By: Juan Garces

As the prospect of a Trump presidency becomes increasingly plausible, there is one question our clients are asking on an almost daily basis: “What will happen to me if Trump becomes president?” Such a prediction would perhaps be more easily made were we dealing with a conventional candidate during a conventional election cycle.

But these are not ordinary times. This is an extraordinary period during which the frustration of the populace has given impetus both to the insurgency candidacy of Bernie Sanders on the left, as well as the neofascism of Trump on the right. It is important to understand why the latter is dangerous and poses such a risk both to immigrants in the United States, as well as to the very concept of human rights generally.

Firstly, Mr. Trump is a man accustomed to giving unquestioned orders. There have always been few, if any checks to his managerial power. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, businesses and corporations are not democratic institutions, but rather function basically as “unaccountable tyrannies”. That is the environment in which Trump has thrived for over 40 years and one can assume that a president Trump will not take kindly to the roadblocks posed by a recalcitrant Republican Congress or a centrist Supreme Court.

Secondly, the current economic environment creates fertile ground for an authoritarian leader to flourish. Indeed it is the current economy which has Trump supporters feeling fearful, frustrated, and looking for a scapegoat. A financial collapse like the one we had in 2007 through 2008, could potentially cause President Trump to declare a state of martial law where he takes complete control of all of American society and disregards the other branches. This would allow him to execute his fascist agenda including: the deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants, the banning of all Muslims from entering the United States, and the illegal killing of terrorist’s families.

While the execution of this plan would break both US and international law, and would be completely unworkable by almost any other President in almost any other context, one can now see a scenario developing where this ominous state of affairs might just come to fruition.

Juan Garces is a Human Rights and Immigration attorney practicing in Chicago. If you would like to contact his office, call (312) 702-1264 or visit 211 W. Wacker Drive, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60606.