On Resistance: Confronting the Second Trump ICE Age

<div> <p>Since the second inauguration of Donald Trump, his administration has standardized draconian immigration enforcement, challenged long-standing principles of citizenship and immigration policies, and established new standards for deportation and asylum processes. Emboldened by a deferential Supreme Court, federal officials and agents are engaging in racial profiling during immigration raids, removing individuals to third countries where they have no ties, invoking the Alien Enemies Act to remove alleged gang members without hearings, accessing government data on noncitizens that were previously confidential, firing immigration judges who have high asylum approval rates, denying asylum to applicants and deporting them to apply for asylum elsewhere like Honduras under Asylum Cooperative Agreements, arresting individuals and families appearing at their removal hearings and other immigration appointments, detaining record-setting numbers, terminating Temporary Protected Status for individuals who have established roots in the United States, canceling other temporary protections previously granted to hundreds of thousands by the Biden administration, slashing refugee admissions, creating war zones in sanctuary cities viewed as sympathetic to noncitizens, expanding travel bans to nationals of dozens of countries, and halting the processing of visas for applicants from seventy-five countries. Needless to say, noncitizens and their allies—including immigration attorneys and civil rights advocates—are being challenged on a daily basis with the second Trump ICE Age. As the new Trump administration has implemented its new regime, broad counter-strategies of resistance have also emerged. From street protests to neighbors acting to protect their noncitizen friends, religious leaders chaining themselves to federal government buildings, retirees volunteering to accompany noncitizens to their hearings, impact litigators challenging policies, and non-immigration lawyers stepping up to file habeas petitions, the resistance has been steady and powerful. Patricia Williams, an early critical race theorist, has also reminded me of the role that scholars play in any resistance movement. This symposium issue of the Southwestern Law Review epitomizes that brand of resistance scholarship. While the articles themselves are excellent expressions of protest, they also serve as a foundation for contextualizing the wide and varied forms of resistance taking place that are so very important in the battle for the rights of noncitizens and the soul of the nation. In this Foreword to the symposium, I first present a brief overview of the contributions of each contributor to this volume and especially highlight policies and practices of the second Trump administration that give us reason to resist. The next Part III set forth various examples of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) actions that provide even more reason to resist. At the same time, those stories are good examples of truth-telling journalism that the Trump administration seeks to avoid. Part IV—the core of this essay—is a collection of some of the important examples of resistance that are taking place during this second Trump ICE Age—from attorneys and judges, to religious leaders, every day people, musicians and artists.. And Part V is closing thoughts on the importance of resistance in this arena.</p> </div>