A Who’s Who of the Incoming Trump Administration: JD Vance

As he prepares to take office, future vice president JD Vance has positioned himself as an extremist hardliner who unequivocally supports Trump’s extremist and devastating anti-immigrant agenda. Vance is among the loudest voices amplifying anti-immigrant hate and xenophobic narratives in Trump’s inner circle. He has consistently promised mass detention and deportation of immigrants and their families and has vowed to unconditionally back Trump’s plans to dismantle America’s asylum system and refugee programs, along with ending humanitarian parole programs, TPS, and DACA, detrimental actions that will strip protections from millions of immigrants. 

Spreading Misinformation 

In recent months, Vance made his most significant impact on the anti-immigrant narrative by spreading blatantly false disinformation that originated in extremist right-wing media platforms, claiming that immigrants in Springfield, OH, were “eating pets.” In one Tweet, he stated, “I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” His obnoxious claim placed immigrants across the country in danger, particularly Black and Haitian immigrants in Springfield and led to bomb threats targeting schools and city buildings. After placing immigrant communities in life-threatening danger and seeing how his rhetoric galvanized anti-immigrant hate, Vance doubled down. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Vance falsely blamed immigrants for FEMA’s resource shortages, further fanning the flame of anti-immigrant sentiment.

Despite Vance’s recent rise to the national spotlight, his extremist, anti-immigrant ideology has been evident throughout his career. As a Senator, he supported countless pieces of legislation aimed at undermining America’s immigration system and stripping protections from immigrant children, parents, and families. His anti-immigrant track record and ideology have only been emboldened by his rise to the vice presidency. 

A snapshot of Vance’s record on immigration, previewing of his agenda as vice president: 

• Vance celebrates mass deportation and vows to support the Trump administration in indiscriminately arresting, detaining, and deporting millions of immigrants across America.
• Following the guide of Project 2025, Vance has reiterated Trump’s promise of ending DACA and stripping protections away from approximately 530,000 young Americans. 
• Vance has vowed that the Trump administration will terminate all humanitarian parole and TPS programs, stripping protections from nearly a million immigrants who are legally living and working in the U.S. and face severe danger in their home countries.

In the Senate, Vance: 

• Co-sponsored legislation aimed at stripping sanctuary cities of receiving federal housing grants that empower millions of homeowners and has promised to cut all critical funding to sanctuary cities.
• Backed legislation that would mandate employers to use the E-Verify system and deny individuals minimum wage pay because of work authorization status.
• Co-sponsored legislation that would ban any President and their administration from admitting immigrants on humanitarian parole who are suffering from emergency or other serious humanitarian crises.
• Introduced legislation aiming to restrict universities that receive federal funding from hiring undocumented individuals, including Dreamers and students who want to work on campus.

• Backed legislation attempting to explicitly exclude DACA recipients from receiving health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act. 
• Co-sponsored the Secure the Border Act of 2023, the Senate version of the detrimental H.R. 2  legislation, which seeks to severely restrict asylum, deport unaccompanied children, jail immigrant families, resume border wall construction, among several other harmful policies.
• Backed legislation to cut funding from sanctuary cities and prevent them from receiving federal housing grants that empower millions of homeowners.
• Co-sponsored legislation that attempted to prohibit public schools from receiving funding from the Department of Education to provide shelter for recently arrived immigrants.