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‘All. Invading is a crime’: Trump’s press secretary deems all migrants as criminals

It’s a scary, dystopian time for migrant people everywhere, as the Trump administration ramps up their mass scale deportation efforts. Recently, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that all migrants in America are criminals.

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Deportations were fairly common under the Biden administration as well, but the Trump administration made that a billion times worse, ramping up the daily arrests tenfold. According to the BBC, an average of 311 migrant arrests were made daily under Biden, while over 1,000 migrants a day have been arrested since Trump returned back to office. And it’s only going to get worse.

As reported by Axios, the White House held its first press briefing on January 28, 2025. Leavitt was asked various questions on the matter of immigration by reporters, with one asking: “Of the 3,500 arrests ICE has made so far since President Trump has come back to office, can you just tell us the numbers. How many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally.”

Leavitt replied with “All of them, because they illegally broke our nation’s laws.” She continued, “And therefore they are criminals as far as this administration goes. I know the last administration didn’t see it that way, so it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal. But that’s exactly what they are.”

It goes without saying, but what an absolute monstrous thing to say. This idea that a migrant person is by default a criminal simply for traveling to America is fueled by one idea alone: white supremacy. White migrants aren’t viewed this way, as it’s only the ‘undesirables’ (see: brown people) that get this treatment. Migrant people in America are currently facing one of the largest extermination and deportation campaigns in US history. ICE is making gestapo style mass arrests and putting families in concentration camps, creating a nightmarish fascist regime hellbent on corroding the rights of millions.

The Trump administration is keen on continuing to peddle the myth of violent immigrants. But, as NBC News points out, this is a lie, as crime rates don’t go up in cities that are more open to immigration. Unfortunately, 2024 Pew polling shows that 57% of the American population still believe that migrant people are dangerous, despite the overwhelming body of data saying otherwise.

On the contrary, migrant people are more likely to be victims of a violent crime, whether it be by white supremacists or law enforcement institutions like ICE. Fascism won’t stop until it has claimed the lives of every vulnerable person in this country, which is why we have to fight back at all costs.


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Michael Dawson
Michael Dawson (he/they) writes about media criticism, race studies, intersectional feminism, and left-wing politics. He has been working with digital media and writing about pop culture since 2014. He enjoys video games, movies, and TV, and often gets into playful arguments with friends over Shonen anime and RPGs. He has experience writing for The Mary Sue, Cracked.com, Bunny Ears, Static Media, and The Crimson White. His Twitter can be found here: https://twitter.com/8bitStereo