With the start of April, brings the beginning of the second quarter of the year; who knows how we're only 25% into 2025.
Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to our #TrumpCheck series, the LACDP's weekly newsletter that holds the Trump administration accountable for its lies, deception, and self-serving actions.
Mass deportations of immigrants has always been a campaign promise of the Trump administration, racist policy that masquerades as 'securing the border.' Family detention centers are a shame of American history from Trump's first term, a nearly universally condemned practice of ripping children from their mothers and fathers with no way to track whose child is whose. In 2024, the Trump campaign promised to bring back intolerance of immigrants and they have done their best to deliver on that promise. I'm sure that Trump's largest campaign donor, who started his career in the U.S. as an immigrant from South Africa working illegally, or First Lady Melania Trump, who herself violated immigration law before she obtained her green card in 2001, see no irony in their support of making the immigration system more dangerous and difficult.
Read on for some of the lies that the Trump administration has spread about the practice of deportations in the United States.
- In January, Trump announced that Guantanamo Bay would be operating as a detention facility for undocumented immigrants, housing over 30,000 migrants.
FACT: Fewer than 400 detainees were sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2025 - more than half were sent back to the U.S. mainland, and less than 90 remain in custody at the base in Cuba today. The estimated cost of this stunt is over $40 million. Officials and departments who would be responsible for the operation were just as surprised as the public was when the announcement declaring Guantanamo Bay as a detention center was announced; none of the agencies involved had been notified of Trump's plan before the Executive Order.
- Donald Trump repeatedly promised to deport 'criminal aliens' as a basis of his campaign.
FACT: Deportations have not been limited to only undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds; green card holders and immigrants with protected status have been deported, sometimes to countries they have never been before. This includes a Maryland father with protected status who was sent to a Salvadoran prison due to an "administrative error."
- The White House announced a new app for 'illegal aliens' to 'self-deport voluntarily,' in a way that will allow them to file for citizenship later and return "legally in the future and live the American dream."
FACT: Immigrants rights attorneys are warning people to not use the app. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) bans those who remained in the U.S. for more than a year from returning for more than 10 years; there is no evidence that the administration will support a path to citizenship for those who report their self-deportations.
The inhumane treatment of immigrants who are in the custody of the American government is unconscionable and unacceptable. The first step to fighting against it is spreading the truth about what is really happening to our immigrant neighbors. If you had this email forwarded to you, you can sign up for the #TrumpCheck newsletter here.
We'll be back at defending the truth next week. Until then, stay tuned on our social media channels, linked below for information about the LACDP's fight against Trump.
In Solidarity,
Team LACDP
