Remember, the only way to deport millions of people in a timely manner is concentration camps.
And they have to stay in those camps until extradition treaties are finalized. If the country refuses to accept that immigrant back? They’re going to stay in that camp indefinitely. And if Trump crashes the economy, as is predicted, those camps will start getting expensive.
Maybe the Trump administration will start looking into the Final Solution to the Immigration Problem.
Part of me thinks that this proposal will end up the same as his “Wall” that Mexico was going to pay for. Either incompetence or apathy will make this part of his proposal quietly go away. There will be some token deportations of illegals that were going to be deported anyways, but they’ll make a bigger deal about it, then it’ll just sort of slink away and somehow not be as big of a problem as it was made out to be for the past year or so.
Or we go full-scale with the concentration camps. It’s kind of a toss-up at this point. The only thing working in our favor is Trump’s general incompetence and chaotic headspace, he’s his own biggest enemy sometimes.
This is where I think it will end up. I am optimistic that there will be no camps, because Congress will refuse to fund them. There will be increased deportations though, and not just of illegals. Anyone who is not a citizen but here legally needs to rethink why they are here, immediately. Blue states may throw roadblocks up, but Red states will gladly give them the boot.
There is a narrow way this can backfire, though. Let’s say I am right, and deportations and reverse migrations happen, but mainly in the red states. Blue states welcome the legal immigrants in, smuggle the illegals and DREAMers in a new Underground Railroad, and rebuff the Feds when they come for them, tieing up in the courts. Then, the Democrats figure it out and put up a candidate who can win against the MAGA candidate in 2028.
Guess what? That means that Democratic President runs the census, which is supposed (by the Constitution) to enumerate all persons residing in the US as of April 1, 2030, without regard to citizenship and immigration status. Republicans want to put a Citizenship question on that census, with the goal of eventually disqualifying non-citizens. But if that question is not there, and the full enumeration happens, those Red states will find they didn’t just get rid of immigrants, they got rid of House seats too, because that count is directly used to reapportion Congress.
There will be some token deportations of undocumented immigrants that were going to be deported anyways,
Fuck that bullshit, this makes as much sense as saying “well, there probably will be some summary executions of people charged with crimes, but they were gonna be found guilty anyway”.
The only thing working in our favor is Trump’s general incompetence and chaotic headspace, he’s his own biggest enemy sometimes.
He’s got fascist toadies who are very intent on this in his administration who will keep him organized and focused. What we have in our favor is hundreds of millions of Americans who think xenophobia is idiotic hateful bullshit.
I mean, tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of people are deported from the country every year already, whether Democrat or Republican presidents are in office, deportations (or “repatriations”) actually went up since 2020 when Biden took office. They’ve been on their way down though back to “normal” pre-Covid levels, but it’s hard to say what would happen under Trump. From 2016 to 2020 they actually fell to a low of 27k for at least a little bit.
I mean, tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of people are deported from the country every year already, whether Democrat or Republican presidents are in office,
Sure, I agree that the Democratic party’s collaboration with fascism has been awful. No time like the present to fight for a change in what we’ve been doing.
it’s hard to say what would happen under Trump.
We can make some pretty good guesses about what Republicans will attempt to do. Nothing’s guaranteed but it virtually inevitable they will try to make the situation worse.
From 2016 to 2020 they actually fell to a low of 27k for at least a little bit.
Feels like you’re cherry picking a bit here, but yeah - general Republican antipathy towards bureaucracies and bureaucratic administration sometimes makes them bad at being able to follow through on their plans to hurt people and that’s probably something we can try to take advantage of.
Plus, those camps would all have to be built. We’ve already established that the immigration processing apparatus needs more funding; that’s part of what that immigration reform bill would have done. So he might be able to start the process of building these camps, but eventually he will have to come to Congress for more money. (And he can’t spend money that isn’t there – if he did that, then the whole debt ceiling charade Republicans do is rendered meaningless).
And yes, Republicans will control both houses. But there is a difference between cheering on the fascist head of your party, and actually casting the vote to build the concentration camps. Everyone in the House will be up for election again in two years, with no Presidential election on the ballot, and these people will have to justify their votes back home. Many, many Red districts will cheer them on, but some Republican wins were in close districts where this will make a difference.
(And yes, there will be midterm elections. Congress’s term is set in the Constitution. We can’t just skip an election just because the President says so.)
And yes, Republicans will control both houses. But there is a difference between cheering on the fascist head of your party, and actually casting the vote to build the concentration camps.
You put way too much faith in their ethics.
Everyone in the House will be up for election again in two years
And it will be a sham election.
The elections will be shams from now on.
All of you trying to sell us on “Trump won’t actually be that bad” are not doing a good sales job.
No, I am not saying “Trump won’t be that bad”. He will be that bad. I am hoping that we can avoid the worst of the worst, though, by continuing to hold other politicians accountable to the people.
Elections are managed by individual states, to Federal guidelines. There is only so far that Congress can influence them. I can see Congress enforcing new documentation requirements for registration, and making it easier to “purge” voter rolls, as well as giving states leeway to reduce polling places in urban areas. But the election will still go on, and Blue states will go out of their way to creatively comply with the new mandates while still allowing access.
I simply refuse to believe America is done. We held elections during a Civil War, after all. We can hold them during a fascist tantrum.
I simply refuse to believe America is done
I honestly have no idea whether it is or not, but I don’t see any way that giving into hopeless despair and giving up helps us, so I’m going to operate under the assumption that it’s not. If nothing else, let’s make the fascists fight every single step of the way by throwing every inconvenience we can at them.
Speaking of which - Dems still have enough Senate seats to filibuster, right?
Yes, but the funny thing about the filibuster is that while it requires 60 votes to advance legislation, it is just a Senate rule, and Senate rules are established by majority vote. The Senate has kept the rule (and, in fact, have made it easier to use over the years) because Senate terms are so long that most Senators have experienced time in the minority at least once, and want to preserve that tool for when they end up there.
This election cycle was the toughest one for Democrats. The next one will be the toughest for Republicans, with 20 of their seats up for election, and nobody at the top of the ticket to boost their numbers. The math says Republicans will likely not hold on to the Senate in 2026. So the sensible thing to do is keep the filibuster.
OTOH, Republicans may see the things that they want Trump to do to be so transformative that they can get it all done in 2 years, and not have to worry about Democrats undoing it in the next term. In fact, they may welcome it, because if Democrats do take control without a filibuster they can go back to Der Gröpenführer and say “Sorry, we can’t do anything about it, please stop calling”.
They don’t care about the law. They have made that abundantly clear. On top of that, SCOTUS has given Trump free reign to break any law he feels like.
I hope you’re right for your sake that America is not done. My family is emigrating because we will not be taking that risk.
My family is emigrating because we will not be taking that risk.
Honestly, good for you, but you can’t blame the people who don’t have that option for trying to come up with some sort of strategy to resist American fascism. I’m not saying Trump won’t be bad, I’m saying here’s what we might be able to throw at him. No idea if it will be effective, but I will not go quietly.
I honestly wish you luck in resisting it. I just have no optimism left.
Thanks, good luck to you and your family too. Wherever you go, talk to your neighbors and lawmakers, that’s the only way we can make and maintain societies worth living in.
