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By Billal Rahman and Dan Gooding
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Democrats are rallying nationwide to oppose President-elect Donald Trump's controversial immigration policies, launching a wave of grassroots mobilization, legal challenges and legislative efforts aimed at protecting immigrant communities.
On Tuesday morning, a letter signed by seven leading Democratic Party senators seen by Newsweek was sent to President Joe Biden, urging him to act now to protect current legal migrants.
Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation program in U.S. history, shut down the CBP One app, end the catch-and-release policy and reinstate the "Remain in Mexico" program as part of his hardline immigration agenda. He has also vowed to go after those admitted into the United States under programs established to protect migrants from certain countries.
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Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email on Monday.
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Democrat Senators Raise Alarm Over Trump's Plans
Before he won his second term, the president-elect said he would force the million-plus people who arrived under Humanitarian Parole or were allowed to stay in the U.S. through Temporary Protected Status (TPS), to leave.
Lawmakers and advocate groups have raised alarms about the potential human and economic toll of such policies, highlighting the critical roles that undocumented immigrants play in industries such as agriculture, healthcare and construction.
Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto told Newsweek that she had spoken to the White House about her proposals for President Joe Biden to extend protections to citizens who are in the country through TPS.
"There are horrific conditions in these countries that satisfy the provisions of TPS and this is an opportunity now for this administration to extend that status or provide that status based on those horrific conditions in those countries, because I know the next administration, their immigration policy is chaotic and President Trump has basically said he's going to engage in master deportation and nobody's going to be safe," Masto said.
Currently, 16 countries are included on the list, including Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, along with Afghanistan, Burma, El Salvador, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. The Biden administration did allow TPS to lapse for Venezuelans after two years in October, however.
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Letter Urges President Biden to Act
Masto and other colleagues on the Hill want to see action before inauguration day to keep those immigrants safe from mass deportations, alongside DACA recipients, who also face an uncertain future.
Alongside Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, New Jersey's Cory Booker, New Mexico's Ben Ray Luján, Hawaii's Mazie Hirono, and California's Alex Padilla, Masto wrote that Biden needed to do something now.
"We write now because the window to secure and finalize your administration's policies is closing rapidly," the letter shared with Newsweek read. "We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the President-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families."
In a withering critique, Padilla issued a stark warning that mass deportations will "rip" residents from their communities and lead to a "less prosperous" America, which would leave Americans paying "higher prices for everyday goods and services."
"Trump's threat to deport millions of people from the U.S. will rip longtime residents like DACA recipients, TPS holders, and immigrant essential workers away from their communities, leaving the American people to pay higher prices for everyday goods and services. Mass deportations will lead to a less prosperous America for all," Padilla told Newsweek.
Governor Jared Polis of Colorado has also voiced strong concerns about the potential economic and societal fallout of mass deportations, calling them "a recipe for a major recession."
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Ally Sullivan, a spokesperson for Polis told Newsweek that the governor supported removing dangerous criminals, but not hard-working Americans.
"Mass deportation of farm workers would increase the cost of food and mass deportation of construction workers would increase the cost of housing even more," Sullivan said. "Governor Polis fears for all Coloradans that mass deportations of law-abiding residents would be a recipe for a major recession."
Sweeping Immigration Enforcement Planned
Across the aisle, GOP lawmakers are preparing to enact Trump's hardline immigration policies, including Remain in Mexico, designed to keep immigrants out of the U.S.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz told Newsweek in November that enacting mass deportations would tackle cartel violence and human trafficking.
"I can guarantee that it will significantly reduce it. We're not going to eliminate criminals in the world," he said. "We will also see the revenue that the cartels are earning go down significantly."
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Trump, who won the popular vote for the first time in three attempts, has continued to lay out his immigration plans despite the concerns from Democrats and economists. In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, he suggested mixed-status families could be deported and pledged to end birthright citizenship.
"We're going to end that because it's ridiculous," Trump said, before conceding it might not be possible. "Well, if we can, through executive action."
Republican Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville told Newsweek that most Americans were in support of Trump's policies.
"Once the country sees red states successfully implementing President Trump's America First Agenda, leading to safer communities and healthier local economies, blue state politicians are bound to follow suit," he said in a statement. "Otherwise, blue state governors can enjoy a mass exodus as their residents move to red states."
Texas Senator Chip Roy also said that Republicans needed to implement policies Americans voted for.
"I don't want to hear one excuse from any Republican across this great country about why we don't do our job to secure the border of the United States and, yes, deport the millions of people that were released unlawfully and purposely into the United States," he said in a statement shared with Newsweek.
Senator Masto said that Trump was using the immigration issue for political gain, but that regardless of what any president does, be it Biden or Trump, Congressional action is needed.
"We can strengthen our border, but we can also fix a broken immigration system, and it requires my colleagues to have the courage to come forward and do just that and not play politics with people's lives," she said.
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