The current administration’s immigration policies reveal deep contradictions. While granting refugee status to white South Africans, it simultaneously enforces travel bans, questions birthright citizenship, and supports mass human rights violations targeting people of color, including deporting citizens and lawful residents.
This escalating immigration enforcement—marked by rapid deportations and disappearances without due process—signals a dangerous intensification of authoritarian and anti-immigrant measures. Faced with this crisis, we must strive for immigration policies that reduce racism, enhance efficiency, and uphold humanity. America’s promise is built on freedom and democracy, not fear and oppression.
As social scientists, we understand that immigration is far more complex than simply “getting documents.” Structural barriers remain deeply embedded in our systems.
U.S. immigration policy is rooted in colonialism and white supremacy. This hypocrisy is clear: a nation founded by colonizers who displaced indigenous peoples and trafficked slaves now selectively enforces anti-immigrant measures. Racism permeates U.S. foreign policy, fueling political and economic exploitation that destabilizes poorer nations and drives migration. Today’s enforcement disproportionately punishes people of color while facilitating white immigrants’ entry, continuing this troubling legacy.
Country of origin plays a crucial role. Immigration preference categories favor high-skilled applicants, often benefiting wealthier, whiter nations. Non-Mexican immigrants, for example, typically wait far less time for citizenship than Mexican-born individuals. Even U.S. citizens’ adult children born in Mexico face 19 to 24 years of visa wait times, an impractical timeframe amid daily survival challenges.
Most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are people of color, facing dangerous conditions including exploitative labor practices, lack of access to healthcare, and heightened vulnerability to climate crises and workplace hazards. Structural racism harms both undocumented immigrants and citizens alike, with Black and Brown citizens disproportionately targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Industries dominated by Latinx workers often expose them to unsafe, inhumane conditions, from unsafe water to extreme heat and hazardous factory environments. Mixed-status families place additional stress on young citizens.
How can we improve? We must stop breaking up families, revoking visas, and deporting lawful residents. We need expanded and expedited pathways for asylum seekers and timely citizenship access for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants. Supporting local organizations serving immigrant communities, especially those targeted by ICE, is essential.
Moreover, it is vital to reject dehumanizing language. No person is “illegal” or an “alien.” Such labels alienate and desensitize the public to human rights abuses.
Finally, addressing global social, environmental, and political causes of migration requires collective action. A world where food, water, shelter, and political security are universal rights will reduce forced displacement and reshape migration patterns.
Though accelerating legal immigration may seem counterintuitive for a superpower, the United States need not divide itself into “us” versus “them.” Its true strength lies in pursuing liberty and justice for all. Leaders must be held accountable to these values. A nation that violates rights, ignores due process, and privileges white immigrants—and the citizens who tolerate these inequalities—is not free; it is dangerous.
Immigration policy has long served as a tool of racial and economic control. Allowing these injustices to persist means endorsing a history of violence, white supremacy, and a deliberately exclusionary system that causes harm. While debates rage over residency and belonging, white supremacy and fascism continue unchecked.
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