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“First they came for the socialists; I didn't speak out, because I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists; I didn't speak out, because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews; I didn't speak out, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me; by that time there was no one left to speak for me.” Acknowledged after the end of the Second World War, with some variation in the list of victims, Martin Niemöller's message was straightforward: through silence, indifference, and inaction, Germans had been complicit in Nazi crimes. Today these words are being repeated in the United States; they are now meant to sound the alarm about Trump's ethnic nationalism.
At the beginning Trump talked about deporting “the worst of the worst” of undocumented immigrants—the rapists, killers, and other criminals. Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's immigration policy, made clear that agents should push the limits: they should detain anyone who is in the country illegally. By the end of January 2026, the number of deportations from interior arrests—as opposed to arrests at the border—stood at 230,000 and was higher than the total during the entire four years of the Biden administration.1 And Miller aims to go after those in the country legally as well.
Throughout the past year, the administration has been attempting to strip people of their legal status, rendering vulnerable to detention and removal millions of people who were not in the United States unlawfully. Here are the chief categories that Trump and company are coming after. First, refugees: the government suspended its refugee program, leaving thousands of refugees, already intensely vetted, stranded abroad, and then for the hundreds of thousands admitted under Biden, pausing the processing of green card applications and ordering a “broad review.” Of the 7,500 refugees who may be admitted—down from the cap of 100,000 in 2024—Trump wants the majority to be white South Africans. Then, those with T