Stop the attacks on immigrants! For a socialist policy of open borders and full rights for all workers!
11 February 2017
In a joint press conference Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, President Donald Trump made it clear he would not be deterred by the Appeals Court ruling delaying his anti-Muslim travel ban from pressing ahead with his attacks on immigrants.
Declaring that there are “tremendous threats to our country,” he restated his demand for “extreme vetting” of travelers from predominantly Muslim countries and added darkly, “We will be doing things to continue to make our country safe,” promising to announce new measures next week.
The administration, with its fascist political adviser Stephen Bannon and its ultra-right immigrant baiter Jeff Sessions now confirmed as attorney general, is already beginning to implement Gestapo-like tactics against undocumented workers, as outlined in Trump’s January 25 order mandating the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico.
That order, which is barely being mentioned in the press, dramatically expands the categories of undocumented workers targeted for detention and summary deportation, including people merely suspected of committing a crime. It expands the border patrol, seeks to enlist local police in the detention of immigrants, and provides for the building of new immigrant detention centers near the US-Mexico border. It aims to create the infrastructure for the mass roundup and deportation of as many as 8 million people living in the US.
On Wednesday, one day before the Appeals Court ruling upholding a lower court restraining order on Trump’s travel ban, immigration police in Phoenix, Arizona arrested and deported a 36-year-old mother of two who has been living in the US for 21…