Deportation Tension
2016 Trump’s anti-immigration policy seemed like a lot of political grandstanding. All that “build the wall” and migrant deportation stuff drew a lot of media attention, but if I tuned out of the news, I probably wouldn’t have noticed anything. 2024 Trump’s anti-immigration policy is different. The aggressive deportations in Southern California are having a palpable effect.
I’m largely insulated as an upper-class suburban tech worker, but I’m noticing subtle changes. Renovation contractors are quoting hire prices and citing higher labor costs. The local HOA’s grass is overgrowing and un-mowed for months; presumably they lost their undocumented gardener. Nearby restaurants are cutting hours, short on kitchen staff. I never see taco trucks or fruit sellers on street corners anymore. The bus stops are a lot emptier.
My most direct touchstone to the situation is through our former nanny, a Guatemalan immigrant. She is a naturalized citizen, but many of her friends are not. Her group of latina nannies used to meet at the park every week for the kids to play, but a few months ago they noticed cop cars and ICE vans idling in the parking lot. Her cousin used to work under-the-table cleaning hotels and houses, but she’s afraid to leave her house. Her daughter, a regional bank manager, prepared bug-out bags and evacuation plans for their family.
Last week, a bunch of surveillance cameras went up all around our neighborhood park. I’m not sure why. There’s almost no crime here. We leave our car and house unlocked most of the time, and there’s usually bikes, shoes, and packages that would be easy to steal from our front porch. The local gossip was that it was related to the uptick in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) activity. The cameras mysteriously disappeared this week. Maybe ICE decided there were no leads here, or maybe it was something benign like traffic surveying. In either case, the tension and paranoia is palpable.
Oddly, this seems to be a socal-specific thing. Our nanny’s niece lives in Houston, and she says that it’s been quiet down there. Presumably there are a lot of undocumented migrants crossing the Texas border, but there hasn’t been a surge of ICE activity there. Perhaps this whole thing is largely a political culture war, with red Trump trying to provoke blue Cali.
My wife is afraid. She thinks that the situation might escalate and they’ll come after me. I think she watches too much news: I feel pretty safe. The only stories I’ve seen are of some Asian kid’s house getting raided on suspicion that he was doxxing ICE officers, and rising deportations of southeast asians. The former does scare me. Don’t bring your phone if you’re going to engage in any anti-authoritarian activity: big brother is watching your cell signal. The latter shows that this isn’t purely a latino issue, but I still feel insulated as part of a different caste. I’m a citizen born to citizens, I have no criminal record, and, callously, my skin is lighter.
This LAist article on South Asian deportation fears struck me the wrong way. The article cites rising fear in the community and reduced foot traffic in Little India’s shops. But there’s no actual incidents of detentions or deportations, just smoke-blowing. The article reads like a call for attention. “What about us? We might be victims too!” It strikes me as tone-deaf to the real damage to real victims. The article even uses “latinx”, a term rejected by the majority of hispanics. We should be supportive as allies, not trying to draw attention as hypothetical co-victims.
I do have a loose evacuation plan though. My canary in the coal mine are first-generation Chinese immigrants like my parents. They might be targeted under the premise of a national security risk amid the escalating cold war with China. My hope is that I have a buffer as a second-generation worker in a benign industry (video games). Thankfully, my parents are in-tune with many Chinese immigrants like themselves, spread across the whole country. If anything happens, I’m hoping they will provide an early warning for us to bug out.