What’s happening to undocumented immigrants is not new to Black Americans

Latino migrants are the target now, but when Trump suggested sending American citizens to El Salvador, alarm bells immediately went off for Black people.

By Shalise Manza Young

None of what’s happening with undocumented immigrants is new for Donald Trump.

None of what’s happening with undocumented immigrants is new to Black Americans.

A clip of Attorney General Pam Bondi talking about Kilmar Abrego García came up in my Instagram feed last week. Bondi’s white pinstriped suit was accessorized with a sparkling cross, a familiar sight among women in the increasingly fascistic MAGA set.

Apparently the bigger the cross, the bigger the fiction, because not one word that came from Bondi’s mouth was grounded in reality. Kind of like every appearance White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, also a fan of oversized crosses, makes in front of cameras.

Bondi said, “hard stop, [Abrego García] should not be in our country.” That is patently untrue: He was granted legal status to remain here. Bondi: “MS13 is characterized, as it should be, as a foreign terrorist organization.” No evidence has been presented in court that shows Abrego García has ever been a member of MS-13, and, even if he were, merely being in a gang isn’t a crime.

And on and on she went. With every passing day, the story this administration spins about Abrego García gets more fictional as the administration works to convince the American people that it’s OK to snatch a man with no criminal record and the legal right to be in this country and send him to a foreign gulag with no due process.

He’s brown, so they don’t care. And they’re working hard to convince you not to care, too.

For centuries, similarly fantastical tales have been conjured about Black people to justify their subjugation, which is why this is all achingly familiar for the community and those with knowledge of American history.

The message, often buoyed by the media, has long been: They’re Black, so we don’t care, and neither should you.

Black men are dullards so they can’t be leaders; they’re violent, so they must be kept under lock and key. Black women are hypersexual, so raping them is allowed. Black people don’t feel pain, so doing medical experiments on them without anesthesia is permitted. They are never to be believed but frequently to be accused, evidence be damned.

Watching that clip of Bondi, my mind drifted to the horrifying story of Marcellus Williams. Last September, Williams, a Black man, was killed by the state of Missouri, with then-Gov. Mike Parson pushing the execution through despite evidence that Williams was innocent of the murder for which he was found guilty in.

Williams isn’t the only one. Stories abound of Black men who were put to death or given life sentences, losing decades with their families for crimes they never committed; the National Registry of Exonerations has tracked acquittals since 1989, and of the 3,663 individuals in its database, 1,952 are or were Black. That’s 53%. Black people are roughly 12.5% of the population in this country.

The way media covers stories also goes a long way in shaping public opinion and upholding the negative stereotypes about Blacks. Just a few days ago, a 20-year-old white man named Phoenix Ikner allegedly opened fire at Florida State University, killing two and wounding six others. His online footprint shows a fascination with Hitler and Nazis, and yet searching his name results in smiling selfies alongside stories of his difficult childhood.

But when teenager Trayvon Martin was killed by self-styled deputy George Zimmerman for the crime of minding his own business in a neighborhood Zimmerman thought Martin didn’t belong in, NBC News posted a story headlined, “Trayvon Martin was suspended three times from school.” After George Floyd was murdered in front of onlookers by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for being suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill, some outlets worked overtime to highlight Floyd’s time in jail and other issues. In both cases, portrayals of Martin and Floyd gave the impression that their deaths were deserved.

The kidnappings of Abrego García and all the men who have been disappeared to El Salvador have something else in common with Black people: no due process.

Floyd was killed after merely being accused. New York police killed Eric Garner for the misdemeanor of selling untaxed cigarettes in 2014. A year ago, four teenagers suspected of stealing a car died after the car they were in was intentionally rammed by police, causing it to wrap around a pole. No matter what any of those Black individuals were accused of or had done previously, they deserved their day in court, just as the Constitution promises.

See why all of this is so familiar? Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, presidential adviser Stephen Miller—they all keep screaming that the men they’ve trafficked to prison in El Salvador are violent “aliens,” even though reporting shows very few of them have a criminal history and were swept up on often ludicrous allegations, like the interpretation of an “Autism speaks” tattoo as one representing a violent gang.

They’re all following the lead of Trump. There’s 50 years of evidence of Trump’s racial animus, beginning with the first time his name appeared in The New York Times: All the way back in 1973, the Justice Department brought suit against Trump and his father for refusing to rent apartments to Black applicants.

He began his political career by widening his scope of non-white targets, calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, though he so generously added, “some, I assume, are good people.” Campaigning a year ago, he called undocumented immigrants “animals” and “not human.”

To be sure, Trump and his cronies haven’t backed off their racism toward Black folk. Moves made by defense secretary and enthusiastic Signal user Pete Hegseth—such as questioning in one of his books whether since-fired chairman of the joint chiefs, four-star Gen. C.Q. Brown, was promoted to his role because of his race; saying "the dumbest phrase on planet Earth is 'diversity is our strength'"; and banning the celebration of Black History Month in schools on military bases—clearly demonstrate his beliefs about Black Americans.

Latino migrants are their target now, but when Trump floated the idea of sending American citizens to the concentration camp in El Salvador, alarm bells immediately went off for Black people. History—both American and Trumpian—tells them who would be at the top of the list if or when that time comes.

Shalise Manza Young was most recently a columnist at Yahoo Sports, focusing on the intersection of race, gender and culture in sports. The Associated Press Sports Editors named her one of the 10 best columnists in the country in 2020. She has also written for the Boston Globe and Providence Journal. Find her on Bluesky @shalisemyoung.

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