Hello and happy Thursday. It’s day four of Trump 2.0 and things are moving fast.

Today’s topic is immigration — though we could just as easily focus on the ending of civil rights-era protections against discrimination; the muzzling of key health and safety departments; or even the suspension of any pretense of equity with the removal of diversity employees from federal agencies. And the J6 pardons, how could I forget those?

So much is happening that in reality most of us can’t keep up, probably more of a strategy than flaw of the new administration — enough cruelty that we’re forced to ration our outrage.

But let’s break down Trump’s moves on immigration, which alone are enough to exhaust even political-news die-hards.

President Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office.

(Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The orders keep coming

So what exactly has Trump and his administration done around immigration? I’m going to use bullet points to keep it simple:

• Effectively closed the southern border to those seeking asylum, including canceling refugee flights from places such as Afghanistan, where thousands have been seeking to come to the U.S. after helping our troops, many hoping to reunite with family already here.
• Expanded a rule that lets people be deported with little administrative process from those close to the border who have recently crossed, to any undocumented person, anywhere in the U.S. who has arrived within the past two years — no criminal record required. So much for only going after the bad guys.
• Ended prohibitions against immigration raids in churches, schools and other “sensitive” places, which is already causing fear for immigrants.
• Ordered active-duty military to the border. Up to 10,000 members of the military forces may be sent to the southern border and other points of entry, though their exact duties remain unclear.
• Attempted to end birthright citizenship, which is in the Constitution, but also, do we trust the Supreme Court to care?
• And Wednesday, Congress moved the Laken Riley Act forward, making it likely it will land on Trump’s desk soon. It would require that folks accused — not even convicted — of theft and certain other minor crimes to be held in detention, vastly increasing the number of people in detention and raising some serious due-process concerns.

Those are only the big hits. There’s more, such as ending efforts to reunify children separated from families during the first Trump term.

The sanctuary fight

Then there is Trump’s attack on sanctuary cities, which is likely to be aimed largely at California, and Los Angeles in particular.

As my colleague Tony Barboza aptly detailed, one of Trump’s first executive orders on Monday included language “to ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds.”

The order was followed by a memo from Trump’s new Department of Justice that instructs its prosecutors to look for “state and local actors” who may be “resisting, obstructing or otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests.”

The attorney general’s memo also instructs that the feds “shall work with the newly established Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group within the Office of the Associate Attorney General to identify state and local laws policy, policies and activities that are inconsistent with executive branch immigration initiatives, and, where appropriate, to take legal action to challenge such laws.”

All that taken together paints a pretty clear picture that California — and particularly L.A., desperately in need of federal funds — is going to be a target for these efforts. The question is how far that goes.

Could we see Karen Bass arrested for failing to turn over the names of undocumented folks who have sought some kind of city aid? Could a school superintendent be arrested for enforcing state and local laws and policies that bar immigration officers from campus? Could a priest or pastor be arrested for granting sanctuary?

Freeze or fight

In theory, the answer to all of those is yes. But Kevin R. Johnson, an immigration law expert and professor at UC Davis, told me it’s unlikely.

He sees most of the sanctuary city talk as “saber rattling,” he said, and would be surprised if the Trump administration began doing raids in churches or public schools, or arresting mayors.

But also, he said, “All of this will create damage even if it’s not as bad as we anticipate.”

And, though the governor hasn’t been out front on the issue, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta is.

Bonta, a possible contender in the next governor’s race, also called the rhetoric “a scare tactic, plain and simple.”

“The President is attempting to intimidate and bully state and local law enforcement into carrying out his mass deportation agenda for him,” Bonta said in a statement. “My team is reviewing the U.S. Department of Justice’s memo, and we’ll be prepared to take legal action if the Trump Administration’s vague threats turn to illegal action.”

Bonta also pointed out that California law, specifically the California Values Act, which went into effect in 2018, “prohibits state and local law enforcement from using taxpayer funds to enforce federal immigration law, subject to several narrow exceptions.”

Still, these are threats that can’t be ignored. Especially since Trump followed up on them himself at a news conference Tuesday. Speaking about aid to Los Angeles, and his one-bill-to-rule-them-all, Trump specifically, once again, promised to use pressure about federal funds to coerce cooperation.

“I think we have a good situation,” Trump said. “Now it’s been, in some ways, made simpler by Los Angeles because they’re going to need a lot of money, and generally speaking, I think you’ll find that a lot of Democrats are going to be asking for help.”

That reality, he continued, “maybe that makes it more one-sided.”

So maybe arrests of local officials won’t be needed. Maybe the threats are enough to make our sanctuary cities at least sit quietly on the sidelines, no resisting or obstructing, while Trump does as he pleases in immigrant communities.

Maybe we will be forced to choose which desperation matters more — the plight of our undocumented neighbors, or our fire victims.

Or maybe we will refuse to choose, refuse to put one great need above the other, and take the harder road — one where pain isn’t leverage to be used to divide us, but instead a commonality we fight together.

What else you should be reading:

The must-read: ‘The Return of the King’: Trump Embraces Trappings of the Throne
The what happened: Trump DOJ gears up for immigration enforcement
The L.A. Times special: Column: Inside the Bakersfield raids that showed how Trump’s immigration policies will sow chaos

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S. If you haven’t watched this New York Times video on how tyranny advances slowly, then all at once, it’s worth your five minutes.

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