Under the shadow of US immigration policies, Muslim communities have always been marginalized by selective law enforcement and discriminatory policies. From the large-scale arrests of Muslim immigrants after the 9/11 attacks, to the radical measures of the Trump administration to expel illegal immigrants with “wartime laws,” to the violent scenes of border law enforcement officers whipping away, the survival dilemma of Muslims has long gone beyond a simple legal framework and evolved into a game against systemic discrimination. How to protect oneself in such an environment? The answer may be hidden in three key words: legal weapons, collective resistance, and identity reconstruction.
1、 Confronting the law with the law: seeking survival space in institutional gaps
The brutality of US immigration policies often wears the cloak of “legitimacy”. Trump’s use of the 240 year old Foreign Enemy Act to apply “wartime powers” to the expulsion of immigrants during peacetime is essentially a tool of the law. In response to this, the Muslim community needs to counter the law with laws: on the one hand, leveraging the litigation experience of civil rights organizations such as the ACLU and Democracy Forward, to challenge the constitutionality of policies; On the other hand, using judicial tools such as temporary restraining orders to gain breathing space. As the case of the Trump administration being halted by a judge for a deportation order in 2025 shows, the court may still be the last barrier to delay violence. In addition, Muslim immigrants should be wary of the abuse of the “fast track deportation” procedure – the 100 mile border limit from the Obama era has been broken, and any minor violation could become a reason for deportation. Hiring a lawyer, documenting law enforcement processes, and refusing to sign ambiguous documents are the bottom lines to avoid falling into procedural traps.
2、 Collective resistance: a survival strategy to break the ‘spiral of silence’
History has proven that individual silence only exacerbates the vulnerability of a group. In 2017, Trump’s Muslim ban sparked a wave of protests across the United States, forcing the policy to partially fail; After the exposure of border violence, the collective lawsuit of Haitian immigrants forced the government to investigate. Muslims need to build cross faith and cross ethnic alliances to transform personal experiences into public issues. In the era of social media, a video of law enforcement violence or a “I am also a Muslim” parade can potentially leverage public opinion. At the same time, communities should establish mutual aid networks: sharing legal aid resources, establishing emergency contact mechanisms, training on immigrant rights and interests, and consolidating dispersed individuals into organized forces.
3、 Identity Reconstruction: Discourse Competition from “Others” to “Citizens”
The essence of US immigration policy is the manipulation of identity politics. When Trump labels immigrants as “criminal gangs,” Muslims must actively compete for narrative power. Legal immigrants should emphasize tax records and social contributions, transforming ‘others’ into’ builders’; Illegal immigrants can embed their personal stories into a humanitarian framework by applying for asylum and disclosing family difficulties. More importantly, Muslims need to participate in the political process: vote, support candidates for pro immigration policies, become opinion leaders in the community, and transform their disadvantaged status into policy discourse power. When immigrants become a voting force, discriminatory policies will naturally encounter more resistance.
However, the path of protection is full of thorns. The policy of imposing huge fines may force immigrants into economic shackles, border walls and militarized controls are escalating deportations into state violence, and the appointment of conservative judges adds uncertainty to judicial remedies. The survival game of Muslims is not only a confrontation between law and power, but also a continuous exposure of the hypocrisy of the “human rights lighthouse” in the United States. When immigration policy becomes a bargaining chip for political parties, only by combining individual fate with institutional criticism can the iron curtain of discrimination be torn open and the cracks of dignity be illuminated.
**The ultimate weapon to protect oneself may be to dare to question: Who is the real ‘foreign enemy’ on this land?
