Trump might become the most pro-illegal immigration president ever
The president is rapidly turning legal immigrants into illegal ones.
"Those obeying the law are, alas, low-hanging fruit. Hunting down actual criminals is hard. With arrest quotas to meet, it’s easier for agents to 'catch' immigrants who voluntarily tell them where they live and show up to government appointments as required."
—Catherine Rampell, opinion columnist, The Washington Post (May 30, 2025)
Catherine Rampell turns Trump's immigration policy on his head by claiming he is actually a "pro-illegal immigration president." This is a gift 🎁 link, so there is no paywall. Below are some excerpts.
You might not have noticed it, but last week the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States surged by 350,000.
Don’t worry, an army of gangbangers and other criminals didn’t charge the border. Rather, President Donald Trump simply decided to turn 350,000 legal immigrants into illegal ones.
Trump has been fearmongering about an “invasion” of unauthorized immigrants for years. Since retaking the White House, he has attempted to manifest those fever dreams into reality through a “de-documentation” campaign. This is not an immigration agenda that targets criminals; it’s one that criminalizes immigrants who have followed the law, by stripping them of their existing visas and work permits. [color emphasis added]
The 350,000 people de-documented last week are Venezuelans who had permission to live and work in the United States — subject to screening and other conditions — under a program known as temporary protected status. TPS was created in 1990 to shield immigrants from countries experiencing war or other catastrophes that make it unsafe for them to return home. [...] Alas, to Trump, every (non-White) immigrant is a threat.... Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called this development “the single largest mass-illegalization event in U.S. history."
Venezuelans are not Trump’s only target. This month, the administration also revoked temporary protected status for more than 9,000 Afghans.... Many had assisted the U.S. military at great personal risk. They will become vulnerable to deportation in[...] Trump sometimes insists he supports immigration so long as it happens legally.... But in fact, he has revoked the legal status of roughly 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who came into the United States during the Biden administration with advanced legal permission (and an American sponsor!).