The situation for undocumented immigrants, mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean, is becoming increasingly tense in the United States, where the administration of Donald Trump has created a hostile environment and is urging them to leave

By: Roberto Morejón

The situation for undocumented immigrants, mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean, is becoming increasingly tense in the United States, where the administration of Donald Trump has created a hostile environment and is urging them to leave.

Migrants, many of whom have lived there for decades, report feeling afraid when going out to work, eating in restaurants or simply strolling through parks.

Official propaganda contributes to this uneasiness, as evidenced by a video published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The video attempts to "dismiss" deported immigrants, whom the government labels as criminals and delinquents without providing evidence.

Often, due to a lack of evidence, immigration authorities accuse detainees of belonging to gangs based on their tattoos and clothing.

In the video, which is full of cynicism and irony, Trump tells the travellers: 'Bye-bye', mocking the denunciations of human rights defenders, governments, churches and judicial bodies regarding the legality of such expulsions.

These bodies have criticised the exclusion plan for its lack of due process, the elimination of the presumption of innocence, and the demonisation of foreigners.

The 24-second footage is part of the aggressive policy, now escalating, against undocumented immigrants, whom the tycoon describes as invaders.

In the United States, massive raids are being carried out, even in public places, and immigration benefits such as the Temporary Protected Status, TPS, which Venezuelans benefited from, are being suspended.

Of course, more scandalous for Latin Americans and Caribbeans has been the abrupt deportation, without warning and legal procedures, of dozens of people to sinister places such as the Cecot, El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center.

Not only adults have been forced onto planes but children, such as the 19 who recently arrived in Honduras.

In this way, the Trump administration has more than fulfilled its promise of expulsions and now totals more than 13,500 people, supported by an obsolete law from 1798, the Alien Enemies Act.

Latin Americans and Caribbeans wonder how Donald Trump's administration can boast of respecting citizens' freedoms when it also considers the suspension of habeas corpus, a basic principle of justice to prevent abuses of power.