As sources say Trump could deport undocumented Chinese first, Asian American groups rush to prep
Summary
Asian American groups are preparing for potential deportations of undocumented Chinese nationals, particularly military-age men, under Trump’s proposed immigration policies.
Sources indicate Chinese nationals may be prioritized due to alleged national security concerns, reflecting broader anti-China sentiment.
Community organizations are creating multilingual resources, coordinating legal support, and educating families on their rights.
Trump’s rhetoric ties Chinese immigrants to fears of espionage, intensifying anxieties.
Advocates highlight the historical targeting of minority groups during national security crises and warn of significant impacts on vulnerable communities, urging solidarity and swift action.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/trump-deportations-chinese-nationals-campaign-promise-rcna180212Open linkView original on lemmy.world478
Comments157
Also to anyone saying “well how can they deport a citizen when the other country won’t take them since they’re not one of their citizens?”
That’s the point…. They’ll stay locked up in internment camps because the US “is looking into their citizenship status” and they’ll stay there for an indefinite time.
"Then what happens when those get too full?"
Guess what happened in Germany.
My money is on them building more camps instead. The prison industrial complex would be very unhappy about slaves going to waste.
In Germany Nazis literally worked them to death (Vernichtung dutch Rabbit)
Typo too weird to fix it
I'm assuming it's autocorrect, but there were no Dutch rabbits involved. It's Vernichtung durch Arbeit, extermination through work.
Rabbits were put in ovens
The rabbits were actually skinned cats.
Arbeit Macht Frei.
Hollandische Kaninchen Macht Frei
Because what's cheaper than even undocumented immigrants labor? Prison labor.
I don't think that's true. Imprisoned people have to have their basic needs met by the state (food, shelter, clothing, etc.). People outside prison have to provide that themselves.
Except the people renting the labor don't have to pay for any of that.
I don't think gruel and mass-produced orange jumpsuits are going to set them back too far
Call them what they are. Concentration camps.
And I've been saying the same thing. In fact, treaties will have to be negotiated with a lot of those countries even if they will be willing to take those citizens back. They can't just land a bunch of C-130s in Shanghai and push all the undocumented Chinese immigrants out onto the tarmac.
These people will be interred for a long time. In concentration camps.
They should know, private prison stocks went up on his winning the election. But after the misinformation and willing ignorance in display, I'm not surprised they don't.
Yes indeed. https://abcnews.go.com/US/trumps-deportation-plan-private-prison-industry-sees-lucrative/story?id=115775702
Yes exactly. Whenever you go down the road:
“They should go back to where they came from”
It always concludes with kill them all eventually.
These people went to another country because they had no good home, there is no home to go back to.
They have arrived and are willing to do anything for a good life, a smart country would harness that energy instead of pretending these are spoiled expats that just wanted more.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
My dad remarried a China-nese lady after my mom passed away. He voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024. I love this lady like my own mom, but the leopard is coming in to eat soon.
Doesn't that mean she is at least a legal resident, if not a US citizen? Either way, if she's married to a US citizen then she isn't undocumented.
In the 1930s, over a third of all deportations were actually American citizens.
One of Trump's campaign promises was to increase legal immigration, along with deporting undocumented immigrants. This isn't the 1930s. Stop doomscrolling and get some fresh air.
"One of Trump's campaign promises..."
Lol, lmao even.
He wouldn't have promised it if his voters weren't OK with it. Not saying he'll keep his word, but it gives insight to the state of the Republican party. Some people on Lemmy seem to think he's literally Hitler. He's not, even if he turns out to be just as bad. He'll find his own way to fuck shit up, so don't expect an exact repeat of history.
So let me get this straight, when you hear people say Trump is "literally Hitler" you think they're saying he's actually the original real-life Adolf Hitler, somehow still alive, clean shaven, wearing a Trump disguise? Is that what you're saying right now?
You don't think that people actually just mean history is repeating itself, and Trump could turn out to be just as bad? That's not what you think people mean?
Read my comments from the beginning of this thread. I'm saying Trump isn't going to attack the same people Hitler did. And I'm saying he's not going to attack people in the same way Hitler did.
There's some nuance to what you just said that you're ignoring.
When Trump talks about legal immigration, he literally uses the words "from the right places." He's not talking legal immigration from Mexico. He's talking from Sweden, Finland, Germany, etc. I'll let you guess what those three countries have in common.
Nuance? I'm willing to bet you haven't listened to any of his campaign speeches, which makes that an assumption. No nuance involved.
Trump has been talking about Chinese immigrants. This thread is about a Chinese Immigrant.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/07/us/politics/trump-immigrants-nice-countries.html
He said out loud that he wants immigration from "nice" places like Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland. He laments immigration from Asia (unclear where in Asia he means). He might also talk about Chinese immigrants, but he is taking a strong anti-China stance with the economy. It'll be "interesting" to see how he swings with respect to normal Chinese workers in the US versus how he treats the country of China and immigration in general.
Did you buy the sneakers or the bible? Both?
This purity testing is why I don't call myself a Democrat, liberal, or leftist. Anyone who isn't sufficiently in line with the party beliefs is accused of being the enemy. I'm not a Republican or a conservative, but I know a few and they don't fit the stereotypes I hear from people here on Lemmy and IRL. Maybe the dems could win an election if they came back to reality.
Because you don't align with those beliefs. You are not a Democrat, liberal or leftist. And what? You expect those of us who are to call you that out of some misguided sense of charity? I'd suggest having the courage to own your own beliefs.
What beliefs are your referring to, exactly? From my perspective, the main thing I disagree with them about is the purity testing.
Untrue. It depends on how long you were out of status and what sort of status you had in the first place. If you never had a visa in the first place you really are shit out of luck and can only apply for a green card after you self deport (which may get you a 10 year ban on reentry after you so it or if you've entered the country illegally more than once you get a lifetime ban with no possibility of appeal even if you're married to an American citizen and have American citizen children with them).
https://www.boundless.com/faqs/overstayed-visa-marriage-consequences/
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/guides/A2en.pdf
You're splitting hairs. If she's legally married to an American citizen (and isn't an agent of a foreign government, and hasn't been convicted of treason, etc), AND she goes through the legal process of gaining citizenship, then she's a legal citizen.
Yes, there are technicalities and requirements. But gaining US citizenship through marriage is a very easy process compared to the other routes.
You consider a 10 year ban for getting a green card after you get married to be an easy process? Do you believe that most would decide to split their family up for 10 years vs remaining undocumented? You can't become a citizen until you get a green card and I've layed out for you just the hard getting a green card is for someone undocumented. You can't just get married and become a citizen. Even DACA recipients, who were brought here without their particular consent: if they get married to a citizen over 6 months after they turn 18 they're going to be banned from re-entry for 3-10 years after they leave. And everyone who's in the country who wasnt inspected on arrival(meaning they had a visa) cannot receive a green card without leaving first. Marriage is no panacea for the undocumented. For most of them, it's quite useless.
I'm not sure what 10 year ban you're talking about, but I personally know someone who married a foreign citizen, and she got US citizenship very quickly.
Can you give me more details about this 10 year ban? If almost sounds like you're talking about people being ineligible for citizenship because they're undocumented citizens.
Yes, that's what I'm taking about. If you marry someone who is undocumented in the United States they're ineligible. They must self deport and depending on how many months they were undocumented they get a 3 or 10 year ban. You said if they got married they would not be undocumented but that's far from the case.
OK, that clears it up. I didn't realize this was controversial though, seems like there is bipartisan support to deny citizenship over things like felony convictions.
Noteworthy, Trump's support from Asian American voters grew 5 points to 39% in 2024.
The AsiansMAGA PAC raised $77,063.89 for Trump, outspending some other Asian American PACs but admittedly not as much as the AAPI.
Not saying they deserve it or anything, but there certainly will be some leopards eating the faces among them.
It’s worth mentioning that there should be some distinction between first and second+ generation immigrants. Often even amongst each other there is division so those who support Trump may not have to worry about being deported.
You are making the mistaken assumption that the brute squad will bother to differentiate between them. How many second+ generation immigrants carry around proof of citizenship, anyway? They can be detained just like anyone else who doesn't look right.
(And it's super easy to carry that now, the passport card is cheap, fits in your wallet, and is a good first line of defense against being disappeared.)
Plus his statement changing the law where birth in the US doesn't grant citizenship.
How long do you think it will be backdated?
Depends on how stupid they are, I could see a scenario where they try to remove the citizenship of everyone from blue states. Mind ypu that would backfire like the demoncore but that doesnt remove the possibility.
History has shown that US citizens will get deported.
Once again. This is because less people voted democratic. Same number over a smaller total is a larger percentage.
Seeing 10M less Democrats vote when the Republican numbers were about the same was the biggest gut check I had. People would rather just not vote, than vote for a half black woman. That was really sad. And don’t anyone dare tell me it was about Gaza, that’s just a load of BS.
Kamala Harris did not lose because she's not a white man and perpetuating that myth is not helping.
She lost because she didn't speak to the working class.
She didn't lay out any plans nor promise any relief to the millions of people struggling.
She said she wouldn't do anything different than Biden with Palestine.
She parading around a Republican and tried to draw in the non-existent middle voter.
She promised more of the same when "the same" already wasn't good enough.
Was she the better choice? Absolutely. Did she lose because she's not a white man? FUCK NO and parroting that bullshit excuse is just distracting from the issues that actually need fixing.
She also lost because she's not a man. And she also lost because she's not white. You're deluding yourself if you don't think race and gender had an influence in the election.
If being a woman's all it takes not to vote for her then how come she lost Michigan which has a woman governor?
This is the political version of saying "if global warming is real, then how come it snowed on Christmas?"
I hope one day when you grow up you realize how stupid you sound.
Oh, let's see... maybe because there's a vast gulf in the perceived power and responsibility between a governor and a president?
So they really hate women, but it's okay if it just controls their state instead of their Nation? That's what you're going with? An irrational burning hatred of women that matters more than than anything else as a voter yet they grudgingly say well I guess it's okay if it's just controlling the millions of people who live in my state. As long as it's only affecting me personally and not the nation at large I'll overlook my burning prejudice just this once. That's what you think is in the mind of those voters? Fascinating.
Well she did actually, it was all on her website which has sadly been updated or I would show you.
You can still see her Politifact campaign promises page tho LINK
and this is in addition to the fact that the Biden Administration already blocked the Krogers Albertson Merger and had the FTC and DOJ investigate prices and firms across the USA. LINK
She also promised to bring back Child Tax Credits and a new $6,000 child tax credit and also to forgive even more student debts.
If there was any issue with Message it was that the people who bought Washington Post and Twitter weren't sharing their message.
Yup, uninformed voters are a blight. All the information for BOTH SIDES was out there and available.
She shouldn't even be relevant. The other guy is literally a "ok, who else is there to vote for because this guy is the worst option" candidate.
I voted for her because I'm not an idiot but yeah...it was sadly an awful campaign.
In five elections, Democrats voted in the same numbers for 4 of the 5 candidates and WAY higher for the 5th. I'll let you figure out the common theme among the first 4 candidates.
As far as your points:
Yes she did.
Neither did Trump.
Trump said he'd do more.
So did Trump.
This is fair.
Circling back: if the difference isn't that much between her and Biden (per your argument), why did he get SO MANY MORE votes? 69M, 65M, 65M, 81M, 69M. Only one of those 5 numbers is votes for the white man.
Again I feel the need to preface this: I thought she was a decent pick. I was so confident I even told a friend I thought it'd be 60/40 in her favor months ago. I am NOT saying she sucks - I'm saying her campaign sucked. I'm also not saying that 0 people refused to vote for a woman - I'm saying it's not why she lost. Anyway,
--
Let's be real - we voted Biden in 2020 not because we thought he was the best person for the job but because we believed he could beat Trump.... Which he barely did. And then he went on to have a pretty good run and got a lot done! Anyone who paid attention could see that the progress was slow but there was still progress happening.
But his team sucked at communicating. They quietly did their thing and barely promoted it. Maybe because even if they did...the news would focus on something more controversial instead. Either way, most people had no idea..and many of those that did didn't feel like it was enough.
The fact that we're having this conversation tells me that we're both at least somewhat knowledgeable on politics so of course we knew about the good work he was doing...of course we know the policies Harris/Walz wanted....but did the layman know that? Nope.
So this election rolls around and people see Biden 2.0, why would they want that again when they're been struggling for the past 4 years? Why weren't they getting addressed then? Non-voters didn't feel heard. Hell, I didn't feel heard. Grocery gouging is old news and the fix feels like a consolation prize at this point.
By far the biggest failing is that their "leftwing" campaign chose to reach right. It garnered a few voters and alienated a LOT more.
I.e. people that could have prevented this but decided they'd rather have their faces eaten.
Yeah, I wonder why undocumented immigrants didn't vote for Kamala....
Yeah thats fair.
only citizens can vote though? i don't think any of those people will be deported.
You should look into Operation Wetback 1 and 2, where the US deported a bunch of Mexican immigrants (legal, illegal, documented and undocumented alike) and US citizens to Mexico for "looking too Mexican."
Citizenship means nothing to racists.
I saw a documentary on that called, "Born In East L.A."
Man I loved that movie as a kid. I've been afraid to go back and watch it as an adult.
Trump in 2020 created a new DOJ office called the Denaturalization Section who would seek out cases and argue to strip citizenship. It is assumed he will start the same process again next year when he reenters office.
But even without that, the roughly 15-20 Million people in the USA which Trump promises to remove because they are undocumented likely have friends and family
You can be stripped of citizenship. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/immigration-law/can-us-citizenship-be-revoked/
Citizens may have non-citizen friends and family who are potential targets.
That anti-blackness the majority of Asian residents like to indulge in is biting them in the ass now.
The British thought immigrants would be deported after the Brexit too. But then they quickly realized they form the backbone of some of the critical sectors like hospitality, logistics, construction etc. So they quietly pretended like nothing ever happened.
Here in the US, undocumented immigrants form the backbone of food production (agriculture and meat processing) and restaurants, such that mass deportations would cause unimaginable inflation in food prices. I want to think that means the Republicans won't actually do it, but I thought they wouldn't actually overturn Roe v. Wade either.
In fact, there's a wealthy municipality here where I live that made rules that houses could only be built by individuals with a very niche paperwork, or something. The details allude me. At it's core, it was a xenophobic move to block "illegals" from being able to do their work, by "taking care of our own first".
The issue was there was literally none of "our own".
What I will remember however, is that no construction was able to happen for almost a whole year. The municipality had to repeal that rule to get construction started again. The ignorance and vast stupidity of the conservatives/regressionists never ceases to amaze me.
Also construction contracting too. Get your roof replaced and you will see crews of very efficient Latinos doing the work.
Shipping
Like half or more of truckers are foreigners of some kind, usually Mexican or Indian
TBF roofing companies also rely heavily on ex-felons, so they're well-positioned to survive mass deportations.
This sentence caused me to imagine a scene where Trump is tiling roofs. He is not even a felon yet (I think?) but I will keep my hopes up.
Yeah, and the Brexit vote fucked us. Being in the EU was great. Anyone could see that leaving wasn't going to make much difference to immigration.
It made some difference, but the racists really self-owned on that one by making the country outwardly hostile to generally white EU migrants.
This was quickly followed by an uptick in not white, non EU migrants that the casual racist abhors.
Particularly evident in NHS recruitment with EU recruits stagnating and African/Asian recruits increasing.
Aside from that, the vote has pretty much fucked us all for a couple of generations minimum. Put to vote, I would gladly rejoin, even at the expense of the Pound. We'll never see the almost 2:1 buying power against the Dollar ever again anyway.
You have every reason to be optimistic here as it remains to be seen what Trump will do to the dollar.
We're certainly in the midst of an interesting decade, to say the least.
They thought that Brext would deport Pakistan people, leaving the French. Instead, it deported French and left a Pakistan person as the PM.
Just to add it to the MOUNTAIN of IToldYaSo I am saving up. If you are a LEGAL immigrant, make plans, you might become illegal over night. These people are insane and vile, protect yourself.
Even if you were born here, he wants to revoke citizenship from second-generation immigrants too.
Yeah, that is even more insane. Removing birthright citizenship is just sick.
I'd say the constitution means he can't do that... but...........
The Supreme Court is basically Trump
There is a part in the consistution that says you are a citizen if: A or B and C. Birthright comes from A, where as people who travel to the USA need B and C, and people believe that means A or (B and C).
Trump wants it to be (A or B) and C.
Yeah and then? Where are you going to send them?
You can't just toss them on a plane to Mexico, Mexico will send that back. These aren't Mexican citizens, that's now how this works, that's not how anything works.
So what is it going to be? Greenland?
If their American citizenship is revoked and they’re not citizens anywhere else, then they would be stateless. There are international laws to help avoid people from becoming stateless, and special methods for stateless people to claim asylum. But clearly, Trump doesn’t care about international laws.
Applying reason and logic to their actions is a mistake. iirc, when we did it to the Japanese-Americans, we just detained the ones we couldn't deport, and just kinda held them...
That is what will happen in the end.
The cost of housing the 20 million people he wants to deport will be beyond astronomical and bankrupt the US within a year
Citizenship is usually determined by where your parents have citizenship or where you were born. In Mexico, if the parent has citizenship, the kids can be nationalized. China could be harder though, if the Chinese parent was an American citizen. I have no idea how they'd treat it if that citizenship was revoked, but the kids wouldn't normally be citizens if a Chinese parent acquired American citizenship and had the kids born as Americans. Normally countries don't get into revoking citizenship because everyone has to have a country or last resort who is obligated to take them. Would be a rough situation to be stuck in. If you have money, you can buy citizenship in a lot of places though. Lots of EU countries allow that too.
I'm a 15th generation American citizen and I still feel threatened
This is it.
They aren't even gonna try to prove the accusations are legitimate.
Far enough to create an ethnostate, probably.
1619?
Correct, he's going to revoke both his own and his kid's citizenship.
Depends on how Americanized you are and how racist your area is.
Would probably be helpful to have a passport to demonstrate citizenship.
Make sure you have your birth certificate with you.
When they come around, tell them you hate LGBTQ people, Black people, etc. That may protect you short-term.
Forty percent of asian Americans who voted.
You have derivative citizenship? I mean, you'll probably be fine, but you're in a riskier category than a natural-born citizen of natural-born-citizen parents. The country is crazy right now. Likely most or all the worst-case scenarios won't occur. But you're slightly more exposed than others. That being said, if they're coming for you, things will have become so fucked in the US and world more generally that it wouldn't really matter where you are.
My concern is that they'll further weaken the already pathetic judicial process for deportation (justifying it by saying it speeds up the process "and we have so many cases to get through") and citizens who get swept up by the machine won't have a chance to prove their citizenship. Because when the REAL goal is oppression and elimination of a minority group, "accidentally" deporting a few hundred citizens is a feature not a bug.
If it gets that bad, your only hope is to have your documents on you at all times and hope that you're lucky enough for the boots on the ground to walk past you because of it.
"undocumented"
Well, I mean, if they're undocumented they're already just one bad luck away from getting deported, the question is, how does he plan to catch them if they're not getting caught already?
"Papers, please"
During the 1930s when there was a mass Mexican deportation, there were a lot of US citizens rounded up and deported. Don't trust these guys will not make the same mistake. Of course, a decade later, Mexicans streamed across the border to mind farms and ranches while US manpower was in WWII. They kinda helped win the war by keeping the nation and it's troops fed.
They did it a second time, too.
Indeed. The safest course of action is naturally to put them in concentration camps to avoid that possibility (/s as well).
That's a lot of Asian faces (39%) for these leopard to eat.
Wouldn't be surprised if they try to strip Asian American citizens, naturalized or natural born, of their citizenship either.
IANAL, but for natural born the only realistic scenario with the current legal setup is accusing them of treason and finding them guilty.
https://www.usa.gov/renounce-lose-citizenship
Key word being current. Remember that Republicans will control all three branches of government, including both houses of Congress.
Of course that assumes they follow the law at all.
Exactly.. Especially since one branch decided one of the other branches doesn't have to follow the law.
Yes, they have two years before midterm and that's plenty of time
Project 2025 includes doing away with naturalization, and I believe might even go as far as revoking citizenship from previously naturalized citizens (only when it suits them, of course).
Isn't it against international law to make someone stateless?
(Granted, it's not like they'd care about legality)
That's the fun thing about international law- who's gonna enforce it?
Yeah it does suck but unfortunately that's what Americans voted for.
I'm not exactly looking forward to more racism and more being the perpetual foreigner but c'est la vie, it's what idiot America voted for.
I've figured it out! This is all a program to save the endangered Amur leopard!
They're going to ship them back to Asia as leopard food!
Jesus Christ, every thread about deportations has some moron talking about leopards.
Undocumented immigrants can't vote. I hate to take away whatever satisfaction you're getting from human suffering here, but it is categorically not "leopards eating faces".
Is that 39% the percentage of Asian Americans who voted for Trump? I bet most of those are rich enough that they don't have to worry. What percentage of your demographic voted Republican? Do you deserve to be punished for them?
The world isn't just and these people aren't getting what they deserve. Put this energy into volunteering for organizations trying to help people. We have to stick together to get through the next four years.
What a convenient pretext to round up Beijing's wishlist of exiles.
Orange Man baths in social credits.
Pot, meet kettle.
Pot, meet industrial boiler.
FTFY
"It's not the Greeks, it's the Chinese he's after"
For the white folk like my family that are out there wondering why so many people are afraid: here it is.
You don't have to be an illegal immigrant to get caught up in this. If you're an American citizen who is arrested and thrown in a camp without access to communications or legal counsel, how can you prove you're a citizen? You'll end up being in line at a deportation hearing, get 30 seconds in front of a judge, and find yourself deported because you didn't have the correct documentation on your body.
Or if you did and the immigration gestapo "lost" it.
I'm so white that even sunburnt I still look like a ghost, so I'm safe. But that shouldn't be what protects me from illegal deportation.
I got sunburnt taking out the trash so I'm in the same boat as you.
Ok, so now if you are Asian in addition to being even vaguely brown, you will at all times need to carry papers showing you are authorized to be here. You will be subject to being stopped and questioned and should you fail to produce your papers you may be detained, possibly for quite some time, until YOU can prove you are authorized to be here. Even if you are here legally your status may be revoked and you will be ejected from the country, probably at your own expense. No doubt in that case anything you own here in the US will be confiscated.
Thanks to asset forfeiture, those objects are guilty in the furtherance of a crime and will have to defend themselves in court.
First they came for...
"Wait... He wants to deport US? Not just them!"
i always knew chin yang was a terrorist
That makes sense. Asians don't even seem to be in conversation on racial issues. I could see them slipping this under the radar.
As much as I despise the policy of mass deportation (collective punishment is morally repugnant), at least this has a plausible reason behind it instead of “they’re eating our pets”.
Yeah, like the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Totally plausible. A shining moment in our national history, widely recognized by all as a terrific decision.
/sI’m sure whatever garbage Clarence Thomas vomited up for the Korematsu dissent is terrible and he’ll find another way to bring it up
That is in no way a positive or even worth mentioning.
Please, go on. I would love to hear more about your defense of concentration camps.
I said I do not agree with collective punishment. In no way should a Chinese person be deported or put in a camp because a different Chinese person was engaged in espionage. Only people found guilty of espionage should be deported, period.
What I’m saying is that Chinese espionage is based in reality, unlike the claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets.
Your naïveté is not really that endearing. Could you be naïve about something else, like say whether cats will steal something off the kitchen counter?
In what way is it naive to say that Chinese espionage is real?
Or are you implying that we should deport all Chinese people because a handful of espionage actually happens? Because that’s morally abhorrent.
If you’re making a claim, please cite your sources.
It's not. But your faith in the system and due process is.
Agreed on all points. Trump is intentionally using a legitimate but small problem to excuse and fuel his overt racism.
Espionage from many countries is real. It's an incredibly poor justification for deportation or confinement without due process, though.
I 100% agree. If you read my comments you’ll see that I said we should not deport people who haven’t been found guilty of espionage. Collective punishment is evil.
So you think we should put Chinese spies in... Camps? I don't think that's usually how it works...
Call me crazy, but I think the camps might be for a different purpose...
No? They should be deported, not put in camps.