How immigrants pay the price of America’s broken immigration system | Opinion
Growing up in Trump’s America as someone who started life half a world away in Iran, I’m used to the flagrant racism and xenophobia with which immigration is discussed.
Now that we’re embroiled in Trump’s second term, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are raiding immigrant communities and the Supreme Court has granted the executive branch what seems to be unchecked authority in deporting immigrants to countries other than their own.
I have always found animosity towards immigrants incredulous — after all, the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. But there’s a reason the issue continues to resurface in our political discourse.
Many Americans, especially those who vote Republican, believe immigrants are stealing their jobs. Democrats however, rarely address the issue.
According to a Pew Research Center report, 82% of Trump supporters billed immigration as very important to their vote in the 2024 election, whereas it was the lowest-priority issue for Democratic voters.
Although immigration registers as a low-priority issue for Democratic voters, we wouldn’t be in this predicament had the party addressed Republican constituents’ concerns.
Meanwhile, immigrants must pay the steepest price, working jobs that are often exploiting them because they can’t afford to make mistakes. For them, a mistake is the difference between staying in the country or being ejected.
My stint as a barista
I’ve been thinking about my brief stint as a barista in a Newport Beach cafe. I was hired straight out of my interview. They were very short on staff (many would have taken this as a sign that I was hired to be fired, but it went right over my head). They also hired me knowing I didn’t have much experience.
Over the next three weeks, I was often left without proper instruction, like how to run the espresso machine. Every time I made a small mistake like dropping the mop bucket or not properly rinsing the dishes, I was met with side eyes. The experience quickly devolved into one of terror as I tried to figure out how to do things I didn’t know how to do without asking any questions.
I was fortunately able to quit the job on the spot. When you’re being mistreated, having the grace and the means to leave that situation is your only savior.
So where does that leave millions of immigrant workers, who are afforded neither grace nor means to leave terrible jobs?
Striking terror in the hearts of immigrants
Trump’s punitive immigration policies have struck terror into the hearts of the immigrant community.
The Trump Administration has tripled ICE arrest quota to 3,000 a day, meaning there could be more than 1 million arrests in a year. The Supreme Court just gave the administration approval to deport migrants to countries like Sudan, where they might face torture or death and recently, a California migrant farm worker died while fleeing an ICE raid.
Many will excuse what’s happening because the people being terrorized are undocumented. But this kind of reasoning completely disregards their humanity.
Americans complain about immigrants taking their jobs. It’s because immigrants will do the work no one else is willing to do — the dehumanizing work.
Oftentimes, highly-skilled immigrant workers are forced to uproot their lives because of the tumultuous socio-political conditions of their home countries and move to the U.S. Instead of resuming work as doctors or lawyers, they become Uber drivers and waiters.
Migrant workers suffer terrible working conditions that the average American would never put up with.
It’s no question that the current state of affairs is a result of ineffective immigration policies put forth and upheld by both Democrats and Republicans. But it’s also true that the U.S. wouldn’t be the No. 1 superpower in the world if it weren’t for embracing those from elsewhere for generations.
Ultimately, the system in place is one of exploitation and suffering, where both immigrants and multi-generational Americans are losing. Moving forward, we need to find a way to make immigration a process that serves everyone.
