Trump’s Deportation Plans Signal the End of US Credibility
A cultural analysis of how breaking America’s promises will leave it isolated on the world stage.
Trump wants to deport more migrants. It’s a disaster that will affect more than the 1.8 million legal migrants he’s targeting. It will ruin the American military and intelligence services’ ability to work worldwide.
What’s Happening
Trump to deport legal temporary migrants
Deportation efforts part of broader rollback of Biden-era migration programs
Ukrainian and Afghan migrants face uncertainty under new policies
Trust in the US plummets
The Trump administration is preparing to cancel the legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion. This reverses America’s historic protections and is part of a larger plan to remove over 1.8 million legal migrants.
Trump told the Department of Homeland Security to effectively shut down legal pathways that allowed these migrants to stay.
Should immigration policies be based on what’s best for everyone - the nation and the world or for the political party in charge and their supporters? It all depends on your cultural perspective.
Why It Matters
America is individualistic. It’s an “all about me” culture, and that’s great—at times. It’s one of the cultural characteristics that’s made America great. That “can do” attitude led to constant improvement, innovation, and all the great things Americans (ironically, primarily immigrants) have brought to the world.
This is great for individuals, but governments can’t run this way.
By American definition, government is for the people—everyone, the whole, the greater good. It is not individualism; it's collectivism. Advanced democratic governments work from a collectivist, "we're in this together” cultural perspective.
Yes, some governments do operate individualistically. Countries like Libya, Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia, and South Sudan are not places people want to immigrate to, and people do not trust their governments.
So, when the US changes from a collectivist to an individualist government and starts thinking only about self-interest, trust rapidly erodes.
For 250 years, if you lived in another country and the US government (such as today’s CIA, the military, or the State Department) asked for your help, you knew that if you helped America, America would help you. You knew the American government worked on a collectivist, "we're in this together” cultural perspective.
For example, when the US invaded Afghanistan and needed translators, Afghans were willing to risk their lives and the lives of their families to help the US. They knew they were in it together with America. They would help Americans in Afghanistan, and in return, America would help them get a better life by migrating to the US.
But . . . when Trump gave up in Afghanistan starting in 2020, he changed the US government's cultural perspective to an “It’s all about me” culture. Many Afghans who were in it together with America were left behind because they were not American. Many were executed, including their families, by the Taliban. So much for trust in America.
When Biden took office and returned the American government to its long-standing collectivist, “we are in it together” culture, many Afghans who risked their lives for the US were able to migrate safely to America.
Along with those already in America, they knew they had made the right choice to support and assist the US. America was in it together with them to stop terrorism. They worked with America to beat back the Taliban, and America worked with them to migrate to the US.
Now that Trump is back in office, he’s again derailed what has made America great, trusted, and a world power. He has put government policy on an individualistic path. A way of running a government similar to Eritrea, Nicaragua, Sudan, North Korea, and other third-world dictators. And before you ask, yes, that includes Russia.
Unless the American government returns to the cultural ethos of collectivism, America won’t find help anywhere. Who in their right mind is going to help translate, warn of attack, or in any other way assist Americans when they know that the American government is selfishly individualist?
When that trust is gone, it’s gone for good. No one will risk their life for a government that only looks out for itself. If Trump deports these people, America won’t just lose migrants—it will lose allies, intelligence, and the very foundation of its global power.