Maltese residents in US say fear of deportation shapes daily life

Maltese residents in the United States say they fear being stopped by enforcement agents and deported from their adopted country, with some citing their appearance as a source of added vulnerability.

Despite speaking English fluently and holding valid documentation, Maltese residents say their Mediterranean features – especially their olive-toned skin – make them feel more visible, a concern they say has sharpened since Donald Trump’s return to the White House and amid a renewed federal crackdown on immigration that has turned deadly in recent days.

“I am giving you an anonymous statement for fear of repercussions of speaking objective truths,” one of the six Maltese people interviewed by Times of Malta said. 

“I am not a risk-averse person, I’ve even willingly visited conflict zones. Neither am I someone who likes to hide from saying what I think. Yet, here I am, giving you an anonymous statement for fear of repercussions of speaking objective truths.”

With the exception of two individuals, no Maltese respondent was willing to be identified when contacted by Times of Malta. Several refused to speak at all, claiming that even describing their fears anonymously carried risks. Others asked that no communication be carried out through social media platforms, fearing the exchange could be leaked to the authorities and they would be identified.

The interviewee, who asked not to be named and even declined to specify gender or state, spoke of coming home from Malta last summer, tanned and aware of the colour of their olive skin in a country where that physical trait can “stick out”.

They recalled feeling that “anything could happen”: being stopped at immigration, held without contact, with “due process out the window at the moment”, even though they held all the legal documents.

Their wariness reflects a broader climate since Trump’s election, one marked by aggressive enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal agents in US cities.

The tension reached a boiling point on Wednesday after a 37-year-old woman was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Thousands of agents have been deployed to enforce immigration and customs laws, but concerns have mounted over their hardline tactics and racial profiling.

People attend a vigil at the site where a woman was shot and killed by an immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Masked men with guns

For the Maltese residents contacted – all of whom are legal permanent residents or citizens with dual nationality – the tragedy is emblematic of a worrying trend, they say is pulling the US away from its traditions of due process and civil liberties.

“News of the shooting in Minnesota rattled me in so many ways,” said Michael Bugeja, a 73-year-old Maltese American academic based in Iowa.

“I am heading there tomorrow on the route to my wife’s brother’s funeral. Masked men with long guns would scare some people merely by the ominous way they look in their uniforms. Fight or flight naturally kicks in,” he told Times of Malta.

“But there is in many of us the notion that we no longer have a justice system in the United States. Trump lords over the Congress, and our Justice Department prosecutors are really only his personal lawyers. The FBI and Homeland Security also answer to him. And the Supreme Court has elevated him above the law.”

Trump’s motto is if you say the lies often enough the blind will eventually believe it- American Maltese Tony Busuttil

Bugeja, who has lived in the US for decades, says he is fortunate to live a retired life in rural Iowa.

“But, as an olive-skinned Maltese man and dual US citizen, I now must be mindful in my own country of being stopped to ensure I am not an undocumented immigrant. Of course, I will obey and be courteous. But on days like this, I miss the freedoms that my fellow Maltese countrymen enjoy every day.”

American Maltese Tony Busuttil voiced his opposition to the president and the current trajectory of US policy in stark terms.

“I totally oppose the actions being taken against immigrants – both legal and illegal – and in many cases against American citizens. Trump’s motto is if you say the lies often enough, the blind will eventually believe it.”

‘A night cleaning my phone’

Another Maltese national who holds a US Green Card, and who insisted on anonymity, said: “I have had people ask me whether I speak in public with my Maltese accent. Like if I open my mouth at the grocery store. Of course I do. This is the level of absurdity we’re facing.

“The last time I was travelling to Malta I went to a porch party a few days prior and the topic inevitably went to ICE. Questions changed from what I was looking forward to most to whether I was scared I wouldn’t be let back into the country. It turned into an almost grotesque scene, everybody staring at me and giving me instructions on how to travel with a burner phone, delete my social media and so on.

“It made me paranoid, but it would never stop me from seeing my family and friends in Malta. I figured that if they didn’t want me back in the country, they would find a way regardless of which phone I travelled with. I still ended up staying up at night deleting conversations and cleaning my phone.”

She added: “I’ve heard of people with Green Cards or study visas who were taken because they participated in protests. I do none of that, even though I’d like to. It goes against my nature. But I sit at home and do it for my own good.”

In some places, that anxiety has overlapped with tangible signs of enforcement presence. One interviewee recalled that, earlier this year, the tension on the streets with ICE and the National Guard being dispatched was so high that she stocked up on canned food and water purifiers “bunker style, just in case”.

I remain hopeful that people won’t turn a blind eye to what is happening and stop this very scary trajectory- Respondent

“I remain hopeful that people won’t turn a blind eye to what is happening and stop this very scary trajectory,” the respondent said.

And a Maltese woman living in California spoke about the intense polarisation in the country.

“There is palpable fear, and what I feel as an outsider is that both sides are fuelling that fear. From my experience so far is that there is no sense of moderation, and a complex situation is being simplified to generate more polarisation. So open discussion, with any of the sides, can be very triggering. I’ve never felt such polarisation in my life – not even in Malta in the 1980s,” she said.

A KFF/New York Times survey in November shows 41% of immigrants worry about detention or deportation, up from 26% in 2023.

The Trump administration is also proposing new rules that would further tighten its grip on who is allowed into the US, asking visitors from several dozen countries that benefit from visa-free travel to hand over their social media history and other personal information.