Citizenship Is No Protection Against Trump's Deportation Machine

Not even US citizens are safe from this administration's deportation machine, which considers it "reasonable" to detain a person based on their physical appearance, where they work, or where they are at the moment of a raid.

It is a policy that justifies the use of racial profiling against those who do not fit the concept of what it means to be "American." If you look Hispanic, they can question your immigration status even if you are a third-generation American.

The president has reiterated in recent days that he is fighting the "enemy within,” and this seems to be directed not only at his political opponents, individuals and organizations that do not share his ideology, or immigrants whom he labels as criminals. It seems that those who do not fit the racial profile of a "true" American, even if they are citizens of this country, are also considered "enemy within," judging by the way they trample on their rights during indiscriminate detentions.

They also persecute entire cities that Democrats lead and that this administration argues are "out of control" either because they are home to immigrants or because of their crime rates, which, incidentally, are lower than the crime rates in many Republican cities that his government does not even mention.

"I feel like there's nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want. I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that."

Thus, they use the narrative of the "enemy within" to justify the use of the National Guard and the military to conduct police work in clear violation of laws that restrict and limit the military's interaction with the civilian population due to the danger it may pose.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, "the Posse Comitatus Act bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement except when expressly authorized by law. This nearly 150-year-old law embodies an American tradition that sees military interference in civilian affairs as a threat to both democracy and personal liberty. However, recent events have revealed dangerous gaps in the law's coverage that Congress must address."

It is these "dangerous gaps" that President Donald Trump is trying to exploit to" normalize" the military presence in American cities, especially if African American Democrats lead them and they have high percentages of Hispanics, African Americans, and immigrants in their populations.

What's more, these cities can be used to train the military, according to Trump.

"I told Pete (Hegseth, Secretary of War) we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon,” Trump said recently. In fact, the Texas National Guard has already arrived in Chicago ahead of the anticipated deployment.

America's Voice highlighted some 15 cases of citizens who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), some violently, despite having identification.

Cases such as that of Leonardo García Venegas, a US citizen who has just filed a lawsuit against ICE for detaining him not once but twice in Baldwin, Alabama. The agents argued that Venegas' REAL ID was fake.

"I feel like there's nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want. I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that," García Venegas said through his lawyers.

Cary López Alvarado, born in Los Angeles, California, was pushed and detained by ICE despite being pregnant.

George Retes, a US citizen and war veteran from Camarillo, California, was detained for three days without the right to make calls or seek legal representation during an ICE operation at a farm where he works as a security guard. "It would have taken them two minutes to check my papers and confirm that I was a citizen. Instead, they arrested me because I was there," Retes said. He told Telemundo that no one, “whether undocumented, a citizen, or a veteran,” deserves to be treated the way they did him just because of his physical appearance.

Retes sued the federal government and is represented by the Institute for Justice. “John Adams famously said that we are a nation of laws, not of men. That is not true if federal agents can, with impunity, strip Americans like George of their rights,” said Marie Miller, an attorney with the Institute.

The fact is that even citizens are not immune to Trump's anti-immigrant crusade, which has little to do with security and much to do with trampling on rights and protections in his quest to control who is a true American.