HOW MANY of you my dear readers have immigrant friends or even relatives who left their families and careers in the country and tried their luck in the United States of America, the so-called land of milk and honey, the city upon a hill, and the beacon of democracy?
Some Filipinos may dismiss Donad Trump’s return to the White House simply as another proof of the rise of populist leaders in the global political stage and that we, Filipinos have more pressing problems of our own so why concern ourselves with the perceived impact of another Trump regime?
How I wish it were that simple.
Trump’s 2016 campaign often featured racist, sexist, and xenophobic rhetoric, highlighted by fiery statements about Mexicans, Muslims, and even women. Several times in his speeches, he referred to the Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “criminals.” At one point, he even mocked Serge Kovaleski, a reporter who has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition affecting his joints.
As it turned out, his first term was marked by immigration policies which were nothing short of disturbing. Think about the infamous Executive Order 13769 more popularly known as the Muslim ban in 2017, or his zero-tolerance border policy that saw more than 2,300 children separated from their parents at the southern border between May and June 2018, among others. These policies along with a heightened rhetoric demonized immigrant communities, giving way to an already tense atmosphere that had become even more hostile and dangerous.
His 2024 campaign is no different; but if any, he amplified his attacks on immigrants, accusing them of “poisoning the blood of our country.” These words echoed Nazi leader Adolf Hiter’s rhetoric in his political discourse “Mein Kampf,” which issued a warning about the Jews poisoning the German blood. He instilled fear among his MAGA support base, calling those crossing the border to seek asylum as criminals, rapists, and drug addicts who were freed from their countries’ prisons and mental institutions.
During the second presidential debate, he talked about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio eating their neighbors’ pets, a claim that was fact-checked and dismissed by Governor Mike DeWine, himself a Republican. Then at the Madison Square Garden rally, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who was among the speakers referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean” and even suggested that Latinos “love making babies.” Quite expectedly, the GOP never made a strong categorical statement to denounce these racist remarks. In fact, they found these amusing and laughed to their hearts’ content.
For the record, many of the immigrants targeted by Trump are in the US under the Temporary Protected Status, a federal program which allows migrants from some countries “to live in the US legally for a certain period when the conditions in their home country are unsafe.”
Those coming from Haiti, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Venezuela are among the countries that are eligible for the program and are required to re-register every year with the Department of Homeland Security.
Sadly, this fact is deliberately missing in the MAGA Republican narrative that continues to parrot an unfounded fear of immigrants. What is even more frustrating is that some of our MAGA cabalens might not even be aware of this.
With Project 2025, our cabalens have to expect drastic changes in US immigration policy. The 900-page policy aims to further tighten restrictions on asylum seekers, limit refugee admissions, and hold your breath, expand the “America First” concept that will prioritize the interests of native-born US citizens.
For many of our cabalens who are trying to petition and reunite with their family members, or are currently working things out so they can obtain legal status after years of living in the US, the implications are nothing short of chilling. This is definitely not just about policy; this is also about that uncanny and existential threat of being categorized and labelled as “undesirable” or a “second-class citizen” simply for not being white enough, for being born to immigrant parents, for being petitioned by immigrant parents, or even worse, for simply chasing that great American dream so that you can provide better future for your family back home.
