And even as Trump has given Elon Musk free rein to dismantle the federal government, decimating vital programs and services that support the needs of all people in the U.S., the Republican Party is pouring billions into expanding the cruel and harmful immigrant detention system. For decades, government leaders from across the political spectrum set the stage for these draconian moves by diminishing immigrants’ due process rights under the pretense of “protecting public safety.” Transferring immigrants to remote immigrant jails is also a familiar tactic intended to impair access to legal counsel while putting cases before more hostile courts. Many are understandably leaning into innocence frameworks in response to the changing scope of who is being detained, but what the history of the system teaches us is that when we accept that some people are deserving of detention, then more people will eventually be at risk.
Author: Silky Shah
Published at: 2025-04-28 21:11:43
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