Let’s Talk About Migration

ByDiego Torres

This editorial by Diego Torres appears as the introduction to the July 2025 issue of Hablemos de Migración, a newsletter on migration issues published by the Frente Amplio de Mexicanos y Migrantes. We encourage you to subscribe. The English version of the June 2025 issue is available for download.

To talk about migration is to talk about fear as a tactic of control against people. The Donald Trump administration uses fear as a strategy of domination. Through the criminalization of migrants, mass raids, and political threats, it seeks to construct an internal enemy that justifies repression and strengthens its authoritarian agenda.

To talk about migration is to recognize that fear has been a constant throughout the recent history of the United States as a tool of control. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the George W. Bush administration promoted the Patriot Act. Act, legalizing domestic spying and preemptive repression. A culture of fear was established that today serves as a basis for justifying state violence.

To talk about migration is to understand that this logic of fear is being directed toward the migration sphere. Border control agencies were strengthened, budgets for internal persecution were increased, and the figure of the “internal enemy” was imposed: the migrant, the Muslim, the dissident. Fear served to legitimize wars abroad and violence against popular sectors within the country.

To talk about migration is to point out how Trump repeats that formula. The raids in cities like Los Angeles are not spontaneous responses to a migration crisis, but rather calculated acts designed to sow terror and provoke reactions that justify repression. Trump constructs his enemy: the migrant, the young African American, the activist, the governor who dares to dissent.

To talk about migration is to warn that these provocations seek to generate social unrest that justifies the use of the National Guard and reinforces an authoritarian rhetoric of “restoring order.” The threat of imprisoning the governor of California or anyone else who opposes his policies reveals the lengths to which a government that seeks to crush all forms of resistance is willing to go.

The protests in Los Angeles are not irrational or violent in nature: they are legitimate expressions of a dignity that cannot continue to be trampled.

To talk about migration is to denounce that the criminalization of migrants is a tool of division and social control. Presenting migrants as criminals or invaders fuels racism, reinforces stereotypes, and legitimizes institutional violence. It’s not just about deporting: it’s about instilling fear, destroying solidarity, and fracturing the population.

To talk about migration means debunking the official narrative that “only criminals are deported.” Most migrants are hardworking people who avoid any situation that might expose them. They live in the shadows, survive with dignity, and yet they are persecuted as if they were a threat.

To talk about migration is to denounce the campaign of criminalization against Venezuelan migrants, accused without evidence of belonging to the Aragua Train. This narrative served to justify their deportation to Bukele ‘s mega-prison, where many have been found innocent. The abuse has been such that even US judges began to halt these illegal deportations, orders ignored by the Trump administration.

To talk about migration highlights how, in the face of legal opposition, the Trump administration opted to deport migrants to regions with little media coverage to avoid public scrutiny. This strategy sought to sow silent fear while simultaneously generating a false sense of control in other communities.

To talk about migration is to recognize that, despite the fear, protests emerged. Across the country, thousands mobilized against Trump’s policies. Even people who voted for him began to reject the disproportionate use of force and the criminalization of entire communities.

To talk about migration is to analyze how the government responded with violence and media manipulation. Instead of taking responsibility, it chose to show only images of clashes, obscuring the legitimate causes of discontent. This cemented its narrative: migrants as the culprits, the state as the victim of the chaos.

To talk about migration is to understand that this strategy has profound consequences. It demobilizes, fragments, and reinforces the idea that rights are privileges granted by those in power. But it has also begun to generate responses from below: young people, children of migrants, workers, students, people of African descent, and the LGBTQ+ community are organizing to resist.

To talk about migration is to recognize that institutional violence is not new, but it is carried out with greater impunity today. The protests in Los Angeles are not irrational or violent in nature: they are legitimate expressions of a dignity that cannot continue to be trampled.

To talk about migration is to assume, from the left, the commitment to strengthen these resistances. We must denounce the politics of fear, build unity from below, foster critical awareness, and forge networks of cross-border solidarity. Because in the face of fragmentation imposed from above, only grassroots organization can build a new horizon of justice and dignity.

To talk about migration is to inform migrants that we are facing an extremely difficult time, but also to remember that, historically, migrants have known how to rise from the worst crises and emerge victorious. This time we are not alone. In the United States, a significant portion of the American population, which remained silent for years, has begun to raise its voice against the ersatz king that Donald Trump aspires to be. This is a moment we cannot waste. Unity among migrants, citizens, workers, and organized communities is the key to defeating the threat posed by Trump. Not even his military arsenal, arrogantly displayed in his parades, will be able to stand against the millions already protesting against injustice, authoritarianism, and the power of those in power.

Diego Torres is the founder of El Frente Amplio de Mexicanos y Migrantes, an organization founded in 2022 with the goal of strengthening the unity of the migrant community, contributing to the consolidation of the Fourth Transformation in Mexico’s public life, and advocating for immigration reform in the main migrant-receiving countries; as well as the editor of Hablemos de Migración.