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Forcefully constricting the entry of nonwhite immigrants through crackdowns and intimidation is emerging as the core of a reformulated US immigration policy
On the morning of May 6, armed ICE agents clad in black woke up, detained, and questioned a group of teachers from the Philippines and their family members at a home on Maui, Hawaii. There were no arrests, but the intrusion terrified the women who were recruited on legal J-1 visas to fill a teacher shortage.
It was another instance of the harsh treatment of immigrants of color through racially profiled ICE raids, roundups, detentions, and deportation, even on the flimsiest grounds. The message to immigrants: With or without legal status, they’re not welcome and are simply at the mercy of Homeland Security police.
In glaring contrast, Trump officials warmly greeted 59 white South African refugees, who arrived at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. on May 12 on a chartered flight paid for by the White House.
The South Africans will get streamlined processing, housing benefits, “groceries, weather-appropriate clothing, diapers, formula, hygiene products and prepaid phones that support the day-to-day well-being of households,” stated a Department of Health and Human Services memo.
It’s a sharp departure from the White House’s rejection and mistreatment of Venezuelan, Central American, Afghan, and other asylum-seekers and refugees of color. Trump is even wildly invoking the 18th century wartime Alien Enemies Act to implement mass deportations of immigrants from countries that are not at war with the US.
The Afrikaners’ arrival kicked off “Mission South Africa,” a preferential refugee program for South Africans of European descent. Trump claims they deserve special treatment because they’re victims of racial violence and “genocide” who “happen to be white.” South African officials and international bodies dispute the claim that the historically privileged group has been mistreated in post-apartheid society.
Reformulated policy
The picture paints a thousand prejudices: Forcefully constricting the entry of nonwhite immigrants through crackdowns and intimidation in favor of whites is emerging as the core of a reformulated US immigration policy.
Until 1965 immigration to the US was restricted to non-European immigrants. So was Immigration to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada until the early ‘70s. Trump is turning back the clock to those unenlightened times.
Mission South Africa encourages thousands of Afrikaners to resettle in the US. Some 8,000 white South Africans, mostly descendants of Dutch and Huguenot settlers, have formally applied for refugee status. The South African Chamber of Commerce in the US says 67,000 individuals have expressed “interest.”
The program’s barely disguised racist slant allays white MAGAland inhabitants’ consuming fear of being “replaced “ by citizens and immigrants of color and losing their unofficial racial privilege.
Fear of ‘replacement’
What’s driving their dread? The US Census Bureau projects that non-Hispanic white Americans, while remaining the largest single racial group, will comprise less than 50% of the US population by 2045. As of 2020, non-Hispanic white children under 18 were already in the minority.
The demographic shift comes from the continued influx of immigrants to minority communities, an aging white population, and declining birth rates among whites. Conservative extremists believe that a more racially and ethnically diverse population is dramatically altering US political, cultural, educational, and workforce dynamics supposedly at their expense.
The far-right Heritage Foundation’s darkly regressive Project 2025 has distilled this primal panic and plotted ruthless ICE enforcement under Trump, including mass deportations, and steps to restrict access to legal immigration like asylum and work visas.
Right now, Trump is preoccupied with abolishing constitutionally guaranteed birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court is hearing lower court injunctions challenging him. Why the radical effort?
In 2014 alone about 910,000 babies (23% of US births) were born to foreign-born mothers both legal and undocumented residents and automatically became US citizens under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Some 300,000 children are born each year in the US to undocumented immigrant parents and have the same right.
Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment, making it a central facet of American constitutional law. It was enacted in 1868 after the Civil War to grant citizenship to newly freed enslaved persons. The US Supreme Court upheld it in 1898 for US-born Wong Kim Ark in a landmark case. Abolishing it would have deep, negative implications for civil rights, due process, equal protection, and the balancing power of the judiciary.
Ending family reunification
Although, Trump hasn’t issued a specific order ending family-based immigration — the ability of US citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor extended family members — it’s in his crosshairs.
He has endorsed the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Economy (RAISE) Act which seeks to cut legal immigration by 50% by, among other provisions, limiting family-based green cards to only spouses and minor children.
It would exclude parents, adult children, and siblings of US citizens and lawful permanent residents. It would be a severe blow to millions of US citizens and green card holders alike.
It’s all part of Trump 2.0 and MAGA’s crusade against diversity, equality, and inclusion in American society, and for legitimizing a pervasive white sense of entitlement. – Rappler.com
