Trump’s Presidency Begins and Ends With Demonizing Immigrants

5 years in the past, Donald Trump descended an elevator and declared that Mexico was sending rapists and “bringing crime” throughout the border.

Now, whereas America nonetheless reels from the lethal insurrectionist assault on the Capitol constructing, Trump is about to journey to Texas on January 12 to boast in regards to the border wall. However moderately than “highlight accomplishments,” Trump’s journey to the border solely serves to drive dwelling the purpose that there isn’t any daylight between his assaults on immigrants and his assaults on democracy.

Trump’s immigration legacy and his efforts to incite violence to subvert a lawful election stem from a pathological refusal to simply accept the humanity of those who disagree with him. He willingly manipulates and undermines the legislation to win.

This want to sidestep the legislation to go after immigrants started the second that Trump took workplace. Six days after inauguration, Trump issued the Muslim Ban, sparking nationwide protests at airports and a number of court docket selections towards him. It took one other two tries earlier than the Supreme Courtroom allowed an up to date model of the ban to face.

But even with that victory, Trump spent his time in workplace repeatedly railing towards the legal guidelines that prevented him from enacting even better cruelty on immigrants. He has attacked even the idea of judges. Is it any surprise that when judges overwhelmingly threw out his frivolous election lawsuits, he’d resort to the identical conspiratorial mindset?

This contempt for the rule of legislation suffused the Trump administration’s assaults on immigrants. Whereas his administration falsely argued that the legal guidelines which asylum seekers use to legally search safety have been “loopholes,” officers inside the authorities repeatedly manufactured their very own precise loopholes and stretched the legislation to their very own ends.

Even within the uncommon circumstances the place his administration agreed to again down, Trump was offended that he couldn’t perform his worst impulses towards migrants. Only a yr after household separation shocked the nation’s conscience, Trump was reportedly asking his advisors whether or not he may put it again into place.

Whereas Trump wasn’t in a position to resume the household separation coverage, his administration continued to subvert the precise to hunt safety on the border.

From 2018 to 2020, the Division of Homeland Safety threw up roadblock after roadblock to cease individuals from in search of asylum, whatever the penalties. If one coverage was blocked in court docket, they simply got here up with one other one. No act of bureaucratic cruelty was too small for his administration, nor authorized argument too weak to make.

In a latest resolution blocking the “demise to asylum” rules that have been finalized in December, a federal choose accused the Trump administration of “a troubling litigation technique” the place “the federal government retains crashing the identical automobile right into a gate, hoping that sometime it would break by means of.”

On January 6, supporters of the president crashed by means of literal gates, hoping to do what courts wouldn’t—overturn an election.

After years of official White Home statements personally attacking judges for arguing with them (most frequently in immigration circumstances), is it any surprise that the president’s most diehard supporters would search to take the legislation into their palms?

Was it any shock {that a} man who as soon as instructed capturing migrants who cross the border would resort to encouraging violence to stay in energy?

Trump’s last go to to the border this week will additional cement his two legacies: violent opposition to immigration and violent opposition to the essential concepts of democracy and a good authorized system. In spite of everything, it’s authorized to hunt asylum. However the legislation by no means mattered for Trump, solely the looks of being “sturdy” on the border.

And moderately than assist his trigger, his assaults on immigrants did nothing however damage his standing amongst most People—even his personal 2016 voters—whereas radicalizing his most excessive supporters.

That’s why the go to will likely be a key second that may assist the subsequent administration not solely start to undo Trump’s personal harmful document, but in addition work to undo the generations of cruelty on the border.

The picture of a disgraced president, who may quickly grow to be the primary in historical past to be impeached twice, standing proudly and ignorantly in entrance of his disastrous border wall will likely be emblematic of his broader presidency.

It’s a presidency that has prioritized sowing division, undermining our establishments and norms, and dealing tirelessly to marginalize the “different.” For Trump, there have been no individuals extra “different” than those that got here to our border and requested for our assist.

If we really wish to defeat Trumpism, as a nation we should embrace a extra humane method towards those that are totally different from us, one which respects the legislation and our obligations to essentially the most weak. The Biden administration can begin by restoring humanitarian safety, and at last transferring away from the deterrence-based mindsets of the previous a long time and create a very welcoming course of on the border.

FILED UNDER: Biden-Harris Administration, Donald Trump, household separation, U.S.-Mexico Border