Shock and disbelief: how Trump’s policies are reshaping immigration in the US
Minneapolis was the strongest and most focused show of force yet from ICE but their activities have been ramping up around the US. Picture: Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images
“I have enough friends in Ireland that all know this. This guy’s a laughing stock. They think Americans have lost their heads. They’ve seen this movie before when he was in from ‘16 to ‘20. But that was nothing compared to what he’s doing today.”
Given he's been doing this job for over 50 years, you get the impression it would take a lot to shock Boston immigration lawyer Brian O’Neill.
When the visited the Irish-American, whose uncle Tip O’Neill once held one of the most senior political jobs in the country as Speaker of the House, just as Donald Trump was taking over as president again, he had a good sense of what was coming in his line of work.
Visiting him again during the week of St Patrick’s Day in Boston over a year into Trump 2.0, you can see even he is surprised by how, in his words, “insane” the changes have been in a short amount of time.
“The Board of Immigration Appeals has probably issued a decision every week overturning what an immigration judge gave for relief, saying ‘you can’t do that, we’re changing that, we’re wiping out the precedent case that you relief on, and we’re making new case law’,” he said.
“And this is going on, you see them every week. The most recent one came out yesterday. Trump is fixated on this. This issue got him a big amount of votes. [But] nobody voted for this, nobody voted to override all due process rights.
In many cases, thousands of people with deep roots in the United States for many years have been arrested and are facing deportation — or have already been deported.
Some of them to countries other than their country of origin because of deals the Trump administration has made with those governments.
Over many months, immigration lawyers based in parts of the US have told the authorities are running roughshod over existing rights and processes available to immigrants seeking to fight their corner, and often ignoring directions from federal judges to change course or provide more evidence for their claims.
Even in terms of the judges who hear these immigration cases, it’s all been a political exercise, according to Mr O’Neill.
“We had 30 immigration judges [in Massachusetts] on 21 January 2025, the day Trump steps into office,” he said. “We had 19 up in Chelmsford court, and we had 11 judges in Boston. Today, we have like three judges in Chelmsford and eight in Boston.
“What do you think the message is? It’s ‘you decide the way I want you to decide, or I fire you’. That’s the Miler-Trump-[AG Pam] Bondi message. And it works. People got to put bread on the table for their kids too.
However, he added federal judges have been standing up to these efforts in numerous instances in an attempt to hold authorities accountable for abuses of due process and other laws.
The most tangible example of the immigration crackdown that international audiences have seen was the recent events in Minneapolis.
Thousands of ICE agents had descended on the mid-west state of Minnesota for Operation Metro Surge. Ostensibly the aim was to rid the city of violent criminals and fraudsters who had no valid legal status to be in the United States.
In reality, it brought terror to the streets of the city, saw two American citizens shot dead by federal agents, and the arrest of thousands of people — many of whom who valid claims to be there.
Mr O’Neill likened the situation of a police state terrorising citizens to events in Northern Ireland.
“That had to be somewhat similar police state to what Minnesota went through,” he said. ”In the midwest of the United States, they are the nicest people. If you stop someone and ask for directions, they won’t just tell you, they’ll give you a lift there.
Minneapolis was the strongest and most focused show of force yet from ICE but their activities have been ramping up around the US.
The Department of Homeland Security trumpeted new recruitment numbers to show they had more than doubled the number of ICE agents on the books last year, with an extra 12,000 agents on the streets amid a very obviously targeted advertising campaign.
“Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys,” says one ad on X, with the website join.ice.gov under it. “We’ll have our home again,” says another. While another opts for: “Be a patriot among patriots. America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need you to get them out.”
Those who signed up to “get them out” were also offered a $50,000 signing-up bonus, although you don’t get it all in one go and have to stick around to get the full amount.
Mr O’Neill also said the diversion to try to deport as as many as possible, rather than just criminals as Mr Trump had repeatedly said he would target, has had a knock on effect on people who had previously done their jobs of targeting those who pose a danger to society.
“They’re the FBI of the immigration world and they’ve some highly competent managers and investigators, and you bump into them occasionally in your career,” he said. “Homeland Security Investigation goes into so much really serious crime and they’ve all been pulled away from it. It’s just go and find illegals or people we suspect or people who aren’t white.”
Mr O’Neill, who has a photo of himself with John Hume behind his desk, said people he knows in Ireland are incredulous as to what’s going on.
“They look at it, they read the newspapers, they see the stories,” he said. “I’m sure some people have made up their mind and said ‘these people are just nuts’.”
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