07/08 • IMMIGRANTS

In recent months, the federal government passed a sweeping new law nicknamed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes a record $170 billion in funding for border enforcement and immigration control. This expansion increases detention space, accelerates deportations, and gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the largest law enforcement budget in U.S. history.

ICE has since tripled its daily arrest target from 1,000 to 3,000 arrests per day. It has also confirmed that individuals can be detained even if they have no criminal record, including those stopped for minor infractions like speeding or unpaid parking tickets.

New detention facilities are being opened across the country. One in Speedway, Indiana, dubbed the “Speedway Slammer” by critics, is drawing concern for its proximity to a racetrack and marketing tone that trivialises detention. 

Alongside policy, rhetoric has intensified. Public figures and media commentators have amplified “replacement theory” conspiracies, painting immigrants as threats to American identity. While the facts consistently show immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens, anti-immigrant narratives continue to gain political traction.

Even long-time residents are not spared. In July, a federal court blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Honduran, Nepali, and Nicaraguan nationals, calling the effort “racially motivated” and influenced by xenophobic theories.

Fear has also spread into everyday spaces. Reports indicate that ICE agents are now operating more frequently near schools, hospitals, and churches, breaking longstanding norms that treated these as sensitive areas. Many undocumented families now avoid essential services out of fear.

These developments don’t exist in a vacuum. They reflect a larger trend of using immigration as a scapegoat for broader societal challenges: housing shortages, labour instability, and crime.

However, these problems have complex roots, and immigrants are often a simple, easy to understand target for politically motivated purposes. Cruelly, this is despite many immigrants being net contributors to both the economy and the communities to which they belong.