To Leave or Not Leave Trump’s America 2.0

Seventy years ago, the US Border Patrol announced that it had deported over a million migrants during Operation Wetback, a derogatory term used for Mexicans. Will history repeat itself, though on a larger scale and involving more nationalities? Millions of people are living in dread as they wait to find out more after Donald J Trump is sworn in as the next president on 20 January 2025. Ironically, 2025 will mark the 60th anniversary of the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act, which opened the door to non-Europeans who had been shut out of the US. About two weeks after Kamala Harris lost the election, I saw this startling headline in Newsweek: “Nearly Half of Los Angeles Residents Consider Leaving the US After Trump Win.” It was startling because, unlike the visceral negative reaction to Trump’s narrow victory in 2016, the public response in 2024 has been strikingly muted among anti-MAGA citizens. A Political Travelogue From a Post-Trump, Post-Truth AmericaA third of New Yorkers felt the same way as Angelenos, and the article also said that younger folks were more eager to leave the country than older people. But whether they’re young or old, how many Americans will act on this desire and head for the exit? For various reasons, most of them will realise, if they haven’t already, that their dream of leaving is . . . well, a dream. Uprooting themselves will be unrealistic.They’re mainly expressing shock, dismay, and sorrow at Trump’s re-election. Their wish to leave is their protest. Wanting to flee is contrary to wanting to fight. Nevertheless, those who think the opposition is resigned to Trump’s return to power may be in for a surprise when the ultranationalists and ultraloyalists get to work on his administration’s draconian policies. We’ll see how the resistance plays out. Meanwhile, exhaustion has set in and those who have tuned out are focusing on their families and the holidays. I’m also a resident who is fantasising about leaving the US, if not actively planning to relocate. When I mentioned to a progressive Democrat that I wanted to move to India, though I’m not an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) yet, he was horrified. “No, no . . . we need folks like you here for the resistance!” he said. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I wasn’t the activist type. Or maybe I was embarrassed. Nobody should take democracy for granted, especially now. In Electing Trump Again, the American Public Has Cast a Mirror Upon ItselfTrump's Win Shows That Despite Everything, the US Political System is RobustAnother friend, a Californian and my former classmate in India, wasn’t impressed when I told her about my wish. With Narendra Modi and the BJP still in power, she pointed out, the idea of living in our native land didn’t have much appeal for her. I could see her point. Whether we live here or there, the respective nation’s Dear Leader will be inescapable.In India last year, while the closest I got to the PM was when I saw gun-toting soldiers outside his residence, I could sense his presence everywhere, from television screens in living rooms and billboards on roads to tacky cardboard cutouts near national monuments. The PM was visible even on the Vande Bharat Express, where a continuously running film clip on a monitor showed him presiding over the inaugural departure of this celebrated train. The other passengers paid no attention to it, but I was mesmerised. Trump's Cabinet Picks So Far Reflect His Strategic and Idiosyncratic PreferencesTrump and the MAGA Movement’s Toxic Mix of Ignorance and Vitriol Cults, be it religious or political, are just as potent in advanced industrialised nations. In the US, as we wait for the 47th president’s inauguration, we have to brace ourselves for the sequel to the movie we endured when the 45th president was in office, from January 2017 to January 2021. The sequel, not surprisingly, will be harder to stomach. I realise that I’m speaking from a position of privilege. Being a naturalised US citizen, like my friend in California, I don’t have to deal with uncertainty and anxiety. Others are not so lucky, whether they’re documented or not. Those who crossed the US border without authorisation, or didn’t leave the country before their visas expired, are in danger, even if they’ve lived here for decades and are productive, tax-paying members of society. Criminals have been singled out for immediate deportation, but that doesn’t mean law-abiding residents with visa issues won’t be living in fear. Most distressingly, once the new administration takes over, Dreamers, who are shielded by DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), may be at risk, although they’d been brought here as children and had no say in their parents’ decisions. Those who were granted asylum or TPS (Temporary Protected Status) could face a new reality. And birthright citizenship, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, may be axed. Even those on valid nonimmigrant visas, such as H-1B and F-1, will be watchful. In fact, numerous American universities have urged their international students to return to the country from their winter break before Trump is sworn in. Trump 2.0 and India's Economic InterestsTrump 2.0: China Will Be Concerned About the Two TsOnly once, in all the years I’ve lived in the US, was I asked to show my ID because of my appearance. It happened when I was on an F-1 student visa. Another Indian and I were sitting in a Greyhound station, waiting to board the bus that would take us to my university, when a police officer approached us. Our student IDs satisfied the officer, who nodded and walked away without saying another word. Although I carry a driver’s license now, I’m not taking chances. I intend to make a copy of my US passport and keep it in my wallet. Isn’t America, as John F. Kennedy famously put it, a ‘nation of immigrants’? It is, but it’s a ‘nation of xenophobia’ as well, according to historian Erika Lee, the author of a book titled America for Americans.Lee notes that “just as racial progress and racist progress can happen at the same time, Americans’ embrace of immigrants and their fear and hatred of them have coexisted as equally strong forces shaping the United States.” I may find it practical to remain in the US for the next four years, but I’ve realised that I’ll be living in a different country, a country that’s been transformed by the 2024 election.(Murali Kamma is a managing editor and writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Views are personal.)Trump v Climate ActionTrump's Foreign Policy is Highly Personalised. So What About Israel and Ukraine?

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To Leave or Not Leave Trump’s America 2.0

Wanting to flee is contrary to wanting to fight.

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Topics: US President Donald Trump