By: Michelle Calderon 🇸🇻
Donald J. Trump was sworn into office to become the nation’s 47th president on Jan. 20, 2024. This marked the second time that he is president.
Despite the freezing temperatures, the streets of Washington, D.C were filled with seas of red hats, as supporters from all around the country and across the world joined together to welcome Trump back into office.
Even though Trump has been indicted and convicted of more than 33 felonies, he still has many supporters and won against Democratic Nominee, Kamala Harris, in what many news outlets referred to a close-tied.
Trump ran a campaign that focused on intense promises including, stricter immigration laws, secure borders, inflation control and higher employment rates.
Many of his supporters said that they voted for Trump because they believe the country needs stricter borders.
Chicago natives and brothers, Shawn and Zeke, who chose not to share their last names, said they believe their city has suffered from tremendous crimes, and believe that Trump can reduce these high-levels of crime by deporting undocumented immigrants.
“We need to enforce our laws and get violent criminals out of the country,” Shawn said.
When asked if they feel any sympathy towards families that might get separated in the process of deportations, they said they believe the government should be tough on undocumented immigrants.
“If you commit a crime, you get separated from your children,” Zeke said.
Stance Nicholson and his wife Nancy Nicholson were also in attendance and are supportive of Trump’s tough stance on immigration. The couple came all the way from Texas to show their support for Trump.
“We have seen the damage that the open border has done in our state, and we are all for what Trump is proposing with closing the border and the deportation of these illegal immigrants,” Nancy Nicholson said.
The couple also said that although they are against undocumented immigrants, they are all for immigrants who want to enter the country through a legal manner.
“We want people to come in, they need to come in the correct way. We don’t want the drug dealers and the criminals, that’s what we’re seeing now,” Stance Nicholson said.
Stance Nicholson added that will be happy to share the country with immigrants who come in with legal documentation.
“We will welcome people with open arms, but they need to follow the procedures and come in the correct way,” Stance Nicholson said.
While many Trump supporters believe that undocumented immigrants are committing an immense number of crimes, reports have shown that undocumented immigrants actually commit less crimes than United States citizens.
According to the National Institute of Justice, undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than native born-United States citizens.
“Undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native born-U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes,” the report said.
One demographic that played a significant role in Trump’s victory against Harris were Latinos, specifically Latino men.
According to an article published by Americas Society ,an organization that serves as a forum for dialogue on political and social issues, a high percentage of Latinos voted for Trump during the 2024 election compared to his 2016 election.
“Trump won 47 percent of votes among the Latino men. He also produced double digit gains in majority Hispanic counties along the Mexico border in Texas and in Southern Florida,” the article reported.
Despite reports showing an increase in hate crimes against Latinos during Trump’s first term, due to his harsh rhetoric, many Latinos still voted for him this time around.
Louis, who chose not to share his last name, of Peruvian descent and an identifier of “Latinos for Trump,” said he supports Trump because he has seen the crimes that migrants have committed all over his home state, New York. He doesn’t think it’s fair for a county to take in foreigners only for them to harm the communities.
“New York City is a mess right now,” Louis said.
Louis added that migrants have committed crimes against those closest to him.
“Unfortunately, some of my friends got mugged by migrants. We let you in, we do not want crime and trouble. We got gangs out here, we don’t want that,” Louis said.
Being a son of immigrants himself Louis does recognize that many immigrants come to this country to do right by it, and to genuinely build a better life for themselves.
“My mother came here to this country a long time ago and she became a citizen. She did it the right way, she’s now retired,” Louis said.
Trump had proposed the idea that if you get deported, you can come back and try to enter the country through a legal manner. He proposed this idea during a 2016 rally in Phoenix, Arizona.
“For those here illegally today who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only: to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else under the rules of the new legal immigrant system that I have outlined,” Trump said.
Louis supports this idea, of sending undocumented immigrants back to their country of origin, but allowing them re-entry through a legal manner.
“If you want to come back to the United States the right way, do it,” Louis said.
As his supporters continued celebrating his victory and his return to office, Trump was busy signing away executive orders.
One executive order signed by Trump was that the United States would only recognize two genders.
According to BBC News, Trump signed an order that would force Americans to choose between two genders only, male and female.
Trump addressed this order by saying, “as of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Many of his supporters are in favor of this order.
Stance and Nancy Nicholson believe that by signing this order Trump is simply supporting reality.
“It’s not really my opinion, it’s biology. There are only two genders. You can identify as other things, but you’re still only a man or a woman,” Nancy Nicholson said.
Another order that Trump signed that leaves many Americans in fear and uncertainty over their futures is an end to birthright citizenship.
According to an Axios publication, birthright citizenship has been a constitutional right for over 125 years and while Trump signed an order to take this right away, there will be many legal challenges against him.
“The order is expected to face legal challenges from state attorneys general since it conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and the 14th Amendment,” the publication said.
Whether the order will be successfully passed or not, Trump has caused massive panic to millions of individuals who were born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.
Trump’s victory and his return to office was met with lots of cheer from his supporters, and with lots of sorrow and disappointment from groups of people who will be negatively impacted by his presidency.