What is the human cost of Trump’s immigration crackdown?

Good morning. A student arrested in the street for accusing Israel of genocide; a father of an autistic son, deported by mistake only for the authorities to say there was no way to bring him back; tourists held in solitary confinement with no explanation; and a scientist expelled for daring to be critical of Donald Trump. As the consequences of the White House’s hardline immigration policies unfold, they increasingly look like the behaviour of a police state.

“The lawlessness is the point,” Greg Sargent wrote for the New Republic: “these ‘errors,’ as you might have gathered by now, appear to be fully part of the design.” But it is also true that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been criticised for its treatment of immigrants for a long time.

Today’s newsletter takes four stories that highlight the fallout of Trump’s immigration policy. That’s right after the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘The cruelty has ushered in a new era of widespread fear’

It is not clear yet the full impact of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Between 20 January, inauguration day, and 10 March, Ice made 32,809 migrant arrests, according to government figures – more than double the daily rate under Joe Biden. Some 1,800 student visas have been revoked. More than 200 Venezuelans are languishing in a supermax prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center without any due process or way of getting home. Joanna Walters has a comprehensive rundown of the status of some of the most high profile cases that have captured the worlds attention.

The Trump administration wants the public to believe that all of this is in service of his mass deportation plan. In reality however, deporting people is complicated and often takes time. Deportations overall are actually down from a year ago, but that is in large part because many fewer people are attempting to cross the border from Mexico. Either way, the cruelty and seemingly arbitrary nature of the tactics has ushered in a new era of fear.

The man in the Chicago Bulls hoodie

Kilmar Ábrego García is a Salvadoran sheet metal apprentice, who lives in Maryland with his wife and five-year-old son. He has had protected legal status since 2019, because a judge ruled that he was likely to be harmed if he was deported. Despite that, he was stopped by Ice officers on 12 March, and then sent to Cecot, a notoriously brutal mega-prison in El Salvador.

Officials accused him of being a member of MS-13, a violent Salvadoran gang, on the basis of an accusation from an anonymous informant and the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie. No other evidence for the claim has been provided, although JD Vance made the false claim that he was a convicted MS-13 gang member.

The Trump administration has admitted that García was sent to Cecot by mistake, though officials have since reversed course. Despite a supreme court order to “facilitate” his return that was issued over two weeks ago, the White House has refused to bring him back. In a particularly chilling display of intransigence, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, visited the Oval Office, flanked by the entire Trump cabinet and said “Of course, I’m not going to do it,” when asked by reporters if he would return García. In that same meeting, Trump was caught on a hot mic saying: “The homegrowns are next”.

Either way, the lead lawyer for the administration said in legal fillings that if García were returned to the US, the justice department would simply deport him to a different country or move to terminate the order blocking his removal to El Salvador.

The claim that there is no way to secure García’s return looks particularly questionable because the US has paid El Salvador about $6m to receive the deportees. García was sent to El Salvador alongside hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants. The Trump administration used a 1798 law, the Alien Enemies Act, which allows deportations in times of war; the attorney general, Pam Bondi, has described the deportations as part of “modern-day warfare” against narco-terrorists.

Earlier this week, a federal court castigated the Trump administration, accusing it of ignoring court orders, obstructing the legal process and acting in “bad faith”. García’s case has become a lightning rod story, bringing much needed attention to the issue. However, it has also attracted significant ire from the government, with Trump directly attacking García. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, has had to flee to a secret location after US officials posted a court document on social media that contained the address of her family.

The PhD student

Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish-born PhD student and former Fulbright scholar at Tufts University in Massachusetts, co-wrote an op-ed for the student newspaper last year calling on her university to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from companies linked to Israel. That was enough for the Department of Homeland Security to say that she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organisation that relishes the killing of Americans”.

Öztürk was detained by Ice officers on 25 March. She was on her way to an Iftar meal to celebrate Ramadan. The video of her panicking as she is seized in the street by a group of plainclothes Ice agents with their faces covered, and then taken away in an unmarked car, is among the most unsettling examples of the Trump administration’s approach.

A federal judge ordered that Öztürk be transferred back to Vermont as she seeks to challenge what her lawyers call her “unconstitutional detention” in an Ice detention centre in Louisiana. The justice department has filed an appeal and requested that the judge pause the transfer in the meantime. Her attorneys have challenged this appeal, saying that, “Only one party—Ms. Öztürk—would suffer any harm from a stay, and that harm is irreparable”.

The US citizen

The case of 19-year-old US citizen Jose Hermosillo was first reported by NPR affiliate Arizona Public Media. Hermosillo was visiting Tucson from Albuquerque, but says he got lost, so he reportedly approached a border patrol officer to get some help. He was shortly wrongfully arrested for illegally entering the country. Hermosillo was held for 10 days at Florence Correctional Center, during which time his family provided evidence showing his American citizenship. He was released last Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that Hermosillo’s arrest and detention were “a direct result of his own actions and statements.” According to DHS, “Jose Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson Arizona stating he had ILLEGALLY entered the U.S. and identified himself as a Mexican citizen.” Hermosillo denies ever saying this.

DHS posted a copy of the 19-year-old’s sworn statement on X in which he responded “yes” when asked if he had entered the country illegally and showed a signature that read “Jose.”

What the government did not mention is that, according to his family, Hermosillo has intellectual disabilities, cannot read or write and has trouble speaking. They argue that he could not have known what he was signing. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes wrote on X, “my office has reached out to Ice for answers on how this was allowed to happen to an American citizen. It is wholly unacceptable to wrongfully detain U.S. citizens”.

The green card holder

The case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former graduate student at Columbia University in New York, is probably the most infamous example of a legal permanent resident being arrested and threatened with deportation for supposed antisemitism.

Khalil was targeted for his leading role in protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza on the Columbia campus, although the Trump administration is yet to set out the charges against him. He was detained at his home on 8 March in front of his wife, who is eight months pregnant. He is being held at a detention centre in Louisiana.

The constitutional right to freedom of speech extends to green card holders such as Khalil as well as citizens – but the government is seeking to use an obscure 1952 law which allows for the deportation of lawful permanent residents if their actions are deemed to threaten US national security. There is no allegation that he has committed a crime – but a government charging document said that his role in the protests mean that he presents “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

Earlier this month, an immigration judge ruled that Khalil is eligible to be deported from the US. Khalil’s lawyers are appealing this decision to the board of immigration appeals, which is part of the justice department. His case will likely appear before the supreme court.

Khalil wrote a public letter, published in the Guardian last month, that summarises his situation like this: “I am a political prisoner”.

“At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all,” he added. “Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child”.

Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, gave birth to their son 1,000 miles away without him. In a statement released on Monday evening, Abdalla wrote: “I welcomed our son into the world earlier today without Mahmoud by my side. Despite our request for Ice to allow Mahmoud to attend the birth, they denied his temporary release to meet our son. This was a purposeful decision by Ice to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer.”

What else we’ve been reading

• Amelia Gentleman profiles Charlotte Proudman, the barrister who has received both praise and acrimony for exposing misogyny in the family court system on her fight for relentless defence of women and children. Annie Kelly

• “You used to be fun, at least: a guilty-ish pleasure, aware of its own over-the-top silliness,” Rebecca Nicholson writes on Netflix’s serial killer series. “But as the seasons have ticked away, the satire has seeped out, leaving a mess of its own making that it tries, and inevitably struggles, to clear up”. Nimo

• Sam Woolaston braves an under 11’s Saturday football match to explore the rage and angst of the nation’s touchline dads. Annie

• You’ve heard of the manosphere, but Anna Silman takes us deep into the “womanosphere,” a parallel world populated by gender essentialist, anti-feminist influencers and organisations urging women to be “thin, straight, fertile [and] traditionally feminine”. Nimo

• Labour’s “great nature sellout” outlined in its new planning and infrastructure bill is bitterly condemned in this opinion piece by George Monbiot. Annie

Sport

Football | Jamie Vardy, arguably Leicester City’s greatest ever player, will leave the club after 13 years at the end of the season but insists he is not returning. Vardy was pivotal in Leicester City’s stunning Premier League victory in 2016 and the FA cup in 2021.

Cricket | Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has spoken about the years of trauma and despair he faced after his horrific car crash whilst filming Top Gear in 2022 and credits his return to cricket coaching as “the one thing that saved me”.

NFL | As this year’s NFL draft gets underway, Guardian sports writers look at the contenders and future stars of the field and make their predictions.

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