The president-elect’s border policy could affect commerce, privacy and immigrant families living in California.
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Immigrant advocates in California and state officials are bracing for what they describe as the likely massive impact of a second Trump presidency on border policy — vowing to fight his plans in court even as they remain unsure of what will come from the campaign’s trail to reality.
Trump has promised to implement the largest mass deportation campaign in US history on January 20 when he takes office; threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico unless it stops the northbound flow of migrants and fentanyl; and described plans to use the military as part of his crackdown, considered deploying the National Guard to help with deportations if necessary.
“We’re going to have to seal those borders, and we’re going to have to let people into our country,” the president-elect said during his acceptance remarks on Tuesday. “We want people to come back in, but we have to, we have to let them come back in, but they have to come in legally.”
Lee Gelernt, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union who argued challenges to immigration restrictions during Trump’s first term, said “Many of the policies that Trump advocates and promises, like the use of the military, are illegal and we are prepared to challenge them.” An ACLU “Road Map” on Trump’s re-election, outlined plans to push lawmakers to block deportations and make cuts to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention operations. It also envisioned “a civil rights firewall” to protect immigrants and litigants against deportation.
Other organizations have pledged to join the fight.
“We believe Trump when he promises to enact disastrous policies aimed at tearing families apart, destabilizing communities and weakening our economy,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, CEO and president of the Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
“But the U.S. Constitution did not disappear overnight. We will use every tool at our disposal to protect and defend the rights of all immigrants and asylum seeker“, she added.
Those planning to fight Trump’s border policies face the strategic challenge of not knowing if or when each of his myriad border-related proposals will be implemented or how feasible and legal they will prove to be.
But immigrant advocates said the impact of his election is likely to be enormous. California is home to more immigrants than any other state in the country, about 10.6 million people, as well as the most unauthorized immigrants, according to 2022 figures compiled by the Pew Research Center. Immigrants make up more than a quarter of the state’s population, and nearly half of all children in California have at least one immigrant parent.
“If Donald Trump is successful on deportations, no state will be affected more from a fiscal perspective, from an economic perspective,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom. said at a press conference last week.
Attorney General Rob Bonta told CalMatters that his office is prepared to fight and spend the months leading up to the election developing legal strategies.
“The best way to protect California, its values, the rights of our people, is to be prepared so we don’t get caught flat-footed,” Bonta said days before the election. Bonta’s comments suggest the state, which sued more than 100 times over Trump’s policies during his first term, will once again be a thorn in the side of the president.
Those waiting in Tijuana to legally enter the United States through CBP One, the federal government’s phone app, worried Wednesday that their chance to seek asylum had already disappeared.
“Sadness,” Emir Mesa said she felt when she heard about Trump’s pending victory. The 45-year-old mother and new grandmother from Michoacán said she fled her hometown because of extreme violence there.
“We don’t want to go in as illegals,” she said. “That’s why we’re here in Tijuana, waiting to get in properly, not to be smuggled.” She held her 15-day-old grandson as she described how her family has waited six months for the Movimiento Juventud 2000 migrant shelter, which is a stone’s throw from the US-Mexico border.
Trump has said he plans to suspend the Biden administration’s use of CBP One, through which migrants can apply for asylum in the United States. But it remains unclear what will happen to people who have already spent months in Mexico on the waiting list for their first asylum screening appointment.
