FACT OR FICTION? U.S. IMMIGRATION EDITION

Pure fiction! The situation at the U.S.-Mexico border has become an even bigger human rights disaster. While the Trump administration is communicating as if the border has been “handled,” this is far from the truth. Right now, approximately one-third of the entire U.S. southern border is a militarized zone. With the border closed, people are being deported or held in crowded detention centers.

The right to seek asylum in the U.S. no longer exists — meaning that people seeking safety are trapped with nowhere to go, or must return to the danger they fled.

Fiction. Mass deportations are incredibly costly, and now funds and resources are being further expended to build horrific detention centers like “Alligator Alcataraz” and use military flights for deportations. The Trump administration’s cruel mass detention and deportation machine is now being supercharged with the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — which gives a $150 billion blank check to ICE and CBP.

Amnesty is doing research on the socioeconomic consequences of Trump’s new budget that will take away Medicaid and food assistance to pay for more cruel deportations.

This is a fact, despite what the administration has led us to believe! The Trump administration illegally expelled hundreds of men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act — sending them to CECOT, a notoriously dangerous mega-prison with inhumane conditions. Many of these men had pending asylum cases in U.S. immigration court, and some had even been granted protection. For months, the Trump administration said there was nothing they can do.

We learned that these men were always technically under the custody of the U.S. — and this administration had the power to bring them back the whole time. That’s why Amnesty advocated in and out of Congress to urge the U.S. to bring back everyone who was disappeared to CECOT. Instead, the Venezuelans were sent back to Venezuela, back to the danger they had once fled, and some Salvadorans still remain disappeared in CECOT. Everyday, this administration continues to unjustly deport and expel people, and it’s why we need your continued activism.

Fiction — although it’s happening anyway, and in many instances, illegally. The Trump administration has emboldened domestic law enforcement agencies to participate in immigration enforcement, from local police to federal agencies like the FBI and DEA.

Still, none of these agencies can legally enter private spaces without a warrant signed by a judge. Even as officers drive through immigrant communities in unmarked cars and raid schools and workplaces wearing masks, people still have rights. Amnesty’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Taskforces have been working on the ground in their communities to distribute Know Your Rights information and training others on how to flex their rights!

This is a fiction that President Trump has been repeating over and over to justify his mass deportation machine.

Studies show that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens. The Trump administration’s inflammatory and racist rhetoric is meant to dehumanize and criminalize our immigrant neighbors, friends, family members, and coworkers. It’s so important for our human rights movement to voice our opposition, defend everyone’s rights, and build true safety and power for our communities.