Trump’s Deportation Frenzy Reaches Crisis Point Across Multiple Fronts
Fields go unharvested. Courts go unstaffed. Green cards under review. Somalis targeted ni Minnesota. The administration’s wantonly xenophobic enforcement machine hits overdrive.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement apparatus escalated on multiple fronts Monday, with operations spanning from farm fields to federal courthouses, as new data reveals the policy’s mounting economic and human costs.
The administration paused all asylum decisions nationwide, fired eight immigration judges in Manhattan, froze applications from 19 countries, and announced reviews of every green card issued during the Biden years—all while ICE prepared a major operation targeting Somali immigrants in Minneapolis. The moves came as new reporting shows enforcement operations have already shrunk the agricultural workforce by at least 155,000 workers, driving labor costs up and forcing some farms to close entirely.
What ties these disparate actions together: a systematic dismantling of the immigration system as it existed three months ago, replaced by what amounts to a national verification regime that now screens American-born citizens alongside immigrants seeking legal status.
THE LEAD: FARMS BLEEDING WORKERS, FOOD PRICES CLIMBING
The agricultural workforce has contracted by at least 155,000 workers since Trump’s immigration crackdown began, according to farming advocates who report that enforcement operations have created a climate of fear that’s keeping foreign workers out of fields across the country.
The numbers tell the story labor organizers and farmers have been warning about for weeks: crops rotting unpicked, labor costs skyrocketing, food prices hitting unprecedented levels. Some operations have shut down entirely.
Farming groups are now pushing for easier access to H-2A visas for temporary foreign workers—essentially asking the administration to create legal pathways after its enforcement operations eliminated the undocumented workforce that’s kept American agriculture functioning for decades. The irony isn’t lost on anyone paying attention.
Virginia Public Media reports the situation has reached a breaking point in some agricultural regions, with farms that survived previous downturns now facing closure. The H-2A program, designed as a legal alternative, remains backlogged and bureaucratically complex—a poor substitute for the workforce that’s been driven underground or out of the country entirely. [VPM]
EXCLUSIVE: THE DATABASE THAT KNOWS YOU’RE A CITIZEN
The Department of Homeland Security has secretly transformed a database originally designed to vet immigrant benefit applicants into a sweeping national citizenship verification system that now screens millions of American-born citizens, according to a December 1 letter filed by the Fair Elections Center, a non-partisan think tank focused on voter access.
The transformation happened quietly, without public announcement or congressional oversight. What started as a tool to verify immigration applications has become something else entirely: a system that flags and reviews native-born Americans’ citizenship status, raising fundamental questions about civil liberties and the expansion of surveillance infrastructure.
DHS hasn’t publicly explained the scope of the database’s new function or how many Americans have been screened. The Fair Elections Center’s letter demands answers. So do we. [Migrant Insider]
MONDAY AFTERNOON MASSACRE AT 26 FEDERAL PLAZA
The Trump administration dismissed eight immigration judges at New York City’s busiest immigration court Monday afternoon, including Assistant Chief Judge Amiena A. Khan. One former judge called it a “Monday afternoon massacre,” telling reporters “the court has been basically eviscerated.”
The firings at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan leave one of the nation’s most overloaded court systems severely understaffed. Cases that were already backlogged for years now face indefinite delays. Attorneys representing immigrants say they’ve received no guidance on how to proceed with scheduled hearings.
The administration hasn’t explained the rationale for the dismissals or announced plans to replace the judges. The message, intentional or not: the system isn’t meant to function efficiently. It’s meant to create a bottleneck. [amNY]
EVERYTHING STOPS: ASYLUM FREEZE GOES INDEFINITE
Trump announced Monday that the administration has paused all asylum adjudications indefinitely—no approvals, no denials, no case closures. USCIS asylum officers received instructions to freeze all applications while the administration conducts what it’s calling a “full review of security and vetting protocols.”
When asked how long the pause would last, Trump was blunt: “A long time.”
The freeze affects asylum seekers from every country, creating a legal limbo for thousands who fled persecution and violence. Cases already in process—some pending for years—now face an uncertain future. Attorneys report receiving no guidance on what “full review” means or what criteria might eventually restart adjudications.
The announcement came hours after a shooting in Washington, DC, though administration officials declined to specify any connection between the incident and the asylum pause. [NPR]
19 COUNTRIES, ZERO APPLICATIONS MOVING FORWARD
The administration suspended all immigration applications from 19 countries subject to travel restrictions, effectively freezing green card processing, citizenship applications, and naturalization ceremonies for nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
USCIS defended the move with language that reframes citizenship itself: “The Trump Administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right.”
That phrasing—”privilege, not a right”—represents a significant rhetorical shift in how the administration talks about American citizenship. The legal distinction matters less than the message: access to citizenship isn’t guaranteed by process or merit. It’s granted at the administration’s discretion.
The freeze also includes what DHS is calling a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern”—meaning thousands of immigrants who already received legal permanent residency during the Biden administration now face potential review and revocation. [Reuters]
MINNEAPOLIS BRACES FOR MAJOR ICE OPERATION
Approximately 100 ICE officers and agents from various regions have been mobilized for an intensive enforcement operation targeting hundreds of undocumented Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, according to reporting from The New York Times.
The operation is expected to focus on Somalis with finalized deportation orders, though ICE officials indicated others seeking legal residency may also be detained. Community advocates in Minnesota’s large Somali population have been preparing for weeks, organizing know-your-rights workshops and establishing legal support networks.
The deployment represents one of the largest single-community targeting operations ICE has conducted under the Trump administration. Why Somalis in Minnesota, specifically? The administration hasn’t said. The operation’s timing—during the same week as the asylum freeze and the travel ban expansion—suggests coordination at the highest levels. [New York Times]
OTHER FRONTS
RACIAL PROFILING: Federal agents detained thousands in Chicago and Charlotte during “Operation Midway Blitz,” with reports of U.S. citizens and green card holders zip-tied at work sites for hours before verification. Only a fraction of the 4,000+ detained had criminal records. [Chicago Tribune]
HEALTH CRISIS: Families report worsening chronic conditions and deaths among ICE detainees due to inadequate medical care, with new arrests amplifying fears about conditions inside detention facilities. [CalMatters]
KIDS AREN’T ALRIGHT: Educators report rising anxiety among children in immigrant families, with fears of family separation affecting school performance—a crisis under-discussed as enforcement operations dominate headlines. [Spectrum News 1]
SCAMMER EPIDEMIC: The American Bar Association and FTC report a surge in fraud schemes targeting fearful communities, including fake ICE operations run by unscrupulous lawyers charging desperate families thousands. USCIS’s “Operation Twin Shield” uncovered marriage fraud rings and schemes involving fake death certificates. [LAist]
WHAT’S NEXT
The administration has given no timeline for when asylum adjudications might resume, when the 19-country application freeze might lift, or what criteria will be used to review Biden-era green cards. Court dates for cases at 26 Federal Plaza remain uncertain. The Minneapolis operation could extend for days or weeks.
Meanwhile, the agricultural workforce continues to shrink, food prices continue to climb, and farms continue to close. The farming lobby wants H-2A visa reform. The administration shows no sign of prioritizing it.
Watch for community responses in Minneapolis this week. Watch for legal challenges to the green card review process. And watch for how long courts can function with a gutted judicial staff, assuming that’s the point.
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In my fantasy, all the comic book characters engaging this cruelty are forced to experience it somehow, including those sideline standers of the GOP.
The farmers voted for this and now we’re all paying the price, literally.