Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance issued a stark warning about President Donald Trump's deportations in a new Substack essay on Monday.
Vance, a law professor at the University of Alabama, argued in the essay that Trump's deportations are putting American citizens at risk of being punished for exercising their First Amendment rights. She noted several examples of immigration officers infringing on the rights of citizens as is, and the Trump administration appears unconcerned about the incidents.
"It’s hard to watch," Vance wrote. "People being treated like they are less than human because of their perceived immigration status."
"To be clear, we are already past the point where it’s only people in the U.S. without legal immigration status who are at risk," she added.
Vance detailed several immigration raids that gave her pause. For instance, she noted the video of Presbyterian minister David Black being shot in the head with a pepper ball by ICE agents in a Chicago suburb. She also detailed another Chicago-area raid where one resident said ICE agents "treated us like we are nothing."
"There are now so many of these stories flooding the country, and they come with such rapidity, that it’s impossible to keep up with all of them," Vance wrote. "In other words, these incidents aren’t the exceptions. They aren’t unusual. And there’s every indication that they are tolerated, even encouraged, by Trump’s machine."
"Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals," she continued. "Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too."
"That’s how federal agents, who took oaths to uphold the law, are behaving under this administration," Vance continued. "And no one in the administration seems in the least bit concerned about it."
