{"id":6903,"date":"2025-03-03T17:54:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T17:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6903"},"modified":"2025-03-03T17:54:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T17:54:47","slug":"non-citizens-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place-as-trump-pushes-for-national-registry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6903","title":{"rendered":"Non-Citizens \u2018Between a Rock and a Hard Place\u2019 as Trump Pushes for National Registry"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/span>Peter Schurmann<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a video circulating on social media of a Latino man walking into a Target store with a\u00a0US passport glued to his forehead<\/a>. \u201cMe walking around with my passport to avoid ICE questioning me,\u201d the caption reads, a laugh track in the background.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s dark humor, for sure, and the comedy only works because it\u2019s true. Now more than ever.<\/p>\n

On February 25, the Trump administration issued its latest guidelines on immigration enforcement, creating a national registry requiring the estimated 13 million undocumented immigrants now living in the country to register or face criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are reanimating a provision of US immigration law that has been dormant for decades that requires certain groups of non-citizens to register with the government,\u201d said Nayna Gupta, policy director with the\u00a0American Immigration Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That provision, the Alien Registration Act of 1940, passed on the cusp of WWII and the onset of the Cold War, targeted with a broad brush any non-citizen for suspected ties to communist or fascist groups. It cast a shadow of fear in immigrant communities across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will force many people\u2026 to make a very hard choice between two options that carry serious risk,\u201d Gupta explained. \u201cEither register as required and be subject to removal, or don\u2019t register to avoid mass deportation and then be subject to criminal prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cIt leaves non-citizens between a rock and a hard place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gupta spoke during a\u00a0virtual press briefing<\/a>\u00a0hosted by the immigrant advocacy group\u00a0America\u2019s Voice<\/a>\u00a0looking at the latest steps taken by the Trump administration as it pursues its campaign of mass deportations.<\/p>\n

Under the new requirements, all individuals who entered the country without a visa\u2014regardless of how long they have lived here\u2014will be required to register and carry proof of that registration at all times.<\/p>\n

Immigrant rights groups say the language of the\u00a0the current measure<\/a>\u00a0is a draft and that further amendments or changes could be made. In the meantime, Gupta warns it will likely lead to cases of racial profiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are a federal agent and asked to find people in violation of this requirement, you are being incentivized to profile,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that will be targeted toward citizens, non-citizens with status and the undocumented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlos Guevara, senior director of policy at the Immigration Hub, described the measure as a \u201cnationalization of the \u2018Show Me Your Papers<\/a>\u2019 laws,\u201d first passed in Arizona and Texas in 2010, authorizing law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of not being in the country legally.<\/p>\n

While the ACLU and others sued to block implementation of the Arizona law, known as SB1070, arguing it violates the Fourth Amendment\u2019s protection against unreasonable search and seizure, the Supreme Court has largely left it and similar legislation untouched.<\/p>\n

Any litigation around the current measure would come once the language is finalized and issued, explained Gupta, noting several organizations are already considering filing suit.<\/p>\n

According to Guevara, children are increasingly vulnerable under these new regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have six million American kids who live with an undocumented loved one,\u201d he noted, adding the \u201cclimate of fear and uncertainty\u201d is driving families to keep their kids home from school, the hospital, church, all places no longer seen as off limits to federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

Reporting out of San Diego recently noted the presence of ICE vehicles outside a local clinic, with health care providers attesting to a\u00a0subsequent drop in the number of patients they are seeing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guevara said these moves are in synch with Trump\u2019s broader \u201cdeportation agenda,\u201d including a reduction in the number of immigration judges and a recently passed house bill that threatens to\u00a0strip public funding for vital health care programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goal is to make conditions such that migrants will opt to self deport, said David Leopold, former president and general counsel with the\u00a0American\u00a0Immigration Lawyers Association<\/a>, an unlikely option for many, if not most migrants here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are dealing with folks who have been here for decades. They\u2019ve raised their families here. Self-deportation or just going back to a country you have no memory of, is not as easy as it sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

An estimated 80% of undocumented immigrants in the US have lived here for 15 years or longer, data show.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the economic harm Trump\u2019s policies could inflict given the\u00a0pivotal role immigrants play<\/a>\u00a0across a number of vital sectors, he adds, \u201cThis policy is about self-deporting our own economic advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of deportations during Trump\u2019s first month in office are in fact lower than numbers seen during former President Joe Biden\u2019s final months in office. But the panelists agreed the administration is actively taking steps to bolster infrastructure\u2014including through the expansion of private detention centers\u2014to house an expected increase in the number of migrants detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration is trying to rapidly expand its infrastructure to carry through on its threat of mass deportation,\u201d Gupta said. \u201cThey are asking congress for money to set this up, to expand detention capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the new registry, the government can also now rely on federal prisons. \u201cThey can prosecute someone put them in federal prison for 6 months before initiating a removal process.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that expansion into private prisons comes a loss of accountability, transparency, and access by legal aid providers, something Gupta said is already being seen in places like Maryland, where lawyers struggled to meet with clients detained for a prolonged period.<\/p>\n

According to Leopold, when it comes to immigration, media needs to help the public better distinguish fact from fiction, including the fact that being undocumented is not a criminal act warranting imprisonment but a civil violation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPick any term you want from 1930s Germany and replace it with immigrant,\u201d he said, describing the current atmosphere. He added, \u201cIt is going to get much worse than we see today\u2026 This is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Published without changes from Ethnic Media Services<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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