Trump Takes Another Chapter From the Authoritarian Regime Playbook

The Trump administration hasn't been able to legally follow through on their "deport all non-wealthy immigrants" promise so now they want to require immigrants without legal status to "register" and give their fingerprints to authorities as part of its crackdown on border crossings.

The Department of Homeland Security has stated that "anyone 14 or older who has been in the U.S. for 30 days or longer and does not have legal status must register. Those who do not comply could be fined or jailed.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, once a person is fingerprinted, DHS will give them “evidence of registration,” which those over 18 will be required to carry at all times. This is essentially a "stop and frisk" style of racial profiling that is not only dehumanizing to actual immigrants but those visually deemed as possibly being one. It creates an unsafe environment for those who "look illegal", which shouldn't be decided by guys who think anyone that is not a white man is a "DEI".

Greg Chen, the senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the Associated Press that the new requirement could create a “nationwide show-me-your-papers regime” where anyone who “appears foreign”—U.S. citizen or otherwise—could be harassed.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has stated that immigrants who comply with the requirement “can avoid criminal charges and fines and we will help them relocate right back to their home country.” Claiming that by allowing people to depart without charges, the administration was setting them up to return and immigrate through conventional means.

Judging by the state of this administration so far, I don't trust that these people don't end up "lost" in the system or wind up indefinitely in the concentration camps in Guantanamo Bay

The administration justified its decision by citing a practice from the 1940s that was written into the Immigration and Nationality Act. The law requires fingerprinting and registration of immigrants 14 and over within 30 days of arrival. It seems like the administration ONLY likes things from the 1940s.

The Alien Registration Act of 1940 says, “It shall be the duty of every alien now or hereafter in the United States who is fourteen years of age or older [and] has not been registered and fingerprinted to do so within 30 days of arriving in the United States.” It was introduced to target those of German and Japanese descent but affected ALL immigrants.

The National Immigration Law Center said the law was used to crack down on people seen as “communist or subversive.” If you aren't privy to the Red or Lavender scare of the 50's and 60s, a "communist or subversive" is anyone who is not a white, Christian, conservative, heterosexual person.

“Any attempt by the Trump administration to create a registration process for noncitizens previously unable to register would be used to identify and target people for detention and deportation,” the organization said.

This move directly mirrors the way the government used its registration information to force Japanese citizens and noncitizens into internment camps.

Trump also moved to end birthright citizenship, but that action has been blocked by a federal appeals court pending legal challenges.

The Department of Homeland Security has gone on record saying that it is ready to make criminals out of kids barely in their teens who fail to register within 30 days of their 14th birthday. You know, like how the good guys always do.