View from K Street: Trump’s gilded door

For all the clamor about ending eight wars, invading Greenland, creating an “A+++++++” economy, pardoning friends and supporters by the bagful, converting the DOJ into a vehicle for personal retribution, even tariffs—if people are asked to name a single signature Trump administration policy, the answer is immigration, or rather, the halting of immigration and the deportation of tens of thousands. It’s clear the only gold Trump disdains is “the golden door” embossed on the Statue of Liberty, greeting the ambitious, courageous, adventurous, and desperate seeking to build a better life and a better America.

Trump’s policy has been shocking in its cruelty and stunning in its breadth. According to DHS, 622,000 people have been deported and 1,900,000 more self-deported by December 2025. An additional 65,735 are in ICE detention. The forced loss of so many may have been rationalized were the anti-immigrant policy’s original goal actually effectuated—removing violent or dangerous criminals or those with standing deportation orders. But that hasn’t been the case. U.S. citizens have been captured, incarcerated, and shipped out. Green card holders are being treated like invading criminals. Families, once again, are being torn asunder. And perhaps most perplexing and unforgiveable, people in court to be sworn in as citizens have been swooped up and discarded like “garbage,” the word our president uses to describe them.