Trump Administration Sued Over Immigration Fines, Not for Causing Them
A lawsuit challenges the Trump administration's $1.8 million in immigration fines, a figure dwarfed by the moral, social, and actual costs of policies like family separation and 'remain in Mexico' that turned human desperation into a revenue stream. While the NYT focuses on the legality of fine collections, they skirt the broader implications: that such tactics normalized the dehumanization of
migrants, a tactic perfected by previous administrations but scaled to new heights by Trump. This isn't just about financial penalties; it's about the weaponization of bureaucracy. One might wonder how many of the politicians now decrying these fines happily voted for the endless border militarization budgets that fuel such apparatuses, often with bipartisan support. The focus on a lawsuit over
fines conveniently sidesteps the legislative victories that empowered such fines in the first place, allowing the system to continue while offering a palliative, after-the-fact legal challenge.