What Is Capturing Immigrants Really About?
Is it about removing dangerous alien criminals? I have a dear friend who lives in Southern California. She has cancer and will die if she misses her doctor’s appointments, however even though she’s an American citizen with papers to prove it, she’s afraid to go. She should not have to be scared, but she has dark skin and was born in another country. And ICE has been targeting the hospital where she must be seen. They have been dragging out kids and handcuffing adults to beds for days after they get out of surgery. They are doing this without stating the reason, let alone following due process. They don’t seem to be checking their victims’ papers.
How can they pretend that targeting cancer patients is about removing dangerous criminals? How can they claim they care about law and order when their leader is a 34-time convicted felon?
I have an elderly relative in Chicago. She is white. American born and raised. She is afraid too. She told me today she could see seven helicopters flying over Lake Michigan. The other day it was twelve. What are they looking for in the lake? Are there foreign fish running in our waters? And on the ground, they are breaking down doors and arresting children and parents. I have seen the videos. They are brutal. Maybe a few of them are valid arrests, but none that I have seen are done with due process. And those masks? Even the Gestapo didn’t wear masks.
In 2024, 80.4% percent of people convicted on criminal drug charges in the US were US citizens. My cousin likes to go on cruises. She has been planning a trip for months. She says she hopes Trump stops bombing the southern Caribbean before she gets there in a few weeks. How is it possible that the US is bombing ships when we are not at war? How are we killing people without proof of wrong doing? How are we getting away with it? How is all this supposed to make us safe?
It was never about that, was it?
I have a family member in Alabama with serious health issues which make the idea of going without insurance terrifying. She’s likely to lose her Affordable Care Act healthcare due to federal budget cuts. I have other family members who will lose their SNAP benefits. SNAP benefits average $6.23 per person per day. Ever try eating for a whole month on $6.23 per day? That’s not waste or abuse, yet it will be cut. Millions of Americans are losing essential services that the government could afford before we dumped billions of dollars into chasing after children and law-abiding immigrants. It was never about saving us money.
I live in Jefferson County, West Virginia. While we don’t have a large immigrant population, the very reason we exist as a state separate from the Commonwealth of Virginia is that during the Civil War we refused to be a part of a state that was fighting to keep slavery alive. In fact, Harpers Ferry National Historic Park is dedicated to describing the John Brown Rebellion, an attempt to preemptively stop slavery in the US before war broke out. The Second Annual meeting of the Niagara Movement was held here at Storer College, our first Black college, because of its strong emphasis on the struggle for equal rights. Many of our great historical houses in Harpers Ferry were built and owned by Black people at a time when this was rare in the US.
Now President Trump has ordered us to remove descriptions of slavery from our National Park and to hide the great role in history that West Virginia had in ending such bondage. Nearly half a million visitors come to this historic park every year to learn about our past. How can they claim mentioning it is “corrosive ideology” when getting rid of slavery was our triumph?
We don’t have a lot of immigrants in our state, but we have a significant number here in this county. They are our neighbors. They fix our plumbing. They work in our stores. They are our doctors. They are our friends. Is this about stealing them away? Will we let them? They are afraid to go to protests, and I don’t blame them. There were more police at the Shepherdstown No Kings event than I ever imagined would be present in our small town. How is this happening? Will we protest on our neighbors’ behalf?
ICE admits using people’s tax records to find them and arrest them, so how can they say this is about them not paying taxes? ICE is showing up at their jobs, so how can they say it is about them not working? They are showing up at schools and going after little kids. How can they say it’s about getting rid of dangerous criminals? Only 8% of those arrested by ICE have ever been convicted of any crime. Approximately 8.1% of Americans have felony convictions and if you expand it to US citizens with any kind of criminal record is over 30%. Statistically, ICE is not lowering the crime rate, it’s raising it.
It was never about reducing crime.
It was never about any of those things.
What is it really about? Could it really be about blind prejudice against people who look different or speak with an accent?
