Immigration advocates from three nonprofits called for collective mobilization against the Trump administration’s threats to immigrant communities at a Thursday panel hosted by the Stanford Humanities Center titled “After the Vote: What the 2024 U.S. Elections Mean for Immigration Advocacy and Reform.”

Project 2025 is a sweeping policy playbook of ultra-conservative social reforms that the project’s participants hope President Donald Trump adopts in office, including the dramatic escalation of immigration enforcement, fast-track deportations and expanded detention facilities. Despite appointing several high-profile conservatives associated with Project 2025 to his administration, Trump repeatedly distanced himself from the project during his campaign. In his administration’s first week, federal authorities arrested over 3,500 undocumented migrants. 

Panelists argued the administration could pose one of the most significant threats to immigrant rights in recent U.S. history.  

Sociology professor Asad L. Asad organized the discussion, which featured Erika Andiola, director of The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, Nicole Ramos, director of Al Otro Lado and Dara Lind, a reporter and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. 

Andiola arrived in the U.S. as an undocumented child in 1998 under the Clinton administration and continues to fight her mother’s deportation case. According to Andiola, a longtime advocate for the DREAM Act, Republicans have historically framed immigrants as scapegoats to justify broader policy agendas while Democrats sidestepped the issue altogether.

“There was this feeling in D.C.: don’t [criticize] the Democrats, because if we lose them, we’re going to get the Republicans,” Andiola said. “But then we undocumented people were like, ‘then what do we do? Our families are getting deported.’”

While nativism has long shaped U.S. politics, the panelists highlighted how the second Trump administration has invested heavily in anti-immigrant advertising campaigns, with Republican candidates and right-wing groups spending more than $117 million on immigration-focused messaging in 2024.

Ramos urged the audience to reckon with the historical patterns that have shaped immigration policy. From forced sterilization of marginalized communities to the dehumanizing treatment of Mexican laborers at the border, Ramos argued that the U.S. has long provided a blueprint for racialized oppression, including that of Nazi Germany.

“A lot of Americans say to themselves that they would have fought the Nazis,” she said. “But the truth is, some of them are liberal Germans that are just going along with the policy. And some of them, many in government, Democrats included, are the Nazis.”

The impact of race on public perception of immigrants was another focus of the panel. Ramos said that despite the Constitution providing due process under the law, immigrants of color are frequently denied their rights at the border. 

“We have one million European immigrants in the U.S., but you don’t see ICE raiding schools in Boston or Brighton Beach. We see them going to schools where there are going to be Black and Latino children,” Ramos said. 

The long-term impact of these policies is uncertain, Lind added. “We don’t have a lot of answers right now,” she said. “What is the government doing? How are communities going to be able to respond, not just the first time that ICE knocks on the door, but over weeks and months? Those are things that we need to figure out.”

Ramos called for the U.S. to examine its history to reckon with the root causes of immigration.

“There are millions of U.S. citizens living undocumented in developing nations, because they think it’s cheaper. And yet we’re offended by people coming to us from Latin America, where our imperialist policy has destabilized entire countries,” Ramos said. “Why is our comfort more important than the lives of people fleeing from El Salvador or Honduras, where we installed dictators simply because they were trending socialist?”

Andiola observed “a lot less public outcry” around immigration issues under the current Trump administration compared to the first one. 

“I’ve been feeling very lonely and disoriented. Hopefully we’ll get ourselves settled into the horror soon, and Americans will catch up to the reality that their eggs aren’t any cheaper. When that happens, we can come back and say, ‘We told you. Now let’s get to work,’” she said. 

The panelists outlined several ways that people can meaningfully support immigrant communities. 

According to Lind, supporting affected communities while educating less informed peers is imperative. 

Andiola pointed potential advocates at Stanford to think locally and support undocumented students or students with undocumented family members on campus.

“Figure out what your neighbor needs. Figure out what your friend needs,” she said.

Alexis Nunez ’27 and Jacqueline Martinez ’27, both of whom have taken classes with Asad, found the discussion powerful.

“I’m from San Diego, right by the border,” Martinez said. “Recently there’s been a lot of ICE raids. It’s obviously scary. It’s impacting the Latino community, my family, specifically, as well, so it’s important to continue to stay educated.”

Nunez felt similarly, and voiced her concern that widespread fear is accelerating the spread of misinformation within immigrant and undocumented communities.

Both pointed to student groups, such as Derechos, the Latinx pre-law society, and the Immigration Law Clinic at Law School, as key advocates on campus. However, they said the University has been less proactive in supporting undocumented students and addressing immigration-related concerns.

“I think Stanford definitely needs to be better at just informing — especially undocumented students and especially staff — of what to expect,” Martinez said.

The Daily has reached out to the University for comment.

In a previous email to The Daily, University provost Jenny Martinez shared a website with resources for undocumented students, including “information on how the university can facilitate scheduling a free consultation with an attorney through the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic of Stanford Law School.”

“We have a lot of work to do. We’re going to look for answers, and we’re going to keep fighting really hard for our communities,” Andiola said.