Racial profiling and unjust deportation at the border must not spread nationwide

Recent press reports suggest that as part of the funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, the Biden administration is considering, among other troubling proposals, expanding the use of expedited removal — the government authority to swiftly deport immigrants without hearings — from anywhere in the nation. 

To be clear, expedited removal is a policy that goes far beyond the border and would target the civil rights of the nation’s 62 million Latinos and disrupt and undermine the nation’s economy and social fabric. 

All Americans, including the Latino community, want the border to be safe and secure. The asylum system is broken and must be fixed. But support for a sovereign and well-managed border should not be mistaken as an endorsement of congressionally sanctioned racial profiling and the mass deportation of Hispanic immigrants with children and families in the U.S. 

Our concerns are not idle speculation, but the result of decades of history and experience. This proposal harkens back to previous mass expulsions of Latinos without even a semblance of due process, and it must be rejected. 

The largest mass deportation in the 1930s occurred during the Great Depression, when 2 million people of Mexican origin, an estimated 60 percent of whom were American citizens, were rounded up by the government and expelled to Mexico. In what’s become known as the Decade of Betrayal, people were seized from parks, hospitals, workplaces and even their homes and banished. The late California Congressman Esteban Torres (D-Calif.) who passed away last year, was three years old when his father was deported; Torres never saw his father again and never forgot. 

In the 1950s, as returning Korean War veterans had trouble finding work amidst a recession, the Eisenhower administration launched “Operation Wetback.” According to official government records, 1.1 million people of Mexican origin who couldn’t immediately prove their American citizenship were deported without due process. They were often dumped in the desert and left to die, or loaded onto cargo vessels that eminent immigration historian Mae Ngai likened to 18th century slave ships. 

The expansion of expedited removal beyond the border would give any future president the authority to declare open season on my community. It would open the door to legalized racial profiling of citizens and noncitizens alike. And the vast majority of immigrants who would be at risk for removal, about 80 percent of whom are Latino, have lived, worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for a decade or more. 

Polls show that large majorities of Americans believe that these immigrants should be allowed to earn legal status and eventual citizenship — an opportunity that would be denied to those deported.  

Immigrants wouldn’t be the only ones impacted. The lives of the nearly 11 million U.S. citizens who live with an undocumented immigrant would be upended. Families would be torn apart as American children get a phone call or text from a parent who has been deported. American citizens married to undocumented immigrants would be haunted by every knock on their door, which could be a law enforcement official coming to remove their loved one.  

And racial profiling would be rampant. Everyone who looks Latino would be required to demonstrate their right to be in the U.S., and since few of us carry around proof of our right to be here, many would be detained until they could do so. This isn’t just a hypothetical scenario. 

Under the guise of Arizona’s infamous “papers please” law, a federal court found that Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio racially profiled Latinos, including U.S. citizens, with impunity. Today, other states are seeking even greater power to engage in racial profiling. In the past such laws were found unlawful, but how would the courts rule if given legislative authorization by Congress? 

Expanding expedited removal beyond the border is also an unwise and terribly short-sighted political choice. American citizen children and grandchildren of undocumented immigrants comprise a significant portion of Latino voters. Nearly 1 million Latinos turn 18 each year, becoming eligible to vote, making this one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. electorate. Polls make it clear that they prioritize the protection of their family and friends including DREAMers — undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children — above all other immigration reforms. 

Any political calculation that they would support candidates who’ve signed off on a mechanism that would trigger the violation of civil rights and mass deportations is deeply flawed. Many of these voters, including those who live in swing states like Arizona and Nevada, will likely stay home or look for other alternatives on Election Day. Those impacted will never forget. 

Janet MurguÍa is the president and CEO of UnidosUS.