Having fled China because of political persecution or for better economic opportunities, many undocumented Chinese men reject the message they're a threat to the U.S.

Summary

Undocumented Chinese men are alarmed by Trump’s plan to prioritize their deportation, citing baseless national security concerns about “military-age” immigrants.

Many fled political persecution or economic hardship and reject claims of being a threat.

Legal experts warn of racial profiling and expanded ICE raids, urging immigrants to know their rights. Deportation fears grow as China cooperates in repatriation efforts.

Chinese immigrants express anxiety over family separations and harsh consequences if returned, emphasizing they seek safety and stability, not harm.

Critics call Trump’s policies cruel and unjustified.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    71·
    3 hours ago

    Should be pretty easy for any Chinese citizen to claim refugee status, no? I mean basically every Chinese citizen is being persecuted by their government.

    Under international law, the US can’t deport someone who is pending refugee status

  • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
    129·
    1 day ago

    It’s standard fascist procedure. Always attack the weakest perceived out group first. Before going for the larger ones.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    38·
    21 hours ago

    If indeed focused on immigrants of Chinese descent, Trump’s deportation policies are likely to be challenged legally as a blatant example of racial profiling.

    Of course this will happen. It is racist, but that’s fine with them.

  • gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world
    387·
    21 hours ago

    I’m not racist or nothing, but the biggest threat to this country is the white man. It makes me ashamed to share genetics with these troglodytes.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            4·
            1 hour ago

            Cool. This is like how I’m also antisemitic for being a Jew who doesn’t support Israel.

            Of course, a lot of people (maybe you) don’t consider Jews to be white. Elon sure doesn’t. So maybe I’m not racist against myself?

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              1 hour ago

              I mean I’m sure you agree that being against the state of Israel or being antizionist doesn’t make you antisemitic.

              I don’t particularly know or care if the jewish people are “white” or not. Not really my place to say anyways I suppose.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                2·
                1 hour ago

                I also agree that white men have been responsible for more problems in the U.S. than any other group of people. Like all but one president.

                If you don’t know who is or is not white, how can you think it is even possible to be racist against white people?

                • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  1 hour ago

                  Traditionally racism that is based on statistics and aggregate numbers still counts. If someone were to say that black people are on average responsible for [insert problem here], even if it were true, that’s generally considered racist.

                  And, that’s a bit silly. I can call someone doing racist black caricatures racist against black people without knowing if some particular country’s population is generally considered to be black.

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      22·
      23 hours ago

      US economy gonna instantly contract 5% if all the hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants have to shut down when their workers get deported

      • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        18·
        23 hours ago

        If only it were just hole in the wall places…

        The local higher end places like sushi and hibachi joints are also staffed almost entirely by Chinese migrants around me. One of the places I worked for a while even had a weird arrangement to get people into the country, probably illegally (they didn’t stay with the company for more than a month before moving on to a bigger city, so I’m sure this was some sort of illegal immigration operation… none of my business.)

        • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
          14·
          22 hours ago

          We had a Chinese restaurant here years ago that ran into issues with that. The manager of the location would bus his kitchen staff in every morning. And they would close it and he would bus them home at night. None of them could speak a lick of English apart from the manager. Who was Korean. The kitchen staff was Venezuelan and all undocumented. This went on for years with kitchen staff all living out of a motel on an outer road near the river.

          • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            2 hours ago

            Venezuelan no-English kitchen staff working for a Korean manager for a Chinese restaurant?

            Fantastic mix.

  • ramsorge
    143·
    23 hours ago

    The gratitude I once felt toward the U.S for accepting me into the country

    Okay, so no one has actually accepted an undocumented person into the country. We all want them documented. We just have different ideas of what to do with them once they are “caught”

    • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      38·
      23 hours ago

      I have. And I know plenty of others who have. Undocumented people are not the problem. The problem is the system that forces them to be undocumented. We should make it easy to be documented and provide benefits for being documented. As well as making immigration easier. If we did all that. There would be hardly any undocumented people. And the problem with those people wouldn’t be so much that they were undocumented. But their reasons for being undocumented. We are forcing a lot of otherwise good honest people to be lumped in with a few criminals. In order to justify and fuel National xenophobia. That’s the sad honest truth. Because there’s no way we will ever document anyone and everyone that comes in across our thousands and thousands of miles of borders. It just human or technologically possible.

      • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
        21·
        21 hours ago

        We should make it easy to be documented and provide benefits for being documented.

        The 2nd half of that is already true as there are definitely benefits for being documented, one which is protection from being deported.

        The first part is trickier since there seems to be some confusion on what “undocumented” means. For instance if you’re already working with ICE then you are documented until the Immigration System makes its decision about you.

        “Undocumented” really means that someone is here without the knowledge of the authorities at all. Ideally the US Government would simply put a stake in the ground and grant amnesty for anyone already here and then tighten things up in the future. Unfortunately we already did that back in 1986 and while the “Amnesty” part got done the other part didn’t.

        Our immigration system is a dumpster fire of hodge-podged laws, executive actions, court decisions, and federal agency policies. Frankly we should scrap the whole thing and return to 'Ellis Island Style" until we can re-work it from the ground up to make it function correctly.

        Ellis is how my Grandparents got here and as a system it mostly worked.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          19 hours ago

          That’s a specious claim during the best of times. Considering we have a history of often deporting American citizens to Country they’ve never been to. As well as immigrants. And the fact that the Trump Administration orphaned thousands of children by doing the exact opposite. Though thankfully at Greek extra expense we were able to reunite many families. Though there are still many hundreds whose families haven’t been located and may never see their parents again. That doesn’t imply that that’s the way it is. Though it absolutely should be that way yes.

          Ideally the US Government would simply put a stake in the ground and grant amnesty for anyone already here and then tighten things up in the future.

          That’s a common lament of conservatives. It sounds great till you realize that there’s actually no way to do that. Otherwise we would have. Even if we spent every dollar of federal funding on useless walls they’re already circumventing. It wouldn’t fix it. Stationing the military across tens of thousands of miles would only succeed in spreading them thin and wasting money. If people want to be here. They will find a way.

          Ellis is how my Grandparents got here and as a system it mostly worked.

          Honestly, it wasn’t much better. It was weaponized against the Irish, Italians, Greeks and Jews. Much of my family predates Ellis and the pilgrims. We aren’t as fond of it.

    • HessiaNerd@lemmy.world
      14·
      23 hours ago

      Something to keep in mind. Entering the country without documentation is a misdemeanor. When people are fleeing political persecution they can’t get the appropriate paperwork.

      A lot (not all) of these people come in and turn themselves in. The policy is (was?) recognize that minor documentation issue and let them stay while it gets resolved. In that manner yes they were accepted, if only temporarily, while their documentation problems are resolved.

      • ramsorge
        5·
        22 hours ago

        I’m fine with that scenario. That’s “documented” in the sense that we know they are here. As long as they are actively seeking papers, I’m good.

        But it sucks to be them in 2025