According to a study by the Brookings Institution, between 310,000 and 315,000 people have been deported by ICE since the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January 2025. This is not much higher than in 2024 (285,000), but the methods have changed significantly. While under Obama, ICE primarily targeted individuals with criminal records, raids now take place in cities, supermarkets, or on construction sites. This hunt drives individuals in irregular situations to hide, avoid public places, and sometimes withdraw their children from school.
Multiple forms of irregularity
For the approximately 14 million undocumented individuals, the majority of whom are of Latino origin, the consequences are immediate: anxiety is constant, and the family’s life can change at any moment. U.S. citizens see their parents threatened with deportation, as well as siblings born abroad. Multiple statuses can coexist in the same family. Administrative irregularity – illegal entry, expired visas, rejected asylum claims – takes on various forms, and until recently, many were still able to work thanks to the informal economy or support from community networks. Today, this precarious balance is broken.
Faced with inspections, families organize their movements, avoid certain neighborhoods, and support each other through alert networks on WhatsApp or Facebook. Neighbors do shopping for those who are afraid to go outside. Bang on pots to alert ICE’s presence, which can intervene incognito and deploy anywhere, including places that were once considered safe, such as schools, churches, or hospitals.
Negative migration balance
This intensification of repression, initiated during the Biden administration and systematized by the new administration, does not have unanimous support. Silicon Valley, like several “sanctuary” cities, alerts about its economic impact: for the first time in half a century, the migration balance has become negative, and entire sectors – agriculture, construction, personal care – lack labor. Even the conservative Supreme Court has occasionally curbed presidential ambitions, emphasizing the importance of allowing targeted individuals to assert their rights.
Who are the undocumented individuals in the United States today? What are the different forms of irregularity and statuses? How have the living and working conditions of undocumented individuals radically changed? Work, school, health – how did they manage to live until now? How do solidarity networks organize? What are the social and economic consequences for the country as a whole? To answer these questions, Julie Gacon speaks with Marie Mallet-Garcia.
Sound references
- Yessenia and Maikol, both U.S.-born, remain silent as federal agents loudly knock on the door of their apartment and tell them to open it, which they never do, during a search conducted by agents in their building in Aurora (Colorado), reported by Reuters, February 5, 2025.
- A Mexican immigrant hiding at home in a report titled “United States: Migrants Live in Fear” by TV5Monde, February 2, 2026.
- A representative of a mutual aid association talking about the increased poverty since the return of Donald Trump in a report by Grand Reportage RFI, November 5, 2025.
- Exchange between protesters and prisoners at the Folskton detention center in southern Georgia, in a report by Grand Reportage RFI, November 5, 2025.
- Cardinal Joseph Tobin in a report by PBS, January 29, 2026.
Musical reference
- The Byrds – “Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)” (1969)
