THE AMERICAN POSEIDON ADVENTURE

The historian Heather Cox Richardson’s February 7 letter, describing what is now happening to immigrants in America, is chillingly reminiscent of events in 1938, when Jews and other minorities were scapegoated by the Nazi regime and blamed for Germany’s past woes to justify pogroms and persecution. German Jews, who had long enjoyed the basic civil rights of other Germans, lost those rights when the Hitler government unilaterally changed the rules.

Similarly, immigrants in the United States, who, prior to the Trump administration, retained certain rights once they entered a legal process to determine eligibility for permanent residency, have seen those protections abruptly stripped away. Following false-flag narratives promoted by Trump, just as Hitler’s Nazis did  in 1938 Poland or the 1933 Reichstag fire, immigrants awaiting adjudication lost rights and guarantees that the American government itself had committed to honor, erased by whim and executive fiat. They were demonized through sweeping claims of murder, rape, and violence.

Yes, some immigrants committed crimes, individuals whose deportation or incarceration virtually all Americans would support. But the vast majority were and are non-violent mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, people struggling to make a living, paying taxes, working multiple jobs, and filling essential roles in our economy. Their removal has left jobs unfilled, harming small businesses and farms across the country.

The Trump administration expanded immigration enforcement spending by approximately $170 billion, an extraordinary sum devoted to an effort that produces no meaningful public return. What are we gaining? How does it benefit America to spend vast resources hunting and detaining people who were contributing economically and socially? Today, roughly 70,000 people are in detention, up from about 40,000, with plans to spend an additional $45 billion merely to build and acquire new detention capacity. That figure does not include the billions more required to operate these facilities.

And for what purpose? The claim that those detained are overwhelmingly criminals is a gross exaggeration designed to inflame voters. Available data indicate that only about one in four detainees, roughly 17,500 people of those detained, have criminal records. That number could have been managed without any massive expansion of detention infrastructure. This effort is not about making America great again; it is about making America white again.

Worse still, aggressive and militarized enforcement actions against immigrant families have already resulted in the deaths and serious injuries of American citizens. Among them: a Montessori teacher shot multiple times while on her way to volunteer, and another woman on her way to treatment for a traumatic brain injury dragged from her car, beaten, handcuffed, and treated with stunning brutality. When confronted with these tragedies, Trump dismissed them as unfortunate but suggested the press coverage was “excessive,” given “only two murders out of the thousands arrested.” That callous disregard for human dignity was compounded by his posting of racist memes targeting President Obama and his wife, behavior that is sick, sad, and profoundly un-American.

Is it any wonder that spectators at the Olympics, including our own athletes, increasingly express shame and criticism of our government?

In her letter, Richardson recounts the response of an American Army colonel to the citizens of Ohrdruf, Germany, near the Buchenwald concentration camp. When a German resident claimed the atrocities were committed by “a few people” and that “you cannot blame us all,” the colonel replied: This was done by those the German people chose to lead them, and therefore they are all responsible. The next morning, the mayor of Ohrdruf took his own life. He may not have known every detail of Buchenwald, but he knew enough.

In our hearts, we know the same truth: we are all responsible for what happens in our country. The only remaining lever we have to stop oppression, inhumane treatment, and the erosion of constitutional rights is the one inside the voting booth.

VOTE!!!

RESIST!!! & EDUCATE!!!