President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are in full swing. Immigration raids have begun in major cities, plans to move migrants to Guantánamo Bay are in the works and public figures have spoken out with their reactions.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations have intensified. Since Trump’s inauguration, over 4,929 individuals have been arrested. These arrests are focused on raids in large U.S. cities including New York City and Chicago.
Under the Biden administration, ICE arrested an average of 282 people per day, compared the Trump administration’s average of 753. There’s no doubt that there is a stark change in immigration policy between the two administrations.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem spearheaded the project in collaboration with Trump. On Jan. 28, Noem joined federal agents in New York to arrest suspects.
“Our work started at 3 AM in NYC to arrest criminal aliens. Among the arrests was the ringleader of a vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. We’re getting these criminals off our streets,” Noem wrote on X.
Trump has announced plans to send criminal illegal aliens to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The migrant holding facility can house up to 30,000 criminal migrants who would be deported from the United States.
“I hereby direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States,” the administration wrote in an executive order. “This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.”
The Trump administration has also announced that these migrants would not be held in the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo, which houses suspected foreign terrorists. Instead, migrants would be held in a separate area on the naval station portion.
This portion has traditionally been a detention facility for migrants in the past. From 1994 to 1996, the base held over 30,000 Cubans. Between 1991 and 1992, the facility also housed almost 12,000 Haitian migrants.
Trump’s immigration policy has been met with both backlash and support. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-D) spoke out about the situation, claiming that ICE was rounding up innocent citizens.
“’But they’re only going to round up immigrants committing crimes!’ No. ICE is already rounding up innocent American citizens,” she wrote on X.
Celebrity Selena Gomez has spoken out about the deportations. Her Mexican grandparents crossed the border and gained citizenship after living in the U.S. for years after residing as illegal immigrants. Her reaction on social media has gone viral.
She also posted a video of her crying, with the words “I’m sorry” and a Mexican flag over the video.
“All my people are getting attacked, the children. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry, I wish I could do something, but I can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything, I promise,” Gomez said.
She soon took down the posts on social media following receiving backlash. “Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people,” she wrote on Instagram.
Her response has been mixed with both support and criticism, similar to the Trump administration’s actions on immigration.
