President Donald Trump started his second term on Jan. 20 with many new policies and executive orders for the United States.
On the first day of his term Trump declared a national emergency at the Southern border.
“Because of the gravity and emergency of this present danger and imminent threat, it is necessary for the Armed Forces to take all appropriate action to assist the Department of Homeland Security in obtaining full operational control of the southern border,” Trump wrote in a presidential action on Jan. 20.
Following this, Benjamine Huffman, director for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issued two directives to increase law enforcement and make changes to the humanitarian parole program.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” Huffman said in a statement. “… This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis.”
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement posts on X a daily count of arrests that have been made, with 1,179 arrests being the highest count on Jan. 27.
“Targeted enforcement operations are planned arrests of known criminal aliens who threaten national security or public safety,” the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted on Jan. 24 on X.
Bryant Sculos, political science lecturer, said the policy is not “rooted in a law” and was more of a normative practice for the previous administration.
“Prior administrations had said that they weren’t going to have ICE officers going to universities or schools or places of worship, but that was to avoid inflaming local tension or being too controversial, being seen as too aggressive and insulting to people of religious faith or disrupting universities,” Sculos said.
Alvaro Corral, political science assistant professor, said the Rio Grande Valley can expect to see an increase in ICE activity and as seen in previous administrations can cause a chilling effect.
“Chilling effects means that the immigrant community tends to shutter in place a bit more in their homes out of fear of going public,” Corral said. “That going out in the public either to schools, churches, hospitals [or] federal buildings … [is] too much risky exposure for them. That they may be subject to be stopped by immigration officials.”
Sculos said international students, migrants with visas or documented individuals have multiple reasons to be deported.
“There’s a good reason for all different types of people to be afraid, although, there’s degrees of protection from certain things,” he said. “It is a little bit more difficult for the administration to deport people who have a current visa, but certainly not impossible.”
Corral said this policy change can increase the fears of students and cause a change in their livelihoods.
“This could create some emotional stress for [students] while they’re trying to study, while they’re trying to go about their daily lives as young people, as students,” he said.
Daniela Kari Garcia, a UTRGV post-baccalaureate student, said the church and state have been separated from one another and should be kept as is.
“I feel like we need to continue following that because it’s an invasion of personal space of the schools and especially the teachers that are trying to educate their students on certain topics,” Garcia said.
She said it takes a long time to get citizenship and costs money just to afford a lawyer.
“Like for me, I was very unsure about continuing my education because all of my family are immigrants or they’re in the process of getting their citizenship, and it’s scary because I felt like I had to help them and I have to help those who are afraid to speak up.”
Corral said the focus on keeping immigrants out of the country can cause further issues.
“Cutting off and severing legal pathways to the United States will only serve to increase unauthorized immigration,” he said.
The political science assistant professor said President Trump could use the situation of a national emergency as a strategic reason to be able to deploy the U.S. military.
“By labeling [the U.S.-Mexico border] as a national emergency this is a major use of a show of force to the American public that the Trump administration is trying to deliver on their campaign promises,” Corral said.
He said UTRGV should give students and employees a sense of reassurance.
“Questions need to be asked of UTRGV administration about what faculty, staff and students can expect in terms of the university’s own cooperation with federal officials and what will they do,” Corral said. “I think that students are looking for leadership from UTRGV administration in [these] challenging times.”
