Why is Donald Trump so fixated on Joe Biden?
Defiance with Troubling Intentions
"I'm concerned that what's happening to immigrants, including permanent residents, could happen more broadly," admits Mr. Boaz. If power isn't hesitant to target immigrants and the courts, "it's not clear to me that they would be deterred from targeting citizens," he says.
Even Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in a dissent that the legal arguments used by Trump's allies regarding Salvadoran expulsion cases are precariously shaky. Their reasoning suggests they believe they can already "expel and incarcerate anyone, including American citizens, without legal consequence, as long as they do it before a court intervenes."
Citizen Children
Recently, it was three American citizen children who were deported back to their parents' homeland.
"Let's be clear: it's unconstitutional to expel a citizen to another country," reiterates Matthew Boaz. While it's not unheard of for this to occur in the past. Political scientist Jacqueline Stevens of Northwestern University has dedicated years of research to uncovering hundreds of cases of expelled citizens. A government study has come to similar conclusions.
Expelling children is different in nature, as their parents can choose to bring them along or leave them with a guardian in the United States. However, in the most recent case, the speed of the expulsion prevented the mother of at least one of the children "from leaving her child with her father," notes Mr. Boaz.
Another recent example that seems to indicate, in his view, "a willingness to operate outside the norms."
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Based on the available evidence from the first 100 days of Trump's second term, there are serious allegations of systemic efforts to suppress dissent through punitive measures, particularly against activists and protestors, though no explicit references to imprisoning traditional political opponents (e.g., rival politicians) appear in these documents. Key findings include:
Targeted Deportations of Activists
- Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and lawful permanent resident, was detained and placed in deportation proceedings after participating in peaceful protests at Columbia University. Amnesty International describes this as part of a "sweeping attack on human rights" aimed at silencing dissent[1].
- Daniel Zacarias Matos and others were subject to expedited deportation attempts under the Alien Enemies Act, though specifics about political opponents are not detailed[2].
Expansion of Executive Power
- The administration has allegedly imprisoned individuals on "vague terrorism charges," according to a Center for American Progress report, though specifics about political opponents are not detailed[3].
- Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a non-criminal U.S. resident with family ties to a citizen, was wrongfully deported and remains imprisoned in El Salvador despite court challenges[4].
Judicial Resistance
Multiple federal judges, including in Colorado and Manhattan, have temporarily blocked deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, citing due process violations. The Supreme Court has also mandated that the administration provide "meaningful due process" to those targeted[2].
While these actions primarily target immigrants and activists, the pattern suggests a willingness to use executive authority to penalize dissenters. There is no direct evidence of plans to imprison conventional political opponents (e.g., elected officials), but the broader implications for civil liberties remain contested.
- Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent, noted that the legal arguments used by Trump's allies regarding Salvadoran expulsion cases are precariously shaky, suggesting they believe they can imprison anyone, including American citizens, without legal consequence.
- Two American citizen children were deported back to their parents' homeland, raising concerns about the administration's willingness to operate outside the norms.
- The American president has expressed support for government force against American political opponents over a hundred times from the start of 2022 until October 2024, according to an NPR compilation.
- In a case that some say establishes a truly terrifying proposition, the Trump administration refused to repatriate Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was expelled "by mistake," but initially under the pretext of criminality.
- "I can't conjecture about Mr. Trump's intentions, but what I can say is that this administration appears unfazed by the boundaries of law and the Constitution," says Matthew Boaz, an immigration law professor at the University of Kentucky, suggesting a potential disregard for policy and legislation in favor of more aggressive political tactics.
