As Trump ramps up deportations, remember we all benefit from immigration

President Trump has been remarkably consistent about one issue: He detests non-white immigrants.

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” he declared in December 2023. ”Not just in South America,” but “from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”  He also falsely implied that most immigrants are violent criminals and murderers, calling them “not human” and “animals.”

And throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

The administration has aggressively pursued that agenda. At the beginning of the year, the Department of Homeland Security celebrated 2025 as a year in which the southern border was closed, 675,000 “illegal aliens” were deported, 2.2 million more “self-deported” and travel bans, suspension of refugee programs and restrictions on green cards, work permits, family-based immigration and visas kept countless others from entering the country. Although its numbers were grossly inflated, the department promised that 2026 would be “another historic record-breaking year.”

On May 22, the Trump administration required immigrants seeking green cards to apply from their home countries. The new rule affects hundreds of thousands of individuals who have already been vetted and are living in the U.S. on temporary visas. This anti-immigrant crusade is based on stereotypes, fearmongering and lies.

The reality is that immigrants care for children and the elderly, build homes, start companies, and help drive scientific innovation.

Immigrants commit violent crimes at far lower rates than native-born Americans. And non-citizen immigrants consume less than half the means-tested welfare and entitlement benefits taken by native-born recipients. As the libertarian Cato Institute notes, “the typical lifetime abuser of welfare was born in........

© The Hill