Viewpoint: Trump won’t protect the innocent. Delaware must.

Trump's tactics have made them less safe, not more.

I've seen it firsthand.

In 2019, my office prosecuted a domestic violence case centered on an undocumented family in Delaware. The defendant violently attacked his partner, who bravely contacted the police and pressed charges. Reporting is, in and of itself, difficult for victims of domestic abuse to do, even without the added fear of immigration enforcement. Her courage and readiness to testify against her abuser helped secure his conviction and deportation.

Our office helped facilitate her application for a U visa, which protects otherwise law-abiding undocumented victims from deportation in exchange for their effort to support cases against violent criminals. These special visas, a bipartisan innovation, help us convict violent offenders, protect witnesses and victims, and make our communities safer. At their core, they are the government's solemn promise of safety and security.

Despite that legal protection, the victim was dragged out of her home in an ICE raid this year. Out-of-state ICE agents entered her home, took her into custody, injured one of her children, and pointed guns at another. They dragged her out of her house, in front of her terrified children. She was arrested, handcuffed, and crowded like livestock into a standing-room midnight flight to a detention center in Louisiana. She sat through the flight attendant’s safety demonstration knowing that she could not so much as reach for an overhead oxygen mask while chained not only at her hands and feet, but also to her fellow detainees—several of whom were children—on her left and right. She was repeatedly denied phone calls or access to her attorney. Her treatment was unsafe, undignified, and unconstitutional. Worse yet, her life was at risk: deportation would have meant reunion with her abuser.

Fortunately, that's not how this case ended. After weeks of work behind the scenes, our office and attorneys from the Community Legal Aid Society secured her release. ICE dumped her at an airport with nothing but the clothes on her back and no means of returning home. With hours' notice, a member of my team flew to meet her and escort her back to her children. I am relieved that her story did not end in tragedy—but I also know that her case was the exception, not the rule.

Everyone agrees that we should prosecute and deport violent criminals. I don't know anyone who believes that we should terrorize kids, break our promises, or deport innocents. That isn't public safety. Public safety means that any victim of crime, regardless of their immigration status, can call the police for help without fear. It means that witnesses feel safe testifying in courthouses; that friends feel safe visiting loved ones in the hospital; that legal immigrants feel safe attending asylum and citizenship proceedings; that kids feel safe going to school.

The Trump Administration has demonstrated its disregard for due process when it gets in the way of his cruel immigration policies. From our victim, to a four-year-old with Stage 4 cancer sent to Honduras, to the nursing wife of a U.S. Citizen deported to Cuba, the Administration’s haste and indifference have made a mockery of America’s ability to protect the innocent.We may never know how many people the Trump Administration has accused, nor how manypromises it has broken; what I know is that this will, in time, be seen as one of the most shameful episodes in our history.

All the while, the Administration is trying to force the states into complicity. It has repeatedly attempted to withdraw billions of dollars in unrelated federal assistance for natural disaster relief, for transportation infrastructure support, scientific research and law enforcement. They have threatened to arrest local officials who fail to bend the knee.

These are not idle threats; a Sword of Damocles hangs over legislators, judges and executive branch officials — including me — if we step out of line.

Delaware must obey federal law—but so must the President. We have successfully sued over his effort to unconstitutionally nullify the citizenship of American babies born to immigrant parents.

We have repeatedly sued to protect congressionally approved funds that millions of Americans rely on. We have released guidance telling Delawareans about their rights under the Constitution. We have worked to stop the deportation of an innocent woman. All in defense of the people we serve.

The Administration placed Delaware on a slapdash list of so-called "self-identified sanctuary" jurisdictions. Delaware has never self-identified as a sanctuary state. What we have done is stand up to defend the rule of law and protect all of the people of Delaware. Naming us as a sanctuary jurisdiction is a pretext for retaliation, for choking off assistance to the poor, and for show trialsagainst state and local law enforcement.

The list, down to its typos, illustrates a fundamental truth about this Administration: they do not care. They do not care about public safety, they do not care about the rule of law, and they most certainly do not care about the people of Delaware. If they care about anything at all, it is disposingof the last remaining institutional obstacles to exact revenge against anyone who does not bow down. President Trump has purged an independent U.S. Department of Justice. This list of “self-identified sanctuary” jurisdictions is a fig leaf: it cannot hide the underlying agenda of retaliation against the president’s political enemies.

One of my jobs as a lawyer is to see risk and to advise my client—the State—on how to avoid it. But my duty as a leader is to call out uncomfortable truths. And the truth is that we have reached a crossroads. America is a nation of laws, a nation of honor, and a nation of immigrants—but we have been given every warning that the President means to change that. We have walked a tightrope for the last five months, and it has bought us crucial time. Now, we have to make a choice: how do we keep our neighbors safe? Regardless of what we do, the sword is falling; our duty now is to protect the innocent.

The General Assembly has before it several bills that exercise Delaware's authority to go further in protecting otherwise law-abiding undocumented people. I have weighed these measures seriously. I have raised questions about their practical implications and worried about the retribution that they could invite. However, every passing day brings more cruelty and more proof that we need not invite retribution for it to be visited upon us. It's time. The General Assembly has my support in its strongest efforts to guarantee due process and the rule of law.

The Trump Administration is unwilling to protect the innocent; Delaware must.