from the does-the-American-flag-make-you-hard dept
This was pretty much inevitable. While the Trump’s band of bigots struggled mightily to expel brown people from this country, the rest of his sycophants are doing everything they can to prevent non-white foreigners from entering the country.
It’s counterproductive, especially when the end goal is at least 3,000 ICE arrests per day. If you don’t let enough migrants in, you’re going to run out of migrants to arrest and deport. It’s simple math, people. But it’s also a simple president, to use the pejorative form of the word.
Marco Rubio’s State Department is doing what it can to filter out people who might be opposed to Trump and/or his policies. Applicants for visas now must subject themselves to vetting that includes deep dives into their social media accounts to sniff out anything slightly smelling of anti-Trump animus. According to Rubio himself, being anti-Trump is the same thing as being anti-America, even though it’s clear Trump has zero respect for everything that actually makes America great.
Apparently, this isn’t working quite as well as Trump or Rubio had hoped. People who don’t like Trump must still be finding a way to enter this country. Not to worry! DHS has just issued guidance that says it can now (or rather, continue) to throw people out because they’re not TEAM USA enough.
In a move that’s completely on-brand for the Trump administration, McCarthyism is now back in play when it comes to allowing migrants to continue accessing rights and benefits that were previously considered to be guaranteed. (h/t Aaron Reichlin-Melnick on Bluesky)
This isn’t hyperbole. It’s excruciatingly literal. The new DHS policy memo [PDF] specifically cites laws created to assist Joe McCarthy’s desire to eject Communists from the country.
For certain immigration benefit requests, such as adjustment of status, the alien bears the burden of proof to demonstrate that a favorable exercise of discretion is warranted.1
[…]
USCIS guidance provides that an alien’s compliance with immigration laws is a relevant factor when determining if a favorable exercise of discretion is warranted. USCIS is updating the Policy Manual to provide additional guidance for officers on the significant negative discretionary weight USCIS assigns in circumstances where an alien has endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused the views of a terrorist organization or group, including those who support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, and antisemitic ideologies, in any case involving an exercise of discretion.2
There are two footnotes attached to these statements. Here’s what the first one links to, the establishment of a burden of proof that is placed on the “alien” seeking to stay in the country — a statute that was created during McCarthy’s height of power.
The second footnote links to a law created directly in response to McCarthy’s witch hunt — the title of which suggests fans of Trump might be too un-American to be allowed to seek residence in the United States:
Prohibition upon the naturalization of persons opposed to government or law, or who favor totalitarian forms of government
I mean… it speaks for itself. If there’s been an administration more tolerant of totalitarianism or less supportive of the rule of law, we certainly haven’t seen it since the final days of the Nixon administration. And at least Nixon had the courage to resign during his impeachment, rather than force himself on the nation repeatedly the way ol’ grab-em-by-the-pussy has.
The end result of the exhuming of McCarthyism is this, at least in terms of what DHS/US Citizenship and Immigration Services will do:
In cases where the alien has engaged in such activities, USCIS will enforce all relevant immigration laws to the maximum degree, including the use of discretion, to deny the benefit request.
This certainly doesn’t sound like maximum degree “discretion,” unless your definition of maximized discretion is always finding a reason to block a non-white migrant from continuing to reside in the United States. That is one way to use “discretion,” albeit one that most people wouldn’t consider to be the defining feature of discretionary power.
There is no further clarification as to what DHS/USCIS consider to be un-American enough to reject applications for permanent residence in the United States. It’s all “discretion” from here on out, which means the DHS can use this power to oust anyone it wants to, regardless of any other reasons migrants have cited as justifying their continued residence in the US.
It’s evil, stupid, and cruel. And that means it’s just another part of the complete Trump Administration set. It’s bigotry backed by laws created to appease a bigot who managed to go mainstream seven decades ago. Everything old is new again… well, except for all the old stuff like Lady Liberty serving as a beacon of hope and America behaving like it might actually deserve the title of “Leader of the Free World” now and then.
Filed Under: dhs, ice, mass deportation, mccarthyism, time to deport lady liberty i guess, trump administration, uscis
