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By Ewan Palmer
News Reporter
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An opinion piece published in President Donald Trump's home state of Florida has criticized his mass-deportation plans.
Andres Oppenheimer, a columnist for the Miami Herald, called it "insane" that the Trump administration is targeting those accused of entering the country illegally while pardoning those convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.
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Why It Matters
Trump is a hugely popular figure in Florida, defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris by 13 percentage points in the 2024 election. The Miami Herald opinion piece suggests that the president's hard-line immigration proposals could face backlash in a state with one of the largest migrant populations in the U.S.
Trump made immigration a central theme of his successful presidential campaign and Americans largely support his mass deportation plans.
A *New York Times/*Ipsos poll, carried out from January 2 to 10, found 55 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported such plans. Eighty-eight percent supported "Deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records." Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the immigration system is broken.
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What To Know
Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants during his second term in office.
In a Thursday opinion piece titled "Trump Says Immigrant Deportations Focus on Criminals. But Is That True?" Oppenheimer argued that the president's plan includes removing illegal immigrant workers from the country, which could have a devastating effect on the economy.
The column was written in response to an immigration raid carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a fish market in Newark, New Jersey.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a January 24 statement that the ICE raid was conducted without a warrant and resulted in the detention of illegal immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens being questioned.
Luis Janota, owner of the Ocean Seafood Depot, told WABC that ICE agents asked three workers for their papers and took them into custody when they couldn't provide them. Janota criticized the actions, saying the federal government should "go after bad people, not working people."
Oppenheimer made a similar claim, saying that the Newark incident suggests Trump administration officials are detaining "restaurant workers, house cleaners and others who have committed no criminal offenses" rather than criminal illegal immigrants.
Oppenheimer questioned the move to target noncriminal illegal immigrants after the president pardoned around 1,500 people convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, including those convicted of assaulting police officers.
Also in Thursday, the Miami Herald editorial board hit out at the Trump administration's plans to revoke Temporary Protective Status protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S.
The board said this move to target noncriminal illegal immigrants with deportation, which could in turn damage Florida's service industry. The board said Venezuelan are "collateral damage" for those who voted for Trump at the last election in the Miami-Dade district.
What People Are Saying
Andres Oppenheimer wrote in the Miami Herald: "You don't have to be an expert to speculate that detentions of undocumented factory workers, restaurant dishwashers, house cleaners, nannies and gardeners will increase in the coming months. Trump has said he wants to deport most of the estimated 11 to 13 million unauthorized immigrants, but only up to 650,000 of them are estimated to have criminal records. As criminals become harder to find, where do you think Trump will find more potential deportation subjects, if not among those who aren't criminals?
"The U.S. economy needs more—not fewer—immigrants. In part because of declining U.S. birth rates, there are 8 million job openings in America but only 6.8 million unemployed workers, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Without immigrants, labor costs will rise, and so will inflation. The bottom line is that it's OK to deport foreign criminals, and there's no question that America needs to fix its immigration system. But detaining people who clean shrimp at a Newark seafood market while freeing Jan. 6 violent rioters is not only morally questionable but economically insane."
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a January 24 statement: "Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a local establishment in the City of Newark, detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant. One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned. This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures …' Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized."
ICE Newark told Newsweek in a statement: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting fieldwork and may request identification to establish an individual's identity, as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a work site today in Newark, New Jersey. This is an active investigation and, per ICE policy."
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, told her followers on social media: "The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept."
The Miami Herald editorial board wrote in a Thursday column: "Most Americans were likely concerned about a minority of those migrants who have criminal records, not the people who received protected status because they come from countries in turmoil, as is the case of Venezuela under dictator Nicolas Maduro.
"If hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans lose their TPS, the implications for South Florida probably will be easy to spot. These are workers, renters, shoppers and maybe even business owners Miami-Dade would lose."
What Happens Next
The Trump administration has vowed to continue large-scale mass deportation plans.
This includes targeting so-called sanctuary cities, which largely limit or deny cooperation with federal immigration authorities, including refusing to notify ICE before releasing illegal immigrants from custody.
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