09/30/2026
📈 The blueprint to Trump’s mass detention and deportation agenda has been hiding in plain sight for 30 years. Two laws enacted by President Clinton 30 years ago laid the foundation to turbocharge the detention and deportation machine by dramatically expanding who can be deported, making immigration detention mandatory, creating fast-track deportations, and stripping immigration judges of much of their discretion.
While Trump is far from the first president to use the ‘96 laws to expand the abuse of our communities, our current moment highlights the perils of centering our laws, policies, culture, and narratives on racist, criminalizing frameworks. Racialized criminalization is the through line from past to present, and we won’t turn the page without confronting it head-on.
🔗 Read the full op-ed from Laura Hernández, FFI’s Executive Director, today in Truthout: https://truthout.org/articles/clinton-era-laws-passed-30-years-ago-enabled-trumps-anti-immigrant-agenda/