Anti-Immigrant and Anti-Mexican Attitudes And Policies during the First 18 Months Of the Trump Administration

Abstract

Trump’s destructive anti-immigrant and “Mexican-phobic” rhetoric has been the common denominator justifying the wide variety of executive orders he has signed and the highly punitive directives he has established as part of his hard-line immigration policy, which has played a leading role during his first 18 months as president. The author describes how, without congressional approval, he has made several moves and imposed numerous actions such as significantly increasing the criminalization of immigrants; considerably raising the number of detentions of non-criminal undocumented migrants; responding aggressively to sanctuary policies; putting an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of more than one million immigrants; appreciably decreasing refugee admissions; banning Muslims from entering the U.S.; and very inhumanly and cruelly separating families at the border, among other measures. As president, Trump has enjoyed broad discretion to implement his aggressive hard-line immigration policy as never before; nonetheless, divisions within Congress and some objections from the courts have been crucial for stopping his harsh anti-immigrant policies. Trump’s actions have negatively affected immigrants, mainly of Mexican and Muslim origin, significantly damaging the historically strong bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Mexico.