The raids were sudden; thousands collected in sweeps across the country. To make full use of the media, photo ops were furnished and accounts given to make clear that those who were perceived as part of the invasion—whom the president had accused of poisoning the blood of our nation—were to be deported immediately. These countries, the president contended, didn’t send us their best, instead filling our shores with “multitudes of men of the lowest class” who were without advanced skills, potentially violent, and thus a danger to the public. They had to go in order to keep the rest of us safe, we were told.
At the same time, the president pushed back against civil rights advances, ordering an end to diversity in the federal government while openly courting terrorists and white supremacists.
It all took place a little over a hundred years ago under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. The immigrant sweeps, said to target Bolsheviks and anarchists, were led by the zealous attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, and an eager subordinate at the Bureau of Investigation named J. Edgar Hoover. They would eventually net around ten thousand people. Yet the heroic efforts of one man, Louis Freeland Post, a genuine progressive who had fallen into his position as secretary of labor by pure happenstance, were largely responsible for thwarting Wilson’s plan and reversing the vast majority of the arrests, leading eventually to only around 6 percent of those arrested actually being deported.
It’s a safe bet that before today you had never heard of Louis Post. Similarly, if asked to name Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of labor, most people would be unable to identify Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the one-term congresswoman from Oregon who narrowly lost her reelection bid in a district that has swung back and forth in recent years.
This can be forgiven: Chavez-DeRemer, a rare Republican with fairly pro-union views, is known as a moderate in these intemperate times, and may in fact be Donald Trump’s least controversial Cabinet appointee. She was one of only three Republicans to support President Joe Biden’s PRO Act, which sought to expand worker protections and ease organizing efforts. She’s also supported bipartisan legislation such as the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, described as a bill intended to “secure the rights of public employees to organize, act concertedly, and bargain collectively”; a bill to protect TSA workers; commonsense railroad safety legislation; and even efforts to enforce the proper labeling of compostable packaging, which sounds more like something that would come from a Democrat than a member of the GOP. But Chavez-DeRemer has been somewhat less forthcoming about her views on migrant workers and ICE enforcement. Democrats should thus bring a healthy dose of skepticism to her confirmation hearings.
Naturally, it’s not hard to understand why her appointment to Trump’s Cabinet has been overshadowed by others, with media attention instead zeroing in on a new defense secretary, in Pete Hegseth, who possesses little in the way of experience and much in the way of accusations of alcoholism and abuse; on the candidacy of anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services; and on the threats posed by Kash Patel, Trump’s choice to head the FBI, whose “enemies list” and accusations of a subversive “Deep State” in government could impact the Justice Department for the next decade.
Chavez-DeRemer, by contrast, has won both enthusiastic support from Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and somewhat more cautious support from Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Patty Murray, though neither has fully committed to a “yes” vote on her yet. Her confirmation hearings are unlikely to generate the intense scrutiny of nominees like RFK Jr., Hegseth, Patel, or Pam Bondi, Trump’s loyalist attorney general pick who appears ready to do his bidding.
Yet Democratic senators will be committing a dereliction of their duties if they fail to press Chavez-DeRemer on her views, particularly in relation to immigration and cooperating with ICE raids on businesses. Already we’re seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan carrying out Trump’s promised raids, at times without warrants or notification to local leaders. These raids, much like the Palmer raids before them, are less about a sincere effort to get violent offenders off the street. Instead, they are designed to strike fear into the larger law-abiding migrant populace, exaggerating the danger that population poses and using executive orders and a new theory of expansive presidential power granted by the Supreme Court to overcome legal hurdles. No regard is given to the disruptions that will be caused to families, businesses, and communities.
The parallels between the Wilson administration and today are not entirely analogous: For starters, while the raids conducted by Palmer and Hoover were often cruel, indiscriminate, and on shaky legal grounds, they were responding to some degree of legitimate violence, as politicians and businessmen around the country were being targeted by anarchist bombings. Even Palmer himself had been sent a bomb that could’ve killed his 10-year-old daughter. The estimated 11 million–12 million undocumented workers here now, by contrast, are overwhelmingly nonviolent and actually commit substantially fewer crimes than the average American.
It’s also important to note that Post had more power to stop the injustices of his time than Chavez-DeRemer will have now, since it was the Department of Labor that oversaw deportations in Post’s day. Yet there are some overlapping jurisdictional issues between Homeland Security and Labor, since it is the latter agency’s mission to protect workers and to regulate workplace environments (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for instance, is part of the department).
These overlapping concerns have largely been governed by a series of memoranda that stipulate how the two departments will share information, work together on enforcement issues, handle data collection, etc. While Trump can override these agreements at any time, coordination between DHS and Labor will still be required for many of ICE’s actions. Undoubtedly, the raids that Homan is conducting will result in more workers being detained. He’ll also need to acquire information to help him in his appointed task, much of which may come from the Department of Labor. It is therefore imperative that we discern Chavez-DeRemer’s views on these raids and her duties, as she understands them, to protect workers.
The former congresswoman has been somewhat circumspect so far. She supported the Dignity Act (or DIGNIDAD Act, as it’s also known), a bipartisan effort that would’ve increased border security and required asylum cases to be settled in 60 days or less but also would have extended work visas, allowed the Dreamers to stay in the U.S. (though without granting citizenship), and provided a path for those under “temporary protected status” and classified as “deferred enforced departure” immigrants to become lawful permanent residents. While some of the provisions were onerous—including having to pay back-taxes and restitution fees—the overall goal was to turn many undocumented migrants into legal residents.
Chavez-DeRemer has also acknowledged the inadequacy of our current immigration system and has pleaded for humane treatment of migrants, a critical factor now that Trump is making inhumane treatment the order of the day once again. In co-sponsoring a bill with Democrats to create courts with jurisdictional power over migrant children, she said, “It’s no secret that our immigration system is riddled with serious flaws, including in the immigration court process. Unfortunately, the current process can result in children being left alone to fend for themselves. Although a number of problems are contributing to this crisis, we are a compassionate nation—and we should make needed improvements to ensure vulnerable children aren’t abandoned in our immigration court system.”
This all sounds as if she might be the type to oppose the knock-down-drag-out tactics of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and her bulldog Homan. Nevertheless, we’ve seen how differences with Trump and his acolytes on issues can suddenly evaporate—we don’t have to look beyond his current vice president for an example.
Palmer based his authority to conduct his raids on the 1917 and 1918 Sedition Acts, intended to muffle dissent during World War I. The Laken Riley Act, passed not only with unanimous Republican support but also with 12 Democrats foolishly joining the GOP in the Senate and 46 doing so in the House, grants similarly extensive authority, permitting police to arrest someone if they’re merely suspected, say, of stealing a can of soda and then giving them over to ICE to be deported if they’re undocumented, with no due process. It essentially amounts to giving license to create a police state.
Any senator questioning Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, then, must ask her how she sees her role in either supporting or checking these efforts. Will she, for instance, work with ICE to detain workers—migrants and Americans—on suspicion of undocumented status? Will she share information on vulnerable Americans? What does she see as her responsibilities in this regard?
Democrats have gotten so used to bending over backward for Republicans that they almost seem as if they’re frozen in that position. The postelection period has been marked by a noticeable reluctance to take up any fight or even perform proper due diligence. One suspects they won’t want to make Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation hearing one of the more contentious ones when there’s so much else with which to contend. Yet we’re seeing unprecedented actions by a president who believes in governance by fiat, and we cannot be passive and caught off-guard. We need to seek answers in any forum in which they might be elicited. Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation process may be more revelatory terrain than many imagine.
