Welcome to The Fill From the Hill, a recurring political column where University Times writers dissect the key political topics and controversies in the news, from domestic politics to international affairs. This week, our writer tackles Immigration and the current administration’s actions against it.
– –
Immigration has become the forefront of the Trump administration’s efforts in its first 100 days after the president declared a national emergency at the border on his first day in office. Republicans have been trying to get the border under control during the Biden years, and are finally poised to do it.
However, their actions have drawn much ire across the country, as many of the moves being made seem unconstitutional and in defiance of court orders.
The Trump administration has deported many legal immigrants in its first 100 days for many reasons. It claims that under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 that it has the authority to do so. Detractors have said that the U.S. is not in wartime, so the president doesn’t have the authority to invoke this act. This stems from a flight carrying what the Trump administration said were “MS-13 gang members.
On March 15, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered that the plane carrying the detainees return immediately while it reviewed evidence of whether or not these were actually members as the administration claimed.
What has culminated since is a back-and-forth legal battle between the administration and the courts. The most recent development revolves around Kilmar Ábrego García, whom the Trump administration claims is a member of MS-13.
Despite an order from a lower court as well as the Supreme Court, the Trump administration has refused to facilitate his return, sowing the seeds for potential contempt of court charges in the D.C. district court.
Now that the table is set, let’s get into our views on the current discussion about Immigration.
Samuel Valencia: Donald Trump is on the road to dictatorship one day at a time, and his latest actions against immigrants prove it.
On a hot mic before an interview with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Trump was caught saying that he wants to send “homegrown criminals” to the same mega prison he is sending people like Kilmar Ábrego García. This is a blatant abuse of power and shows that Trump is on the road to stripping our rights to due process one by one.
Despite his fervent hatred of immigrants, the Trump administration is actually trailing behind the Biden administration in deportations, which could be a reason for his rash and harmful decision-making. Or it could just be because Trump has little to no regard for anyone but himself; it depends.
Time and time again, the Trump administration has attacked migrants and said that the country is “under attack,” but the reality is it’s a fruitless war against an “enemy” who can’t fight back. And his actions have put him in direct defiance of the Judicial system of the U.S.
Our government was founded on the principle that no branch was more powerful than the other two, and the checks and balances system has expanded over the 248 years we’ve been a country to protect the people of our country. No president before Donald Trump has challenged this notion, and no president is more poised to threaten this notion than Donald Trump.
With every move, Trump and his lackeys are pushing the boundaries of executive power. By using any loophole they can find, the administration is fighting back against everyone and targeting those who won’t just roll over and fall in line. His biggest move is going up against the Supreme Court, which unanimously voted to force the Trump administration to return García to the United States.
The defiance of this order had yet to resolve itself, but if all nine of the Supreme Court justices are telling you to do something, it’s pretty clear who is in the wrong. This pandemonium about Trump is exactly what he wants and it’s just another step for him to take in order to dismantle our government from the inside and place himself at the top.
This article was first published in the April 25 print edition of the University Times.
