By Americasvoice.org | Editorial credit: Phil Mistry / shutterstock.com

Vanessa Cárdenas: “The Trump agenda is clear and consequential: make as many immigrants as possible deportable, no matter their current legal status or their deep roots in this nation. From Haitians with TPS to Dreamers with DACA to spouses of U.S. citizens, it’s a violent vision that would rip apart American families, communities and the U.S. economy.”

Washington, DC — The Trump campaign has made clear that “no one is off the table” when it comes to their promised unsparing and “largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” That mass deportation pledge and related unanswered details deserve renewed focus in light of Donald Trump and JD Vance’s promises to deport Haitians who are in the U.S. legally.

As David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo assessed, “the rhetoric that the Republican campaign is staking the race on continues to blur the line between legal and illegal immigration in a way that puts immigrants of all statuses at risk.”

Every measure taken by American Presidents to secure a place for long-term immigrant residents to work legally or avoid deportation is or has been under attack by Republicans, including those closely affiliated with the Trump campaign and/or Project 2025. The vile promise to deport Haitian Americans who are here Iegally is telling and best understood alongside the Trump campaign’s attacks on Temporary Protected Status (TPS); Trump’s efforts to end TPS for Haitians and others during his time in office; Trump’s past and ongoing Republican efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and make Dreamers with and without DACA deportable; and the GOP legal challenges to the Keeping Families Together “parole in place” program for the spouses of U.S. citizens (of note, the next legal hearings in the case against DACA and the Keeping Families Together program are both scheduled for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans on October 10th).

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

“The Trump agenda is clear and consequential: make as many immigrants as possible deportable, no matter their current legal status or their deep roots in this nation. From Haitians with TPS to Dreamers with DACA to spouses of U.S. citizens, it’s a cruel and violent vision that would rip apart American families, communities and the U.S. economy. While Trump and his running mate dodge direct questions and refuse to provide key details about their mass family separation and mass deportation agenda, make no mistake about what they intend. It is bigger and darker than people imagine. The Trump campaign’s ongoing focus on Haitians in Springfield is vile, but it is also telling about their broader vision for this nation.”

Of note, Trump and his allies’ efforts to make deportable as many people as possible includes those here with legal status:

• Haitians: Most Haitians are here legally and very few enter illegally: As many observers have written recently, the Haitian community in Springfield is overwhelmingly composed of people with legal status, such as TPS. Of note, as the indispensable Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council points out, the number of Haitians who are entering the U.S. illegally has plummeted.
• TPS Holders: Many TPS holders have been settled in the US for decades: Of note, Trump and Vance have recently been attacking the very concept of Temporary Protected Status. As FWD.us points out in this explainer, TPS holders are “deeply ingrained into American families and communities … more than 900,000 U.S. citizens live in households with at least one current TPS-eligible person, including more than 400,000 U.S. citizen children.” They also note that “TPS holders from El Salvador and Honduras, who make up a significant share of the current TPS population, have lived in the U.S. for an average of 28 years.”
• Dreamers with DACA: Despite the success and popularity of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program since its establishment in 2012, Donald Trump’s first administration attempted to end the program and expose Dreamers to deportation. While the legal challenges to DACA are ongoing, with the next hearing on October 10, these GOP legal challenges already have barred new entries into the DACA program, meaning that younger Dreamers have no DACA protections. Individuals with current DACA status, have lived in the U.S. for a minimum of seventeen years, with an average of 25 years in the U.S.
• Spouses of U.S. citizens who are eligible for the Keeping Families Together program: Those eligible for the new program must be married to a U.S. citizen and living in the U.S. for a minimum of ten years. Members of American families already living and deeply-rooted in this nation could remain on the list of those targeted for deportation if and when that begins.

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