Just hopping on here to say that the very last post I wrote, about how we don’t necessarily need to totally spiral about the election and not everyone in the US is bad, did not age well. I was wrong. It is actually worse than my worst nightmare. So, sorry for wasting everybody’s time with that one!
I Take It Back
Wheat & Tares 
If I went to another country illegally, I would expect to be arrested and deported.
It’s a bitter pill to take that so many of our fellow Americans actually are racists, misogynists, nazi sympathizers, flat out idiots and/or so indescribably callous and short-sighted and selfish. But we don’t accomplish much by continuing to pretend otherwise.
So, there you go…
Elisa, glad to hear from you. I’ve always enjoyed your posts and hope to hear more from you in the future. For the record….I voted for Harris.
Yes williamellerychanning: But what if you were brought here when you were 3? What if you came here because of threats against your life/family in your home country? Even if you came as an adult, would you accept your deportation to a prison in El Salvador which no one has ever been let out of? For the rest of your life? Is this justice? It reminds me of Jean Valjean in Les Miz. Serving 17 years for charges related to stealing bread to keep his sister from starving. Justice?
Hope you’re one of many Elisa.
However, clearly you are a woman of sufficient integrity to be able to consider the idea that you could conceivably have been mistaken. It seems that may make you exceptional…
I support an orderly immigration system that includes border patrol and deportations. That said, I think we need to make the pathway to citizenship easier for millions already here. I also think that ICE is using illegal thuggish tactics to detain and deport people. Non-criminals shouldn’t be deported to foreign prisons.
I often hear the argument made in the first comment, that since people are here illegally they should just up and be deported, no questions asked. I have followed up often by asking what if they came to the US as a minor, what if they’re enrolled at a university, or what if they are performing vital functions in the agriculture and construction industries. “They should have come here legally,” I often hear. Well, what if they’re fleeing violence and extreme inflation or poverty? “It isn’t fair for them to be here illegally.” Why can’t change the laws to make it easier for them to become citizens. Reagan gave amnesty to over 3 million who were undocumented. What I don’t hear but I know many of these folks are thinking is, “I’m scared of darker skinned people and other cultures.” That’s at the root of so much of this anti-immigrant nonsense.
@handlewithcare I mean, I think there are a lot of people who (like me) thought things were going to be bad but now see that things are actually worse than we could have imagined.
I don’t know about people who think Trump is great changing their minds. Those folks don’t seem to be tethered to any kind of objective reality.
For those who say we really should deport illegal immigrants as saying Trump is doing a great job, fine but he is also deporting people who came here legally and did everything by the rules. He is threatening to deport people born here and people who have already obtained citizenship. He *IS* deporting children who are citizens. He has gone FAR beyond deporting those who are here illegally and is now (and has been long enough for even an idiot to have noticed) deporting US citizens and people who are here legally and threatening people who have been here legally for long enough to gain citizenship and been here legally for 30 years. He is using deportation with no trial or review as a weapon against political enemies. He is way past just deporting illegals. People who are here legally show up for their immigration hearing and get arrested and deported. Those are people trying to come here legally and he doesn’t respect the law, but just arrests and deport them. This is what Elisa is saying. It is so much worse than most of us suspected and it is past the point of being unconstitutional. Trump is into unconstitutional deportations and using it as a threat against any enemy. Your mealy mouthed agreement with deporting illegals is stupid at this point because he is also deporting *legals* and citizens.
Yes, Elisa. I hoped and tried to believe those who said it will be like his first term and congress will check him. Nope, nope so much worse. I even remember reading that conservatives hate change and look at what has happened and changed in 6 months and see another lie.
What they hate is democrats, liberals, and anyone different from them. They are okay breaking norms and rules as long as it doesn’t affect them or their team.
I have been surprised how many people are happy with the government mistreating immigrants, abusing the constitution, cancelling funding for federal agencies, increasing the federal debt, centralizing power in the presidency, so much corruption around the president and Republican Party and hurting American economy and foreign interests and power.
Let’s dismiss this fantasy of “doing it right”. I wanted to link to a story of a woman who was apprehended by ICE when she showed up to collect her Green Card but there are too many similar documented stories to choose from. People married to Americans. Americans detained at the border and not allowed back into the US. “Doing it right” is salve for biggots’ consciences.
The fact is businesses are being crippled by missing employees. Others are struggling to operate. Do you think it’s Americans who are scrubbing floors in hospital surgery suites? Butchering chickens for supermarket shelves? Bussing tables after Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago?
These folks are an important cog in our economy. Why else have farmers been complaining about immigrants publicly and quietly hiring them in droves? Why else is Trump conveniently exempting hotel workers? In some places, like here in Occupied Los Angeles, these folks are our neighbors and people we have known by name for a decade.
I get that the issue may have gotten out of hand but, if true, it’s because it’s been going on for decades. In 1998, after illegal immigration had already been a problem for half of forever, CA — frustrated with individual states having to deal with a problem that ONLY the federal government’s immigration enforcement could legally deal with — votes passed an initiative to ban schools from teaching in Spanish. Meanwhile, the over-burdened LA Unified School District now has to teach in upwards of 55 languages because of the chronic default of the federal government. But does anyone actually believe a genuine solution to a very complicated issue will come from Trump taking a sledge hammer to ONE already exploited and abused ethnic population? And cheered on by biggots who are only beginning to discover that this will include their wives and their employees and their mechanics and dishwashers and nannies.
If we’re going to solve this problem let’s do it together and intelligently with decency and compassion and in consideration of reality.
The entirety of the current administration is a nightmare. From immigration to frivolous lawsuits to cancelling Colbert (a genuine tragedy), the right wing’s penchant for revenge and cruelty is in full display.
I keep thinking there will be a groundswell of serious protest. It never seems to materialize. Why is this? Are the masses satisfied with destroying our country?
Where are the supposedly religious followers of the doctrines of Christ? Front and center in terms of doing nothing is LD$ Inc. After all we do not want to alienate those Trumpian tithe payers. Moral courage in full display.
To wit,
Is the economy better or worse since Jan 2025 given all the government employee furloughs and market uncertainty caused from tarriffs?
Is the world more peaceful since Jan 2025 or have we seen increased aggression with our foreign neighbors and allies?
Are we truly more safe since Jan 2025 as a result of cruel deportations (which are not increased from previous administrations but simply more theatrical and public) or are we less safe with continued shootings in the public sphere and the dismantling of a FEMA safety net and emergency alert systems?
Are individual freedoms increasing or decreasing since Jan 2025 with the suspension of due process and habeus corpus and cancelling of media outlets?
Is our planet better off since Jan 2025 given the OBBB cancelling alternative energy subsidies and DOGE cutting staffing at our national parks?
Will our children inherit a planet and government that will support and sustain them when it’s their turn to lead, or are we simply planning to give them a scorched earth and a bunch of IOU’s?
Are we better people when we protect pedophiles and blame the marginalized? Are we humans when we blame a political party for weather-related tragedies? Are we better humans when we lie about people different than us eating pets? Are we better humans when we lack leadership transparency? Are we better humans when hate is on the rise? Are we better humans when we think it’s funny that our political enemies are murdered?
Asking for a nation.
“If I went to another country illegally, I would expect to be arrested and deported.”
How droll.
What if instead you were convicted of 34 felonies. Would you expect to be sentenced or be elected to government office?
What if instead you were found guilty of participating in a government insurrection that caused harm to humans. Would you expect to be arrested or pardoned?
What if instead you were on a list of sex traffickers. Would you take accountability or expect those charged with governance to claim their dog ate the list?
What if instead you were an elected official found guilty of exceeding your authority. Would you accept that check on your power from another government agency or would you rage threat to fire them and cancel democracy?
Asking for Clarence Thomas.
I went
I have notes for a post I have thought about doing on the various facets of immigration, but every time I think about doing it, more facets pop up. It feels like we are just at war with all foreigners, which is pretty ridiculous given how new this country is and that we are all settlers. My people have been here for 400 years, which in Europe would make them newcomers.
The ICE issue is personal for me. My nephew’s birth father is a naturalized citizen from Mexico. A former college student and dear friend of mine’s grandparents on both sides also came from Mexico and became naturalized citizens. Both of these men are full time members of the National Guard.
Because both men look very much like their Mexican family members and ancestors they now carry copies of their birth certificates and their passports. Both of them have children who also look very Latino, and they’re both terrified that their kids could be picked up by ICE anywhere they go. As a result the kids now only leave home when a parent can accompany them to wherever they’re going, and the kids and other parent also carry copies of their birth certificates with them regardless of where they go.
How I wish that we could turn the tables on the evil people who have made persecuting people with darker skin and foreign sounding names and subject them to the same horrors that they gleefully subject some of our brothers and sisters to in the name of national security. A long stint in Alligator Auschwitz (because it’s not a prison, it’s a death camp) might help them rethink their belief about “white always being right”.
The fact that the leaders of the church have stayed quiet about such unChristlike views and behavior demonstrates that they have lost any moral authority they might once have had. Saying that they speak for God seems blasphemous in this context.
NOT an abstract or an isolated fear, A Poor Wayfaring Stranger! We’re living with it every day in my family.
My son-in-law is the second generation of his family to be born in the US. Nevertheless, his Hispanic appearance and surname are clear. Here, in Occupied Los Angeles, he is carrying his passport on his daily trips to work in downtown LA using public transportation. ICE agents are regularly rounding up people with Hispanic appearance in that and other areas of town without regard for their status and then figuring that out later. How much later and how diligently no one knows. Nor is there any assurance that if they’ve overreached, as they did with Mahmoud Khalil, they’d free individuals. They certainly did everything they could to resist court orders in Kahalil’s case and that was a high profile case that the whole world was watching.
My 3yo granddaughter could conceivably grow up without her father and this is keeping us up at night. I’m not sure how effectively we could untangle my son-in-law from a sweep when even state, federal and local elected officials are being denied contact with individuals or the facilities where they’re being held.
…in America.
williamellerychannings is so representative of the majority of American Mormons and so much the reason why I am glad I am no longer part of that institution. By their fruits you shall know them.
Like Alice and A poor wayfaring stranger, I see no way to keep my wife who is a naturalized citizen and our US born children from being swept up in the illegal raids carried out by ICE, which has been rapidly transformed into the American version of the Gestapo. Carrying your passport or your birth certificate won’t stop these thugs from illegally and violently arresting and holding incognito anyone they want without cause and without warrant, we have lots of evidence that now.
Honestly, the LDS church’s silence on this is utterly damning especially compared to the Catholic Church’s response and most mainline Protestant. Almost every week now at my local UMC, there are references to the need to stand up for immigrants and against oppression. For those if you still in the LDS church, where is your tipping point?
Also proud that Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell was specifically called out by Gestapo chief Noem for his (quite legal) opposition to her raids here.