Why doing immigration the 'white way' is absolutely wrong

The president is granting refugee status to white South Africans. Meanwhile, he is issuing travel bans, unsure about his duty to uphold due process, fighting birthright citizenship, and backing massive human rights breaches against people of color, including deporting citizens and people authorized to be here. The administration's escalating immigration enforcement—marked by “fast-track” deportations or disappearances without due process—signala dangerous leveling-up of aggressive anti-immigration policies and authoritarian tactics. In the face of the immigration chaos that we are now in, we could—and should—turn our efforts toward making immigration policies less racist, more efficient, and more humane because America’s promise is built on freedom and democracy, not terror. As social scientists, we know that in

- Tribune News Service

America, thinking people can and should “just get documented” ignores the very real and large barriers embedded in our systems.

Immigration policies are built on colonialism and white supremacy. The hypocrisy is stark: a nation founded by colonizers who pillaged, kidnapped, and displaced indigenous populations and trafficked enslaved people is aggressively, yet selectively, anti-immigrant. Racism is embedded in US foreign policy, facilitating political and economic exploitation that destabilizes lower-income nations and drives migration. Today's enforcement practices, which punitively target people of colour while facilitating white people's entry, continue these legacies.