The Trump administration’s policies fail to be considerate of family structures.
The second Trump presidency has centered on allegedly fixing the so-called immigration problem. The administration’s method consists of villainizing those who came to the country through both sanctioned and unsanctioned methods of immigration and launching mass deportations, tearing communities apart. Across the country, people from all throughout the political spectrum — Trump supporters and dissenters alike — have felt the brunt of Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
In multiple instances, news has broken out that American citizens who voted for Trump have had their families broken apart due to his immigration policies. Such were the cases of Helen Beristain and Bradley Bartell, both of whom are Trump supporters married to individuals who were not allowed to be in the US in accordance with US law. Neither of these individuals expected that Trump’s policies would apply to them. Both of them stated in interviews that they thought the administration would only go after criminals, those the president deemed to be “bad hombres.” After all, that is what he promised.
Dissenters of Trump and US policy have, of course, also faced the administration’s tyranny and insistence on breaking apart families. Despite the First Amendment ensuring the right to free speech, and with it the freedom of dissent, international students across the country have had their visas or green cards revoked for the simple fact that they are critical of US policy. One such individual is Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and graduate student at Columbia University. Not only did he come to the US using a pathway stipulated by American law, but he is also married to a US citizen who is now eight months pregnant. Despite his status and circumstance, a judge ruled last week that he could be deported for his dissent, causing his wife to worry that she will have to go into labor without her husband present.
More and more, circumstances such as these are becoming the average experience for families who have non-citizen family members. The actions taken by the powers that be support what appears to be the administration’s goal of separating families. Unfortunately, the best that can be said of these policies is that they are being applied evenhandedly, regardless of whether or not individuals voted for the president and irrespective of his campaign promises or, more importantly, the oath of office he took to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Society’s most innocent are also facing the scorn of the administration. Because of the administration’s insistence of allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement in sensitive areas such as religious spaces and schools, parents and children have feared coming to school. Additionally, due to the efforts of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent who is attempting to force the state to comply with the federal government’s order, this fear has been furthered as people of Hispanic descent in particular feel unsafe coming into school for fear of being deported or separated from their family and community.
The fact that the administration indiscriminately deports legal residents and their family members is why it is crucial that all communities organize. This understanding is the reason behind the wave of demonstrations that appeared in Oklahoma and across the US.
The necessity to take a firm stance to protect children, in particular, has also unified those across the political spectrum as in mid-February, every liberal found themselves absolutely astounded to be agreeing with Governor Kevin Stitt on immigration. The staunch Trump supporter and governor of the state with the most Trump supporters per capita pushed back on the attempt of the federal government and Superintendent Walters to turn schools into, what he deemed, a battleground for immigration politics.
While it is a shock to be agreeing with Governor Stitt, he could not be more right. And all those who agree with him, regardless of whether or not they wish he would disappear from politics forever, should be continuing in the footsteps of those who protested last month. It is the obligation of those who are secure in their residency status, although this group continues to grow smaller day-by-day, in voicing their dissent of the administration’s policies.
