Mohsen MahdawiA Palestinian student from Columbia University, on Monday entered a citizenship and immigration services office in the United States in Vermont for its scheduled naturalization interview. But instead of receiving citizenship, he was arrested and detained by the application of immigration and customs (ICE), which began the beginning of the Process to deport it. In a memo reviewed by The New York Times, Secretary of State Marco Rubio affirmed That Mahdawi’s activities, such as the protests that helped lead in Columbia, undermined the foreign policy of the United States and threatened the peace process of the Middle East.
What happened to Mahdawi is an alarm at many levels. Mahdawi has legal status as a permanent resident and has lived in the United States during the last decade. He was accused of a crime, but, like Mahmoud KhalilAnother Palestinian student of Columbia and head of the Green Card, was arrested and ordered to be deported simply for having and expressing opinions that the Secretary of State does not like.
And what is especially notable about the Mahdawi case is that he was arrested at his home or kidnapped outside the street; ICE surprised a scheduled appointment with immigration services. In other words, a voluntary interaction with the federal government was arrested.
This is not the only case in which the Government has punished immigrants to follow the rules. For years, the IRS has encouraged undocumented immigrants to present their taxes, promising to maintain their private data to gain bargetized by immigration agencies. But under the Trump administration, the IRS recently reached an agreement to Share confidential data on the documented taxpayers of UND With the United States National Security Department (DHS). This is just one of the many promises that the federal government has returned since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The message that sends to immigrants is clear: You have no reason to trust us. Interact with us could put you in danger. And the result will be increasingly immigrants to live in the shadows.
“Part of the Trump administration strategy is to be both chaos, fear and panic as they can at this time so that our communities feel as insecure as possible,” said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. “While they continually say they do everything they can around security, we know that this is not their point. Cruelty is.”
Why the IRS sharing data on immigrants is so important
He IRS promises undocumented immigrants That their data remained confidential had a leg to work: Undocumented immigrants paid almost $ 100 billion in taxes In 2022, according to the Tax and Economic Policy Institute. Now, everything is in danger, and the IRS interim commissioner is renouncing, at least in part due to the agreement between its agency and DHS, CNN reported.
The details of the data exchange agreement are scarce because IRS data will transmit to immigration authorities or when. What is available so far makes it clear that ICE can request IRS data On immigrants who are under investigation, including those who have crossed in the country for more than 90 days.
But while lawyers in the Department of Justice have argued that the new task is legal and “includes clear railings to guarantee compliance”, that does very recently Ensure immigrants that the law of submitting their taxes – Or put any confidence in the federal government more widely, the desire persecute them again later.
Seeing the breakdown of IRS with precedents will only discourage people to present taxes and put them at serious risk. “It’s like a broken promise. It’s like a betrayal,” An immigrant told NBC News.
“Instead of being grateful for their contributions and the real after fiscal compliance, now, because they followed the law, because they presented [their taxes] – His data is now shared to be used against them for the application of immigration, “Awawdeh said.
It is not just undocumented immigrants who are worried
The IRS that broke his promise to undocumented immigrants is very useful for undermining confidence in the federal government. But the government is also betraying immigrants with legal status, as shown in the case of Mahdawi.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants scheduled appointments related to immigration at a government-articulation application door of the Biden administration, as they were encouraged to do. But under the Trump administration, the federal government has attacked those same people That they had legally living and working in the United States. Now, tens of thousands of them have notified that their legal status is being finished and that they have to leave the country within a week.
From the assault of President Donald Trump to universities and their repression against pro-palestinian student activists, foreign students and legal immigrants have been living with fear that their visas or even green cards are revoked with Palestinian rights. Some stories are especially unwavering, such as Rümeysa Öztürk caseA student at the University of Tufts who was essentially kidnapped by civil officers while walking down the street and is now being held at a Louisiana detention center. The Trump administration also warned Harvard that Block the university to register international students If you do not share information about it, it is the student body with the federal government, including details about foreign students who have tasks that separate in “dangerous” activities.
Even if immigrants become naturalized citizens, the Trump administration is still giving them a reason for concern in what should otherwise be routine interactions with the government. Around the weekend, for example, Bachir Atallah, a real estate lawyer who has an American citizen for 10 years, was arrested at the border between the United States and Canada while passing through customs, where Customs and border protection of the United States says. He handcuffed him and looked at his emails On your phone. Atallah says that the officers did not give him an explanation of why he was being arrested. “Even if you ask questions, they say:” We don’t know, it’s the government “,”, ” He told NBC’s Boston affiliate.
“You are pushing people more in the shadows.”
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition
The Trump administration is, in other words, address people with each child of immigration status, from undocumented immigrants to permanent legal residents to naturalized citizens. Refugees are also under threat: a Venezuelan man who had refugee status Deported to El SalvadorWhere he is now being held in a notorious prison of maximum security, all for having a tattoo that the authorities thought they pointed out the affiliation of gangs. (Trump has just suggested to send native US citizens to that prison, saying: “The crazy people are the next. “)
All these actions put immigrants, undocumented or otherwise, in an impossible position: if they do not go to the government, they run the risk of conflict with the law. But taking the government in their convertments could be what carries the trial and possible deportation. That means that any contact with the government will feel especially risky, whether visiting the DMV, going through the security of the airport or informing a crime to the local police.
“He is pushing the most in the shadows,” Awawdeh said. “One of our greatest fears, in addition to the way we have the leg seeing the administration addressed to our communities, is that when [members of] Our communities are real victims of crimes, who are not going to step forward, they will not seek help. “
The steps that the Trump administration is part of a greater impulse not only to reduce immigration, but also to further establish the staggered cysthyl, where immigrants are a permanent subclass that can never trust that the government is equivalent to their rights. “This is the country in which we are living at this time,” said Awawdeh, “where the number one approach is to create a second -class citizenship.”
