Fear and panic hit families, businesses in US as crackdown on illegal immigrants intensifies

NEW YORK: Since President Trump took office and signed an executive order on immigration, joint teams of the Immigration Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI and other US government agencies have arrested more than 10,000 illegal immigrants across the United States, while US Vice President JD Vance has confirmed that military aircraft and other means have been used to deport large numbers of people from Latin American countries such as Venezuela and Colombia.

In a TV interview, the vice president has confirmed that in addition to such large-scale and historic deportations, President Trump has also set a target of arresting and deporting 1,800 illegal immigrants per day, which will continue until the end of President Trump’s operation against illegal immigrants.

The intensity of President Trump’s campaign against illegal immigrants has stirred a storm across the United States. In the late hours of each night, joint teams of officers from the Department of Immigration, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and other departments set out to raid homes and businesses in various cities across the country, arresting and deporting illegal immigrants. Although the Trump administration’s public stance is that it wants to provide a peaceful, crime-free environment and security for the American people by deporting illegal immigrants, the crackdown has created an atmosphere of fear and panic across the US. Major cities like New York and Chicago are safe havens for illegal immigrants, but now these cities are also subject to fear and arrests.

Illegal immigrants working in small businesses such as restaurants, construction and other businesses have stayed home or moved to safer places, resulting in a shortage of cheap labour in the small business sector. There has also been a shortage of babysitters to care for children for working women. The negative effects of President Trump’s campaign on small businesses in America will soon be visible, while large industrial and agricultural businesses that require hard work are also being affected because crop production and the fruit and vegetable farming industry depend on illegal immigrants and “seasonal workers” from Latin America.

American immigration lawyers and arrested immigrants are also worried because lawyers are not provided with any information about their clients and the arrested persons, nor are the detainees presented in any court. During former president Biden’s term, New York City Mayor Eric Adams leased several hotels in the city, including the Roosevelt Hotel, to house thousands of illegal immigrants and provided them with incentives. Now the same Democrat mayor seems to be a supporter of President Trump’s strict anti-illegal immigration policy. The New York Police Department, headed by Mayor Eric Adams, has also used its jurisdiction to arrest a group of 10 people, declaring them criminals, and deporting them to their country, Venezuela. According to some reports, unlike in the past, the New York Police Department is now also being used to cooperate with President Trump’s immigration campaign. It is not yet clear how many Pakistanis, Indians and Asians have been affected by this rapid campaign. The arrangements for the detention of 30,000 people at Guantanamo Bay make it clear that President Trump’s deportation drive will continue and illegal immigrants from far-flung countries other than Latin America could be detained at Guantanamo Bay after being arrested. According to reports, US authorities recently deported a Pakistani with a green card who had sought political asylum in the US on political grounds. On his return from Pakistan, the airport authorities deported him saying that his visit to Pakistan and safe return showed that there was no threat to his life in Pakistan, so his political asylum in the US was no longer justified.