Democrats Are Already Throwing Immigrants Under The Bus

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s electoral victory, Democrats have wasted no time in criticizing immigrant-led organizations while approving “tough-on-immigration” bills that further criminalize noncitizens, effectively throwing the immigrant rights movement under the bus, according to an open letter signed by 80 immigrant rights advocates from across the U.S.

By moving further to the right, Democrats are doubling down on the same failed strategies that led them to lose the 2024 presidential election, advocates from groups like La Resistencia, Just Futures Law, and Freedom for Immigrants stated in a letter posted on Medium on Jan. 16. The Democrats’ shift on immigration, the letter states, mirrors “similar retreats on critical issues affecting their base, including attacks on trans rights, healthcare reform, and unyielding support for Israel amidst its brutal actions against Palestinians.”

Alarmingly, the Democratic establishment seems “to push for compromises that align with Trump’s nativist, anti-immigrant agenda,” the letter states, legitimating the draconian and punitive approach of the new administration.

Titled “We Say No to Failed Strategies that Will Lead to Mass Deportation,” the missive—co-authored by grassroots organizers Emilio Vicente, Oliver Merino, and Ramón Garibaldo—was prompted by an op-ed published in The Atlantic by Cecilia Muñoz, who led the domestic policy council for former President Barack Obama after heading the National Council of La Raza (now UnidosUS), and Frank Sharry, who served as immigration adviser to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign after leading the National Immigration Forum.

In the piece, Muñoz and Sharry suggest that immigrant rights activists share responsibility for Trump’s electoral victories over Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Harris last year. “The pro-immigrant movement convened no postmortem to reflect on the role it might have played in Trump’s rise,” the operatives argue. If “immigration has become a losing issue for Democrats over the past decade,” they add, it is “because elected leaders have followed progressive advocates to the left.”