Deportations Destroy the "American Dream"

Recently, news emerged regarding the forced deportation of an Indonesian student from the United States. The student is the son of political activist and observer Rizal Mallarangeng, who was originally studying at the University of San Francisco, California.

According to Rizal's statement, as quoted from various mainstream media, his son was only summoned to the local immigration office. There, he was accused of working illegally and on the same day, he was told to pack up and was deported from the U.S. Upon investigation, Rizal's son was officially considered an inactive student on paper, which placed him on the list of foreign nationals repatriated by the U.S. government.

The deportation of these immigrants is part of U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign promises. Washington, D.C. records indicate that there are at least 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. They are individuals who entered the U.S. unlawfully without proper documentation. They could also be individuals whose residence permits have expired but were not renewed.

Trump accused illegal immigrants of being "job stealers" from American citizens and the cause of various criminal acts. These accusations have been repeatedly refuted by various research institutions. In fact, the premise of linking immigrants to crime is fundamentally unrelated.

Based on data from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as of December 2024, there are 1,445,549 individuals from 208 countries who will be deported. In addition, there are thousands of people held in detention facilities spread across the United States.

Trump's executive order to deport immigrants has resulted in a "civil war" between states and cities that oppose it and the Republican Party of the United States. One of the cities that opposed it is Boston in the State of Massachusetts.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will travel to Washington DC to face the US Congress. The city of Boston is committed to protecting immigrants. According to Wu, the presence of immigrants is a cultural asset and one of the key drivers of Boston's economic progress.

Previously, US Special Presidential Envoy for Border Affairs, Tom Homan threatened Boston police. According to him, there are nine immigrants in jail in Boston. They committed sexual crimes against children. Boston does not want to extradite them to ICE. Homan said, he will go to Boston and take the prisoners by force.

Wu, along with the mayors of Chicago (Illinois), New York (New York), and Denver (Colorado) will be tried by Congress on Wednesday (March 5, 2025). They are accused of not cooperating with the federal government.

These cities are known as sanctuary cities. They have rules that they will not deport immigrants as long as they are law abiding. If they commit a crime, they are charged civilly or criminally. Only after a court decision is made can ICE decide whether or not to deport them.

“We have to think about building a network with immigrants when we investigate any crime. That’s why the decision to turn over an accused immigrant to ICE must be carefully considered, weighing the pros and cons,” said Suffolk County, New York, District Attorney Kevin Hayden.

Trump in January 2025, after being inaugurated, said he would deport foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. He accused them of anti-Semitism. One of the reasons was through information provided by Betar, a far-right Jewish organization.

They leaked the names of students who participated in demonstrations deemed anti-Israel. According to the conservative Jewish organizations, many foreign students threaten Jewish students on campus so that their visas deserve to be revoked.

The Aqsa Storm attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in a massive Israeli military attack on Gaza. Conflict also occurred in the US due to the emergence of various hate speech, as well as physical attacks, against Muslim and Jewish students. Extreme parties from both sides carried out cyber attacks and data leaks.

Trump’s decision has been opposed by human rights organizations. “This is about free expression on campus, including in a critical way. The government should not interfere,” said Ben Wizner, a free speech expert at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

According to a paper published in the journal Community Psychology, forced repatriation of immigrants has serious security implications. Immigrants typically leave their home countries for reasons of poverty and security.

Some examples are immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela whose governments persecute pro-democracy people. If they are sent home, they face security threats in their respective countries.

In 2017, the US deported 340,056 people. All of them had lived in the US for at least a decade. These people were also parents or guardians and custodians of US citizens.

When they are deported, children who are already US citizens lose one, or even both of their parents. They are practically abandoned. Families lose their breadwinners and are plunged into poverty.

They are at risk of becoming homeless and their children are dropping out of school, which is causing even bigger social problems for the US. The prosperous American dream is being damaged. (AP/Reuters)