Contrary to popular belief — and contrary to certain Taylor Swift lyrics — it is not possible to tell someone’s immigration status or whether they’re “trouble” just by looking at them.
However, Donald Trump made a shocking implication in his first interview of his second term.
Speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, Trump made that comment about immigrants.
“Open borders with people pouring in. Some of whom, I won’t get into it, but you can look at them and you can say, ‘Could be trouble, could be trouble,’ Trump said in the interview with Hannity.
Trump says he can tell if immigrants are bad based on how they “look”: “You can look at them and say ‘could be trouble’” pic.twitter.com/v2Ft6ArEQj
— FactPost (@factpostnews) January 23, 2025
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
The comment, even after Trump issued multiple hard-line executive orders on immigration, which included canceling most refugee programs, seeking to end birthday citizenship, and even shutting down the government app for seeking asylum, was even more of a push into overt racial bigotry, at least in the tradition of the “they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists” speech from Trump’s announcement speech in 2015.
At least, many people on social media had that reaction:
WOOF WOOF WOOF https://t.co/giyhh5aCJH
— Racism Watchdog (@RacismDog) January 23, 2025
There is literally no other word in the English language for this other than racism. https://t.co/KyKTRblPLR
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 23, 2025
President against DEI admits prejudice: https://t.co/BOZT5EjPWm
— Joe Foltz (@PastorJoeFoltz) January 23, 2025
Per Fox News, the Southern border has seen “a sharp drop in illegal immigrant encounters in the first days of the Trump administration.”
“Numbers fluctuate sharply at the border on a daily and weekly basis, but numbers have been relatively low since June when President Joe Biden signed an executive order limiting asylum,” the Fox story said. “That followed a historic migrant crisis from 2021 that had shattered records repeatedly.”
But there has been some judicial pushback to Trump’s efforts, or at least one of them.
A group of Democratic attorneys general sued to block the birthright citizenship order, and on Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour issued a temporary restraining order blocking it.
“I have been on the bench for over four decades,” Judge Coughenour said in his order, per ABC News. “I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as it is here. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”
“I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar can state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It boggles my mind,” the judge added.
Featured image via screengrab
