Trump’s Securitization of US against Aliens and Immigrants Case Study: Latin Migrants

Abstract

This paper examines Trump’s securitization of Latin migrants and aliens in the United States (US) through law enforcement and legal political practice. Public citizens have divided opinion regarding immigrants, especially aliens, as they are undocumented and are deemed to destabilize internal public safety. Politicians in the US have also conduct political competitions in politicizing migrants through multitudes of official matters, and passing policies. One prominent example in politicizing migrant is Donald J. Trump, a popular unorthodox president of the US that views immigrants with hostility and skepticism. Trump antagonized the Latin migrants through the dangers they posed in the past combined with crime occurrences in his term, and justify protectionist policies by reducing border crosses through Mexico-US border and cutting down the number of Latin aliens and immigration in the country. Trump, through his famous Zero-tolerance policy, promoted attitudes that often encourage public citizens and law enforcers to view potential threats of immigrants, especially aliens. Trump’s campaign about Latin migrants changed the image of Latin migrants among Trump supporters as well as local law enforcers in viewing Latin migrants as a source of threat. This research finds that: Trump’s securitization of US against Latino migrants was lawfully and effectively projected through empowerment of federal level immigration and law enforcement agencies down to field officers.