Trump's tough test...

U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policy—over which policy adviser and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller appears to exercise near-exclusive authority—treats Latin immigrants in the United States, whether present through legal or illegal means, as if they were hardened criminals.In practice, these measures appear to have turned into a form of “mass deportation” through racial profiling carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which operates under the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly one-fifth of ICE arrests consist of Latin Americans who have no criminal record or deportation order. People are arbitrarily targeted based on where they work, how they look, and the language and accent they speak, then detained by plainclothes, masked, armed federal agents—blindfolded and shackled by their hands, waists, and ankles. Images showing even very young children being taken into custody were truly disturbing.

In the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, one person was shot and killed during clashes between Americans protesting detentions and customs and border protection agents. Although those taken into custody were of Latin origin, the person who lost his life in the latest incident, Alex Pretti, was a “White American.” Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse at a hospital serving U.S. military personnel. Earlier in the same city, Renee Nicole Good, a White American mother of three, had also been shot and killed by federal agents while in her vehicle.

The Trump administration’s practices toward immigrants have been a significant factor in the decline of Trump’s approval ratings. According to a Pew Research Center poll released last Thursday, more than two-thirds of Americans do not approve of the way Trump is performing his job. In the survey, Trump’s approval rating fell to 37 percent, down from 41 percent last fall.

Latino voters were a key bloc in the coalition that returned Trump to the White House. According to analyses, ICE’s profiling methods targeting Latino American citizens and legal immigrants could lead to the loss of this support. However, a large portion of Republicans support Trump’s immigration policy. As a result, Trump appears to be caught between Latino voters and White Americans. With midterm elections set for November, Trump does not want Republicans to lose their control of the U.S. Congress.

Florida state senator Ileana Garcia warned in a statement published in the New York Times on January 27 that Republicans could lose the midterm elections because of Stephen Miller. Garcia said Miller’s hardline approach to enforcing immigration laws was alienating Latinos. Garcia, who founded the group “Latinos for Trump,” served as the communications director responsible for outreach to Latino voters during Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Miller, who comes from a Jewish family that fled White Russia in the early 20th century and built a new life in the United States, is the architect of Trump’s immigration policies, including during his first presidential term. Miller, who paved the way for ICE’s reckless conduct, has been accused by close relatives of tarnishing the story of Jewish immigration to the United States.

Democrats are calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem, however, says she is carrying out the instructions of President Trump and Stephen Miller. Another notable point is that seven Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined Republicans in early January to pass a $64 billion funding package for the Department of Homeland Security and $10 billion for ICE. It was striking that these seven Democratic lawmakers are staunchly pro-Israel figures who have received substantial donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Likewise, the disturbing practices targeting immigrants are also being criticized by mainstream churches from various denominations in the United States. The sole exception is “White Evangelical Christian Zionists.” Christian Zionists also fully support Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Even more striking was the fact that one of the pastors of Evangelical churches in Minnesota also serves as the director of the local field office overseeing ICE operations in the city of Saint Paul.

While we are on the subject, it should be noted that Israel is deeply uneasy about changes in demographic structure and social composition in both the United States and Europe. Zionists, seeing that these changes will also reshape politics, support harsh measures against immigrants in the U.S. and Europe.