By David W. Marshall
(Trice Edney Wire.) – During the 2024 Republican National Convention, attendees and delegates were ecstatic when waving their “Mass Deportation Now” signs and cheering Donald Trump as he pledged for the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. Immigration and border security have always been hot-button issues, and the red meat message about mass deportation was what the convention crowd craved to hear. During the campaign, voters were told that deporting immigrants with criminal records was the priority. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Pew Research Center indicated that nearly 90% of registered voters who supported Trump strongly favored the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. We can all agree that foreign-born persons living in the U.S. without official legal permission is a complex problem.
But does simply being an undocumented immigrant make you a criminal? Living in a country without authorization is generally treated as a civil matter under immigration law rather than a major criminal violation. Now that the presidential election is over and Trump is back in power, the true policy details of his mass deportation pledge are coming to light.
The description of a criminal is now expanded to include the broader undocumented population. As a result, the Trump administration has effectively categorized all undocumented migrants as criminals. The reality we face regarding U.S. immigration comes down to the fact that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, play a vital role as workers. Key sectors such as construction, agriculture, food processing, farming and ranching, hospitality, healthcare, cleaning services, landscaping, and manufacturing rely on foreign-born workers.
The ripple effect on the U.S. labor market and economy from mass deportations is real and is now becoming painfully obvious. No matter how undesirable a particular job may appear in one’s eyes, there will always be individuals who are willing to do the specific job. In addition, the U.S. economy has experienced labor shortages in recent years attributed to an aging workforce. Immigrants have played a significant role in addressing labor shortages, thereby bolstering the U.S. economy. The contribution by migrant workers to the U.S. labor market cannot be taken for granted. In states like California and Texas, immigrants make up 40% of the construction workforce.
The South Texas Builders Association is raising the alarm on how immigration enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has scared immigrant workers from showing up to work sites, causing a labor shortage and delays in construction projects. People are starting to wake up and pay attention. After the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a construction worker in Houston who an ICE officer fatally shot, the targeting of immigrant laborers by ICE is gaining attention. The builders’ association, in protecting its interest, is demanding worker protections such as permits that would allow immigrants to work legally in the country. Ronnie Cavazos, chairman of the South Texas Builders Association, said his own father was an immigrant and a hard worker. He imagined that Salgado Araujo, who was killed on his way to work, was similar and questioned why the community had supported a presidential administration that would shoot and kill a worker like him. “Let’s be real, we voted for it,” Cavazos said. “So, whose fault was it?” Where voters in Texas are having buyer’s remorse, the same is true in Ohio and Florida.
In 1990, Congress created the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) as a humanitarian immigration program for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians who have legally lived and worked in the United States. After weeks of short-term court extensions, TPS protections for Haitians ended when the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can move forward with its plans. While ICE has drawn up its plans to launch a deportation blitz focused on more than 300,000 Haitian migrants, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told CBS News the deportations of Haitian migrants are a “mistake,” arguing the move could bruise the state’s economy and risk putting Haitians in danger in their home country. Many Haitians who live in Ohio have settled in the city of Springfield in recent years. “These are people who have helped Springfield really come back,“ DeWine said, pointing to Haitians who have filled jobs and opened businesses in the economically challenged city. “The Haitians who are living there and employed there, they came there to work, and they came there because there were jobs that were not being filled by other people.”
No other state will feel the repercussions of the loss of the Haitian TPS recipients more than Florida, where about half of the 350,000 in the U.S. now live. The concerns surrounding the Haitian TPS holders prompted the Florida Health Care Association, which represents hundreds of assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers in the state, to write to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security requesting an exemption for their workers, the Florida Phoenix reported.
The real threat to the conscience of our nation is not the law-abiding migrants who are willing to address America’s labor gaps, but are now categorized as criminals due to their undocumented status. Nor is the threat Haitian TPS holders who legally work as nursing assistants and caregivers. The true threat comes from individuals who know the value immigrants provide to communities and yet remain silent when anti-immigrant agendas distort the truth. The threat also comes from the Black community who sees the wrongful death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and remain unmoved and silent “because it is not in my community.”
David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America.
