Tougher immigration policy has become one of Donald Trump's major profile issues. Already during his first election campaign in 2016, he went hard on immigration policy. One of his promises was to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, which was not implemented to the extent he had promised.
Before the 2020 election, when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, he promised to mass-deport approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants and to use the military, local police, and the National Guard if necessary.
Even during Biden's four years in office, migrants were deported, even more than during Trump's first presidential term.
Emergency at the Mexican border
Trump repeated the promise before his second term and has promised "the largest mass deportation in U.S. history". Shortly after Trump was sworn in in January this year, he also declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico and classified terrorist cartels. Since then, thousands of soldiers have been sent to the border. Trump has repeatedly claimed that criminals and narcotics are flowing over the U.S.-Mexico border.
All illegal immigration will be stopped immediately, Trump said during his inauguration speech.
Latin-dominated area
Since Trump took office in January, the immigration authority ICE has increased its arrests of undocumented immigrants and has been given greater, by some contested, powers.
The agency's chief Todd Lyons defends himself against criticism that ICE is going too hard. He states that the agency makes an average of 1,600 arrests per day.
A deportation of over 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador has also landed in judicial trouble, as Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) from 1798 to speed up deportations.
Demonstrations against ICE and Trump's decisions have been scattered since January. The protests in Los Angeles last weekend were the first where the president ordered in the National Guard.
The protests broke out after ICE carried out raids in predominantly Latin-dominated areas in the traditionally liberal city. The raids had been preceded by over 100 arrests of migrants throughout Los Angeles during the week.
