Letters

Recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach lay bare the irrational immigration policies of the Trump administration.

I wrote this one and a half years ago: “In February 2017, The Southampton Press’s Michael Wright reported on local businessmen and their reasons for employing immigrant laborers; his article was titled “East End Employers Say Immigrant Workers Pay Taxes, Provide Foundation for Local Economy.” In that article, local tradespeople expressed the belief that the new Trump administration would be judicious in their approach to immigration, that the new administration would deport only bad guys.

On July 17, 2024, Republican delegates to their nominating convention enthusiastically waved placards that read “Mass Deportation Now.” In November, voters elected Donald Trump. And with that the fiction that true-believers like Kristi Noem, Tom Hogan and Stephen Miller would deploy scalpel-like precision to deport criminal immigrants was made manifest; instead, the bludgeon of Miller’s edict to deport 3,000 immigrants a day became policy and Hogan’s marching orders.

If you are brown-skinned, you feel threatened, and the reality of carrying out mass deportation becomes ever more evident: Pro Publica reports that, to date, 170 U.S. citizens have been illegally detained by ICE, and an untold number of legal immigrants similarly detained. Legitimate authority is disrespected. U.S. Senator Alex Padilla from California was tackled to the ground by ICE agents for attempting to ask a question of Department of Homeland Security administrator Kristi Noem.

U.S. farmers are discovering that Trump’s dragnet approach to deportation is impacting on the ability to harvest their crops. Farmers in Oregon, Idaho, Florida and New York lost significant portions of their crops because their farm laborers were either too afraid to show up for work or were deported. The Trump administration tells us that U.S. citizens, perhaps able-bodied Medicaid recipients, can harvest crops. Yeah, wait for that to happen.

Before Trump was sworn in for his second term, a bipartisan bill addressing immigration was finalized, but it was derailed. It was the most conservative immigration bill that Democratic members of Congress ever supported. Trump said, “Kill it,” and it was killed. Spectacles and fear rather than governing.

ICE’s broad enforcement actions divert resources from effective immigration policy. A practical approach would include reforming temporary work visa programs, providing citizenship paths for DACA recipients, enhancing humane border security, increasing immigration judges for asylum cases, reuniting families, and supporting law enforcement efforts against gangs. Perhaps recognize push factors that lead to emigration and make efforts to ameliorate those conditions through effective foreign policy.

All this will have to wait while the Trump administration treats our neighbors with utter disdain.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton

Anthony is a former chair of the Southampton Democratic Committee — Ed.