Immigration is what built the United States, but it has always been problematic. Almost every group of people who immigrated after the first English/Protestant settlers faced legal and extralegal obstacles
Donald Trump ran his first campaign in large part on ending illegal immigration. In 2024, the Senate came up with a plan to put stricter controls at the border, clarify the path to citizenship and add more immigration courts. It was written by Sen. James Lankford, one of the most conservative senators, a Republican from Oklahoma. Trump, planning his next campaign as an issue to run on, convinced Republicans to shelve it.
Today, we have an immigration policy that lacks coherence, done mostly through executive orders. Everyone has seen the reports and videos of people, masked and with no badges or identification, detaining people, spiriting them away to unknown locations or sending them to different countries in spite of court orders and the Constitution saying that those rounded up deserve due process. Roughly 40% of people in this country who are undocumented are those that came here on visas and overstayed their time here. Enforcement of that issue is negligible.
One reason Trump gave for this crackdown is that immigrants commit crimes at high rates. The president ran on the promise that the criminal element would be rounded up and deported. Statistics show that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than American-born people. As imperfect as our system is, there is a process where those who are undocumented can file for citizenship or asylum. Yet, when they go to their court dates as required, they are arrested and taken away. Others are taken away from places of employment, including those with work permits and who are U.S. citizens.
Most roundups are being performed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. It really is unknown how many of the people performing these arrests are trained law enforcement officers, being masked and having no identifying badges or nametags. The raids going on in the country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seem to have a hard edge to them. They are sudden and occur anywhere. They cause fear and anxiety among both the immigrant population and among citizens with Hispanic ancestry.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is conflated with the Border Patrol by many people. The Border Patrol’s main purpose is to keep people, weapons, drugs, terrorists, etc. from crossing the border in the first place. They can turn people back near the border or they can remand them to an immigration court. I have had many interactions with the Border Patrol over the years on both the southern and northern borders. I was present twice when raids happened in workplaces (horse racing tracks.) Agents were uniformed, unmasked, and with their names clearly visible. The agents were professional and those rounded up were not mistreated. I can’t say that harsher steps are never taken. We know that they occur. They are the exception not the norm.
It seems that in our current approach to handling immigration, cruelty is the point. Causing fear is a purpose. As for due process and human rights, we don’t have time for that stuff. They won’t let members of Congress, having legal oversight authority, enter the detention centers.
Immigration is important to our economy. The blending of different cultures, bringing new ways of seeing things make us stronger. We need to be more efficient at keeping criminals out and getting rid of those already here. But we also need to be more efficient in making clear pathways to citizenship for those who want to be here. We cannot let this country grow darker, angrier, and more fearful. That is not who we are supposed to be.
Scott Perez is a former working cowboy, guide and occasional actor. He earned a master’s degree in natural resource management from Cornell University and lives in the Animas River Valley.
