MEXICANS AND AFRICANS ARE IN TROUBLE IN DONALD TRUMP'S ADMINISTRATION

Trump will enter the White House riding a wave of xenophobia and fear driven in no small part by his plans to drastically overhaul America’s immigration system. The president-elect has pledged to implement many tenets of his controversial reform package from day one and will now be emboldened by a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. Meanwhile, countless immigrant communities across America will no doubt be terrified about just how far he might go.
Trump’s promise to build an “impenetrable physical wall” across the US southern border will supposedly commence on his first day in office. But the kicker to his now infamous campaign slogan – making “Mexico pay for it” – will prove a near impossible deal to broker as experts predict the cost of such a construction could be four times higher ($40bn) than Trump estimated during the campaign. Aside from the economics, the humanitarian consequences of increasing border security as hundreds of thousands of Central Amerian migrants continue to flee violence at home and seek refugee in the USA are near unfathomable.

Trump’s administration has pledged to pursue a temporary ban on migration from regions he deems exporters of terrorism and where even his “extreme vetting” will not be sufficient. Although this policy has gone through many iterations, the legality of such a program will almost certainly be challenged in the courts by those who argue it will simply act as a smokescreen to allow discrimination against Muslims seeking to enter America. Nonetheless, Trump is likely to be buoyed by the assistance of Congress.
For the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US, Trump’s presidency will usher in an era of heightened uncertainty and paranoia, as the president-elect has pledged to ramp up deportations. Trump will triple the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and  seek to create a “special deportation taskforce”. Although the president-elect has claimed this taskforce will first focus on “the most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants”, Trump has made clear that any undocumented migrants could be affected. Up to 6.5 million people could be at risk of swift deportatation.

The key question for the new administration will be at what point, if any, can it satisfy the demands of its white, conservative base, whipped up by the rhetoric of the campaign.