What is it like to live in fear of a knock on the door rather than in hope of a better future?
It’s not something most of us would want to think of as the American way of life, but it’s the reality Donald Trump wants to impose on millions of immigrants — themselves victims of a broken system — who have become integral parts of the communities across the United States.
It’s a “solution” that offers nothing of substance, not for those looking to build on the American dream, not even for those who voted for Trump out of a deep-rooted sense of defenselessness that they felt only a strongman could address. It can only intensify the chaos and collapse that drove that emotion in the first place — a distraction that lets Trump and his cronies rob us all the more easily.
Anand talked on “Morning Joe” about the impact of the first week of Trump’s expanded ICE raids in cities across America, and what it might mean to live in the country those raids usher in.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: A federal agency stepped up immigration enforcement operations in cities across the country again yesterday. That included Dallas, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu. In Chicago, approximately 10 separate teams of federal agents fanned out across the city to conduct operations there.
NBC News rode along with one of the teams in Chicago and was granted rare access to the ICE processing facility where detainees are being taken to be photographed, fingerprinted and held until there are deportation flights.
At the same time, the number of undocumented immigrants rounded up by authorities on Sunday was much higher than first reported. NBC News has learned immigration authorities made close to 1,200 arrests on Sunday, up from the 956 reported by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement on social media. And nearly half of those detained do not have criminal records. That's according to a senior Trump administration official.
President Trump and administration officials have repeatedly said they would prioritize the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes. Anand, your thoughts on this?
ANAND GIRIDHARADAS: I think there's always this gap between what they say they're going to do and what they do. And that is because what Donald Trump is interested in is using genuine public concerns that are out there and weaponizing them to then do, you know, much more sweeping things for which there is no mandate.
So in this example, I was on with you last week when we were talking about polling that shows there is support in the country for deporting undocumented people with criminal records. There is support for that. So Donald Trump will talk about that and then kind of run on that.
And then, as you're seeing in the reporting just now, what they actually do behind the scenes, they trust will not really get out. And it's part of a different agenda they have, which is really to make America white again, which is part of their attack on everything from birthright citizenship to any number of programs, aid freezing, various forms of aid that real people depend on. They have an agenda to make it harder for regular people to live in this country and for immigrants to have to live in worry about whether they have their papers.
We are going to become a kind of check-your-papers society in the blink of an eye. And there's no mandate for that, but that is what folks like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon and others around the president actually want. They want to change the very fabric of this country, something for which there is not that same mandate.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: So, Anand, we know there's a showman part of this. We know that this is partially a spectacle for political points. How do we know it? Well, the latest evidence is newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem right now is live tweeting. She's live tweeting an immigration raid in New York City, right here in New York City, right now. She's posted a few times. this morning, landing in New York, and now they're carrying out this raid.
She is saying the person that this latest clip shows is someone who does have a criminal record. But there's also been reporting that Donald Trump is unhappy, actually, that these numbers aren't higher in the first week of his term.
And that raises that tension point. If this does go, and more and more, we've already seen it happen some, but more and more people who do not have criminal records are indeed rounded up. Do you think that's the flashpoint for some sort of real pushback, public outcry, the sort of protest movement, at least to this point, we haven't seen in this second Trump term?
ANAND: Here's what I think the real tipping point is and will be. The thing that I would say Donald Trump deserves most praise for is that he intuited in 2016 and then again in ‘24, that there was an emotion out there among many, many people of feeling undefended, of feeling unseen and unheard by the system, of feeling defenseless against chaos and entropy.
And that political emotion was underserved, was underrecognized by those of us in the media, was underserved by the Democratic Party, was underserved by his own different flavor of Republicans. And he was able to see that. People wanted to be advocated for.
Now, I have every quibble with every actual thing he wanted to do to advocate for them, but he won for a reason. He won because he was able to see that. When you start having Gestapo raids in America, and we start becoming a country where, as in East Germany, a knock on the door is the thing people are thinking about instead of the brilliant idea they want to go create, then we are moving very, very far from the president worrying about what regular people need.
He is distracting people with this flurry of activity. But none of this, none of these images you're seeing are gonna make your life better. None of these things — contrary to popular belief — have anything to do with the still high price of eggs. None of these things will make it easier to start a business. None of these things will make it easier for people to get the education they need, change their lives, leave their kids better off. This is all a distraction shock and awe as you said earlier so that Donald Trump can do one thing — and you saw at the inauguration, telegraphed to you — enrich his billionaire cronies enrich his oligarch friends.
That is what he is actually doing when he's not busy releasing his crypto coins, and all of this is sort of bread and circuses for people to stare at while he's robbing you from the back.
“ … bread and circuses to stare at while he’s stabbing you in the back,” brilliantly said; that’s it in a nutshell. We need you to make sense of the statistics and motives. Will keep your phrases in my pocket so that when I’m asked, I don’t have to talk in circles.
Well said Anand. I’ve heard several Democratic leaders say that their strategy now is to let the Republicans get things done their way since they have the majority they’ve longed for but at the expense of the American people and Democracy?! The silence of a visible and valiant COUNTERFORCE not RESISTANCE is deafening.
I’m a leadership coach focused on teaching individuals and organizations to prioritize the common good over narrow self-interest, leveraging the political will to do Good that enables us to lead with vision, conviction to overcome all obstacles, and integrity that inspires others’ commitment to the cause.
We need more leaders like this and I’m willing to do my part because WE the people cannot sit idly by while chaos and confusion undermine and silence the best of who we are!
Yes, outright theft by those who were at the regime’s ceremony, aka “inauguration. But this “win” was possible only by the brazen and succsessful efforts of the trumpists to disenfranchise millions of non-white people. Greg Palast has investigated in depth this disenfranchisement in the swing states: had all votes been cast and counted, the trumpists would have been overwhelmingly defeated.
Let's not forget that trump and his minions are also moving to disenfranchise women!
After a restless sleep, I woke up this morning with the tune "Puff, the Magic Dragon" running through my head, and these words: "Trump, the fascist dragon, lived and ruled one day. He tried to take this land away, our land called USA" It's up to us American citizens to make sure that doesn't happen. Resistance can start in many ways, even in song.
A 2024 post election survey by More in Common reports that 93% of Americans, Democrats and Republicans believe we need solutions to our immigration problems. Effective, durable solutions must be rooted in a compassionate and humanitarian understanding, where truth and facts, not narratives of hate-filled rhetoric drive bipartisan coordinated federal policies that recognize the failings of an antiquated immigration system. Wrecking current successful programs is akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water. That never has a good outcome. It certainly will not result in updated policies.
Thank you for you incisive analysis.The clarity and precision with which you make the case is much needed and appreciated.
Wow Anand! Thank you for being real. Mika could not even respond because she is part of that group with trump.
Thank you thank you thank you for your attention to these issues, for your caring, for your well- toned outrage, for your insights and tireless pursuit of the awful truths of this time.
Excellent points, Anand. I hope there is a protest movement around the country against these Gestapo raids.
DJT is a failed incompetent dictator. He has neither beliefs nor principals. His god is the dollar and his only prayer is how much he can get of it. He leaves the thinking to people like the architect of the 2025 project, Stephen Miller, Kash Patel etc. in a truly meritocratic society, they would have been begging for attention, not given positions of responsibility. Unfortunately, the Democrats are trying to match them in utter incompetency.
God help us.
Watching "Morning Joe" (or even reading this piece) is no longer an option since they made the pilgrimage to Florida to kiss Trump's "ring'. They are hypocrites.
Anand, thank you for your insight and willingness to try to educate the public about our fate that many of us did not choose, but are having to live with. I catch myself holding my breath and bracing for what’s happening and what else is to come. But I want to do something, to push back however I can. You are a light in the darkness.
Your capacity of explaining complex issues its refreshing a treasure reading your stories. I think you are one of a handful of special individuals thank you :)
And nothing can be done. . . . ?
Look to the courts. Also, given time one of two things will happen as people begin to see and feel the import of these extra legal raids--in terms of humanity AND their own pocketbooks when the price of many everyday staples goes through the roof. People will either rise up and organize to stop these predations or they will cower in solitude at home while the raiders continue to raid us all.
There's significant pushback already — it's absolutely not the case that nothing can be done, however lacking leadership has been so far.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/28/trump-spending-freeze-upends-washington-triggering-legal-threats-delays/