Welcome to America
When Cruelty Becomes Policy
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Donald Trump told Americans his immigration crackdown would target the “worst of the worst”—dangerous criminals who threatened public safety.
That was the sales pitch.
The reality has been very different. Trump's immigration dragnet has swept up tens of thousands of people with no criminal record at all. And children have been swept up too—locked in detention facilities with their families for weeks or months, where children have become sick, lost weight, regressed developmentally and suffered severe psychological trauma. One 13-year-old girl attempted suicide after allegedly being denied her prescribed antidepressants.
Since descending the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, Trump has preyed on fears and prejudices, casting immigrants as the enemy: invaders, criminals, contaminants. He has said they are “poisoning the blood of our country”—words chillingly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.
That rhetoric has been accompanied by a campaign of terror against our nation's immigrants, reaching far beyond the violent criminals Americans were told would be its targets.
Masked federal agents have seized people from streets, workplaces and courthouses. Families have been torn apart. People with no criminal record have been swept into detention. Children have been taken from schools and communities and put behind the walls of immigration detention centers.
Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights reported that 52 people died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of Trump's second presidency, as the mortality rate more than doubled. Federal immigration officers have shot and killed people during enforcement operations.
This isn't Donald Trump's project alone.
Republicans in Congress provided the votes and billions of dollars to vastly expand immigration detention and enforcement.
Trump supplied the rhetoric and direction. The Republican Party supplied the votes, money and political support.
Those who have participated in this campaign of fear and cruelty—or stood silent while it unfolded—will be forever stained by it.
This is about more than immigration. Scapegoating a vulnerable group—turning people into an enemy and using fear to justify abuses of power—is a familiar authoritarian playbook. Once a government persuades enough people that one group is undeserving of basic rights, moral boundaries move. Due process becomes an inconvenience. Cruelty becomes deterrence. A human being becomes an illegal.
America has every right to enforce its immigration laws.
It does not have the right to lose its humanity while doing it.
Once a country decides that some people are beneath the protection of its principles, the question is:
Who's next?
Sources
For readers who want to examine the factual record behind this commentary.
FactCheck.org: As ICE Arrests Increased, a Higher Portion Had No U.S. Criminal Record
Analyzes the Trump administration's repeated claim that immigration enforcement is targeting the “worst of the worst” and ICE arrest data showing a growing share of those arrested had no criminal convictions or pending charges.
The Washington Post: How ICE Is Arresting Soaring Numbers of Immigrants With No Criminal Record
Documents the dramatic increase in ICE arrests of immigrants without criminal records and the widening of enforcement beyond the violent criminals the administration has emphasized publicly.
Associated Press: Detained Immigrant Children Still Face Concerning Conditions at Texas Facility, Lawyers Say
Details reports of children being held with their families in immigration detention for weeks or months and experiencing illness, weight loss, developmental regression and severe psychological distress. The article also describes a 13-year-old girl's suicide attempt after she was allegedly denied her prescribed antidepressants.
Reuters: Trump Repeats ‘Poisoning the Blood’ Anti-Immigrant Remark
Reports Trump's repeated statement that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” and addresses the historical parallel to Nazi rhetoric. Yale professor and fascism scholar Jason Stanley said Trump's words echoed Adolf Hitler's warnings in Mein Kampf about German blood being poisoned by Jews.
Human Rights Watch & Physicians for Human Rights: Dying in Detention: Rising Deaths in an Expanding US Immigration Detention System
Finds that 52 people died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of Trump's second presidency and that the mortality rate more than doubled. The report also examines inadequate medical care, unsanitary conditions and other problems in the rapidly expanding immigration detention system.
Axios: How the GOP Spending Bill Will Fund Immigration Enforcement
Outlines the $45 billion Congress provided for immigration detention and family residential centers as part of the expansion of federal immigration-enforcement spending.