I have a good friend who told me she was thrilled when Donald Trump eked out a win last November. I was stunned at her enthusiasm. “Why?” I asked. Topping her list: the deportation of illegal immigrants. “Our grandparents were legal.” She reminded me.

“Our grandparents came to America in the 19-teens…before there were quotas for how many Italians, Greeks, Syrians, and Turks would be allowed into the country.”

She told me that if only I watched FOX News I would understand. Well, I have watched FOX News. And understand why they ditched the slogan: “Fair and Balanced.”

“Illegal immigrants,” Trump tells us, include millions of murderers and rapists. “Bad People.”

So: Deportation. I envisioned an orderly process. Those here illegally would be identified, escorted to a departure point, and sent back to the countries they came from.

How wrong I was.

Coming Soon to a City Near You

 

We’ve all seen the stunning headlines, the videos on the news and on social media. Whether armed to the teeth and dressed in black military garb that makes them look like Ninja’s or dressed as sloppy campers in jeans and plaid flannel shirts, ICE agents roam the streets, besiege schools, workplaces, courthouses, grabbing or chasing suspected migrants and often tackling them to the ground. They leave weeping families, sometimes unattended children behind—watching, heartbroken as parents are dragged away.

We live in Manhattan Beach—just a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles. The National Guard Armory here has a parking lot that has been full of cars for two weeks; obviously the soldiers have been called up and deployed. I assume they are among those we’ve seen on television, dressed in riot gear, holding giant shields, guarding Federal Buildings from outraged protestors.

Why are people protesting? Aren’t the ICE agents merely enforcing the laws? Following the instructions of the President of the United States?

Sure, they are. But what about those laws? What about those instructions? Why are ICE agents so rough? So rude? Why are they unidentifiable—to the point where some could easily be mistaken for criminal kidnappers. Why are they carrying weapons of war? And what is the urgency of rapidly expelling from the country people who have lived and worked here for decades, people with families they are supporting, who will be left bereft of a breadwinner?

In May alone, ICE arrested more than 23,000 people. Few of those deported have been violent criminals. The vast majority are considered criminals only because they have violated immigration laws.

It’s notable that President Trump spoke of exempting farm and hotel workers from deportation roundups. Think about the reasons why. A rallying cry has been that undocumented workers (“illegal immigrants”) are stealing American jobs. (Although, ironically, they are simultaneously accused of “living off welfare” and taking advantage of freebies galore ) Employers are finding, though, that once these workers are hauled away by ICE there are no lines forming of applicants to take their places. Frustrated farmers are beginning to declare that if Americans want to “get rid of illegal immigrants,” they should stop eating!

In truth, hundreds of thousands of workers who are in the country illegally are doing work that no one else wants: laboring in fields, providing cleaning services, daycare and elder care; doing the ditch digging and heavy lifting on construction sites.

Many of those who have illegally crossed our borders and are grateful to have these jobs come here fleeing desperate poverty and/or terrifying gang violence.

Wouldn’t it make sense to give them legal guest worker status…or even a pathway to citizenship?

Congress has dragged its heels on this issue for decades. The reasons: a combination of racism and political expediency.

Think about it. Accusations that Trump “really won” the 2020 election are conflated with claims that non-citizens have somehow managed to vote. And here lies the political peril. If newly arrived immigrants do succeed in becoming citizens, how will they vote?

You get the idea.

Meanwhile, Congress is Asleep at the Switch

 

The issue of making the borders of the United States secure is a complex one.

The origins of the situations that so many from Central America are desperate to escape, can frequently be traced to United States interference in the region dating back to the 1950s, to the flood of guns being sold and shipped across the southern border by U.S. companies today, and to the epidemic of illegal drug use here in the United States that has made criminal cartels wealthy and powerful. Taken together, these factors bring to mind Pogo’s famous quote: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Meanwhile, Congress is still sitting on the sidelines while Trump has empowered thugs to roam our streets rounding up undocumented migrants as well as those who are look like they might be “illegal,” sent soldiers into the streets of Los Angeles, ostensibly to protect Federal facilities but in truth to intimidate those protesting Trump’s crackdown on immigrants. And millions are now being committed to the establishment of detention centers (so migrants can sit in cells rather than continue to work and contribute to the economy).

I’ve heard of contractors shutting down construction sites, paying their workers for the month and telling them to stay home. Of families who’ve invited longtime housekeepers to “live in” for the duration. Eventually, I suppose, Trump’s crackdown will negatively affect countless California businesses. And that’s how he wants it. Because we are a Blue state, and retribution is his modus operandi.

Last week I happened to stop by a neighbor’s house to discover the housekeeper in the kitchen weeping. “I cannot believe people voted for this,” she said. “I came here from Nicaragua because there were soldiers in the streets. Now, there are soldiers in the streets here. I don’t even care if I get sent back. Because now here is just like there.”

Given the latest developments in this appalling saga, we now have to be concerned for people who, instead of being sent back to their home countries, are sent to Sudan…or Guantanamo…or Alligator Alley.

Are these people really so dangerous? Is their presence among us so detrimental that we should be spending $170 million of our tax dollars on seizing them and sending them who knows where.

I for one would rather see cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, education, clean energy incentives, and protecting the environment restored.

Is America “Great” yet?