the truth about immigration (and ways you can help)
I was in the middle of writing another piece for this week—about where all the romance in life has gone—but it feels icky to wax poetic about romance, of all things, while thousands are protesting against the ICE raids in LA, Chicago, NYC, St. Louis, and Atlanta, just to name a few cities. Law enforcement have fired foam bullets and tear gas into demonstrator groups. Hundreds have been arrested.
In lieu of this week’s usual personal essay, I want to link to (a) videos and articles that serve as good background/explainers for U.S. immigration and (b) ways you can help, whether through sharing resources, volunteering, donating, and more. For paid subscribers, I’ll also be sharing at the end my current thoughts on how to balance social obligation against self-care.
What’s happening?
The Trump Administration increased daily arrest targets from 660 to 3,000 a day. This ~fivefold increase has necessitated broadening the scope of whom ICE will arrest—from noncitizens accused of violent crimes, as Trump promised on the campaign trail, to pretty much anyone without legal status.
“Just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” Stephen Miller reportedly told ICE officials.
And they have. ICE has been arresting people at work, in farms and factories and car washes. A customer at the car wash was taken away. Can you imagine? Getting your car washed and getting arrested?
Immigrants are afraid to go to work. Afraid to send their kids to school. Afraid to be in their homes.
Is immigrating without proper documentation a crime?
Not quite. Crossing the border for the first time without prior authorization is a misdemeanor; overstaying a visa, which accounts for 40% of undocumented immigration statuses, is a civil violation.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Moreover, a “crime” is—as with all laws—a social construct. Even killing someone, the archetypical “crime,” isn’t always a crime in the eyes of society (such as when it occurs during recognized self-defense or war). A “crime” is simply an act that we, as a society, deem worthy of moral opprobrium. A normative shifting boundary, not a static red line.
The fact that so many view immigration without paper documentation as a “crime,” and many others don’t, is a reflection of how fragmented our country has become on a philosophical and moral level. It’s also why I don’t find it productive to argue over the semantics of what constitutes a crime. Even though visa overstays aren’t presently a “crime,” rest assured that lawmakers are pushing to criminalize them.
The more salient question, for me, is one level deeper: what is the moral harm caused by moving one’s body somewhere in this world? By merely existing somewhere in this world?
Are undocumented immigrants harming our country?
Undocumented immigrants substantially bolster our economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the surge in immigration in the 2021-2026 period will boost federal revenues and lower deficits by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes without being eligible to receive many of the benefits of said taxes, and they are less likely to commit crimes than natural-born U.S. citizens.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
And while I realize I can be seen as a “model minority” in many ways, I hate this idea that my parents/I did it the right way. Because we were lucky. We were in the right place, at the right time. 155 years ago, we’d be blamed for national unemployment and run out of towns, even massacred—right up ‘til the U.S. government banned Chinese immigrants altogether on the basis of national origin. Some thanks for largely building the transcontinental railroad!
Model minorities, “hardworking” immigrants—whatever you want to call arbitrarily-drawn groups of the “right” kind of immigrants—aren’t role models. Rather, the distinctions are weapons when convenient and scapegoats when not.
What can we do?
Send this video to undocumented friends and those with undocumented relatives and friends. The wonderful Joanne (@thekoreanvegan) explains how to tell the difference between a judicial warrant (which would require someone to open their doors to law enforcement) versus an administrative warrant (which would not require someone to open their doors).
Protest, if you so wish, and educate fellow protestors on their rights. The ACLU provides guides for if you’re organizing a protest, attending one, photographing or recording during one, or stopped by a police officer during demonstrations.
Vote. For the love of god, register to vote and vote. If you’re in New York City, voter registration closes tomorrow for the Primary Elections on June 24. (I’ll be ranking Zohran Mamdani first and Brad Lander second; I won’t be ranking Andrew Cuomo at all.)
Volunteer to assist with immigration cases. You can volunteer if you’re an attorney without immigration experience. You can volunteer if you’re not an attorney at all but have language skills and can translate/interpret. (I’ve volunteered for the LGBTQ+ Asylum Program.)
Donate to organizations supporting immigrants in America. I donated to the National Immigration Law Center, but there are a ton of others, as well.
Run for office yourself. Working within the rules only gets you so far. To truly effect change, alter the rules themselves. New American Leaders will help you think through how to set up a campaign and train you to run for office—and then lead.
Do we need to do all that?
Absolutely not; do what you can. Consider this the calling-in version of the DM calling me out this past week: