Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “crackdown” on undocumented immigrants is racist. The thrust of it is using an isolationist policy based on racial fears and prejudices. It’s something that goes back to the beginning of this country’s inception. It isn’t unique to America, but the specific brand being promoted by the Republican Party these days is very American.
NPR has a story out titled “Undocumented Irish Caught In Trump's Immigration Dragnet.” They’ve been “caught up” because they’re “undocumented.” If they weren’t white they would be “illegal.” NPR opens the article explaining that while white people are being detained and deported, it’s still predominantly non-white people feeling the bigoted assault, with 9 out of every 10 persons deported being Mexican, Central American, and Haitian. After this mention, NPR profiles the story of 19-year-old Dylan O’Riordan who came to this country as a child, was briefly detained on a dropped charge of domestic assault, and taken out of his holding cell only to be put into an ICE detainee cell.
Visitors from some countries with good U.S. relations don't need visas. But they're at a disadvantage compared to immigrants who illegally cross the border. They don't have a right to an immigration hearing if they stay past 90 days.
Daily Kos’ Gabe Ortiz has written story after story, profile after profile detailing a very similar experience going on in the non-white communities of America. One of the things that Mr. O’Riordan is learning the hard way is that racism and racist policies by a big government is still a numbers game. The people on the top do not care about you—if they cared about people they wouldn’t be practicing their brutal racist policies in the first place.
The ICE office in Boston sent a statement to NPR: "Dylan O'Riordan ... overstayed the terms of his admission by more than seven years. ICE deportation officers encountered him in Sept 2017 after he was arrested on local criminal charges. ICE served him with an administrative final order of removal." He is scheduled to be put on a plane to Dublin later this week.
Mr. O’Riordan is a young man and while he doesn’t realize it, he’s become a pawn in a cruel game.
Dylan O'Riordan didn't necessarily think being white would save him from deportation orders. He thought staying out of trouble would keep him under the radar. He says other detainees are surprised he was arrested.
"They're like, 'Are you supposed to be here? You're basically American. You look American, you sound American.' "
[...]
"There's a lot of people from El Salvador, a lot of Guatemalans, couple of Haitian people, and I'm the only Irish in the whole facility."
You see Mr. O’Riordan, you ARE “basically American,” but so is Francisco and so is Samuel and so is Diana. What you are to the white supremacist power structure is collateral damage that allows other white people to believe that this unconstitutional and racist assault on the American dream is not an unconstitutional and racist assault on the American dream. So when you hear white supremacist in chief Donald Trump lamenting our “unfair illegal immigration,” he’s talking about you. He created you. He made you and your family suffer so he can sell out your neighbors tomorrow, and blame someone else for your story of injustice.