In the dead of night, a single-file line of immigrants — shackled at their hands and feet — is boarded on a deportation flight to Amritsar, India. In the video recorded for the U.S. Border Patrol, triumphant music blares over a video of their humiliation. “If you cross illegally, you will be removed,” the US Border Security Chief posted.
One of the first announcements made by Donald Trump upon assuming office was his administration’s crackdown on immigration. He moved swiftly: Nearly 23,000 arrests and 18,000 deportations have taken place in the past month alone.
Not long after the flight to India, the US transferred over 100 Venezuelan migrants to Guantánamo Bay, labelling them as high-risk criminals without evidence. But this won’t be the first time the US has detained migrants at Guantanamo Bay: in the early 1990s, when it was a naval base, Haitians escaping political strife were subjected to abysmal conditions and held there as prisoners.
Torture is routine at Guantanamo, with waterboarding, force-feeding and solitary confinement being some methods that have been documented. “There’s no justice in Guantanamo. There’s no law,” says Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi, who was detained at Guantanamo Bay for over 14 years without trial.
And yet, after his visit to the Guantanamo Bay earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Guantanamo Bay would be used for illegal alien holding operations, posting on X, “We don’t want criminal illegals on our soil; they need to go home. Using Gitmo [Guantanamo Bay detention camp] will facilitate that. It’s the perfect location.”
A similar policy of criminalizing migrants prevails in Europe.
The English Channel crossings on ‘small boats’ — which were framed by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a crisis of national security — led to 78 migrant deaths in 2024, the highest on record. Despite so many people losing their lives, the current Labour government has retained the ban on asylum seekers. Moreover, the data shows that when applying for asylum, foreign applicants face harsher treatment, with only 44% receiving positive initial decisions. In 2024 itself, the UK returned 8,200 asylum seekers.
Such policies add fuel to online misinformation and far-right rhetoric, which invariably leads to violence. The riots in the UK in July - August 2024 falsely blamed a Sudanese asylum seeker for stabbing children in a dance workshop, due to a post that was shared widely on X, which was later linked to Channel3Now, a website known for spreading fake news.
Meanwhile, Germany — which saw the far-right AfD surge in its late February elections — has pledged to tighten immigration controls, including stricter border checks, an entry ban for undocumented migrants, and acceleration of deportations. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the victorious centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), also proposed declaring a "national emergency" to justify prolonged border restrictions.
However, the rules are different for the rich.
On 25 February, the Trump administration announced a gold citizenship card for the rich. This new "gold card" program allows wealthy foreigners to live, work, and gain US citizenship for $5 million, replacing the EB-5 visa program. Similar programs exist in other countries, such as the UK's Tier 1 Investor Visa or Canada's Immigrant Investor Program, which grants residency or citizenship in exchange for significant financial investments.
While his gold cards roll out the red carpet for the global elite, Trump is weaponizing migration policy in a broader campaign of political repression. On Sunday, 9 March, Mahmoud Khalil — a Palestinian activist and negotiator at the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University — was abducted, detained, and disappeared illegally by the Department of Homeland Security, despite possessing a Green Card to guarantee his residency. The morning after, his pregnant wife was still unable to ascertain his whereabouts, with suspicions swirling of his relocation as far as Louisiana.
These are signs of a genuine fascist politics in formation — one that can and must be opposed from all corners. First, they came for the ‘illegal’ migrants; then, they came for their political opponents. If we cannot stand up for the rights of our most vulnerable neighbors — those who traverse thousands of miles to seek a better life abroad — then they will surely come for us next.
