'The cruelty is the point': 'Bigger changes' coming for groups already targeted by Trump

Two already vulnerable groups, transgender people and undocumented immigrants, are feeling increased fear since Trump took office. Both groups face increasing discrimination and are changing their day-to-day behaviors. Trump has signed multiple executive orders targeting the groups as well.

“Regardless of how President Trump's executive orders shake out in the courts, experts say the widespread fear and micro and macro changes to daily life will have lasting implications for these groups,” Erica Pandey writes at Axios. "Life is already changing for members of both communities, in ways big and small — with bigger changes likely coming."

For many undocumented immigrants, fear of ICE raids has meant staying home, avoiding work and school. Trump’s presidency has affected documented immigrants as well, some of whom have begun carrying their papers with them.

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An immigration lawyer in Albany, N.Y., L.J. D'Arrigo, told Axios his "phone has been ringing off the hook."

Transgender people are losing access to crucial gender-affirming care and protections in the workplace.

"The messaging is, 'It's okay to discriminate against transgender people,' Corinne Goodwin, the executive director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Trans Equity Project, told Axios. "The cruelty is the point."

Trump signed at least four executive orders slashing trans rights. He banned trans people from women’s sports, signed an order saying there are two sexes and they are “not changeable,” barred trans people from the military and restricted access to gender-affirming care for people under 19.

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“The barriers and actual impacts are already coming hard and fast” for trans Americans, said Erin Reed, a trans rights activist and writer.

"For transgender youth, if your government is telling that they don’t want you, if your society is telling you that they don’t want you, how does that make you feel?" she said. "And the message to cisgender youth is that this is an acceptable group of people to hate and that this is an acceptable group to bully."

Trump’s executive orders have targeted immigrants as well. On Wednesday, the president signed an executive order to end federal benefits for undocumented people. Earlier in his presidency, he signed a controversial order banning birthright citizenship, which is being tried in court.

The consequences of Trump’s actions are felt strongly across the country. In Texas, an 11-year-old died by suicide after classmates bullied her by claiming her family was in the country illegally.

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“This week, the White House's X account shareda video of people in shackles preparing to board a deportation flight and called it ‘ASMR,’ referring to an online trend of posting videos with pleasant, gentle sounds,” Pandey writes.