Opinion: Trump immigration crackdown will be swift and ugly

As Inauguration Day nears, it’s clear that President-elect Donald Trump believes he has a mandate to enact the largest deportation in U.S. history. What happens next could forever alter what it means to be an American.

Immigration under President Joe Biden surged to levels unmatched in more than a century — an estimated net increase of 8 million migrants during his four years in office, with a majority crossing illegally, according to a Goldman Sachs report.

Biden was determined to reverse the harsh Trump 1.0 policies that limited both legal and illegal immigration. But Biden never framed this important issue for average Americans. There never was a “Biden doctrine” to help the nation understand why he believed more immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers could prove a net benefit — or sufficient federal aid to help cities and states deal with the consequences.

Finally, after Trump led efforts to kill a bipartisan immigration reform bill, Biden unilaterally re-imposed tighter limits on the southern border — but it was too late to save his candidacy, or that of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Now the U.S. finds itself with the highest foreign-born population in its history — over 15%. And the electorate has proven susceptible to Trump’s rhetoric.

Now that Trump is prepared to deliver on his top priority, expect the actions that follow to be swift and ugly. Keep your eye on four things:

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798

There is a reason Trump on the campaign trail repeatedly described migrants as “invaders” and border crossings as an “invasion.” He has said he will use the Alien Enemies Act to “remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers or cartel members from the United States.”

The act so far has been used only in wartime, and Trump’s invocation would surely draw a legal challenge. But the Brennan Center for Justice has warned that the act’s language is so broad that “a president might be able to wield the authority in peacetime as an end run around the requirements of criminal and immigration law.”

Workplace raids

Tom Homan, Trump’s nominee for “border czar,” and a former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has pledged to bring back workplace raids. Once a staple of enforcement in earlier administrations, workplace raids were discontinued under Biden. The raids were disruptive to employers and sparked terror in immigrant communities, but Homan has said the message is one that needs to be sent.

Birthright citizenship

Trump has said he intends to upend one of the most fundamental ideas about the U.S.: That no matter where in the world your parents come from, if you are born here, you are an American. It is a principle specifically enshrined in the 14th Amendment.

No president can override the Constitution with an executive order. But Trump could create havoc in the meantime by, as he has said he would, ordering the government to stop issuing Social Security numbers and passports to offspring of parents who cannot prove their legal status.

Refugee programs

Biden reduced illegal border crossings in part by expanding programs that allowed legal ones, including the policy of humanitarian parole. But the outgoing president has said he will not renew that authorization for the more than half-million immigrants who came from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua during his term.

Trump seeks to end it.

— Patricia Lopez

Bloomberg Opinion