As economic and political storm clouds gather, the Trump administration is trying to divert mass anger away from its failures and onto the most vulnerable and marginalized layers of the working class.
In the wake of the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, DC last November, Trump ramped up attacks on refugees from America’s failed “Wars” on “Drugs” and “Terror.” Meanwhile, the administration is trying to pin the problem of rising costs on immigrant workers.
Chickens come home to roost
Starting at the age of 14, the alleged National Guard shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, worked with Afghanistan’s Zero Units—CIA-backed death squads during the disastrous US occupation. Lakanwal and his family were among the 76,000 Afghans airlifted to the US in 2021 during NATO’s humiliating, disorderly withdrawal. The Trump administration granted him asylum earlier this year.
Following his resettlement, Lakanwal became erratic and socially withdrawn. According to The New York Times, “A childhood friend … said that Mr. Lakanwal had suffered from mental health issues and was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused.”
Trump cynically saw the shooting as a perfect pretext to ramp up his assault on immigrants. Asylum decisions have been suspended, all visa applications from Afghanistan are blocked, and the green-card statuses of hundreds of thousands from 19 so-called “countries of concern” are under review.
At time of writing, nothing definitive is known about Lakanwal’s motives. It’s clear, however, that the National Guardsmen are victims of American imperialist policy.
Trump rages against Biden for resettling Afghan refugees, but this was the only option open to the US imperialists. How will they attract collaborators in the next country unfortunate enough to face a US invasion if they refuse to protect those who served them in America’s longest war? While huge numbers of vulnerable migrants suffer repression, we can be sure that the US officials responsible for American crimes in Afghanistan will face no consequences.
Are immigrants to blame for inflation?
Meanwhile, amid collapsing poll numbers and the rise of left populism reflected in Zohran’s victory in New York City, Trump and co. are trying to deflect attention from their failure to curb inflation. Once again, immigrants are a convenient scapegoat.
In November, JD Vance said:
Housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million immigrants who were taking houses that ought, by right, go to American citizens. And at the same time, we weren’t building enough new houses to begin with.
In 2024, 30% of construction workers in America were immigrants. By driving these workers further into the shadows or out of the country entirely, Trump and Vance’s campaign of ICE terror is sabotaging the construction of new housing. An August 2025 survey of construction contractors shows that 10% of projects lost workers due to ICE raids, while 20% said construction staff had left their jobs over fear of ICE.
The ruling class terrorizes immigrant workers in order to drive down wages for everyone, but that’s not the only way immigration raids hurt native-born workers. As the Economic Policy Institute observes:
When there are fewer immigrant roofers and framers to build the basic structure of homes, there will be less work available for US-born electricians and plumbers.
Far from being the fault of immigrants, the affordability crisis is a product of capitalism itself. After the 2008 economic crisis, the ruling class was forced to pursue inflationary policies like artificially low interest rates, quantitative easing, and protectionism. The working class is now bearing the cost of these policies, resulting in political polarization and instability.
Class unity needed
Trump rode to power on a wave of indignation over inflation, but he’s incapable of doing anything to fix it. Instead, he hopes xenophobia will keep his administration afloat. The Democrats hypocritically denounce Trump’s repression of immigrants, but when in power, they pursue the same policies. Obama deported an annual average of 343,713 people, while Trump averaged 233,836 a year over his first term.
Capitalist chaos maintains itself by dividing the working class. The capitalists profit from imperialist war, mass detention, and deportation schemes, just as they’ve made billions from inflated consumer prices.
Effectively fighting problems like low wages and unaffordable housing—which weigh on all workers, wherever they were born—requires solidarity across the arbitrary barriers of nationality, race, and language. The RCA fights for exactly this kind of solidarity as a means of unifying and invigorating the workers’ movement. A united working class can win a workers’ government, which will make life affordable, end imperialist wars, and guarantee freedom, equality, and dignity for all.