MOBILIZE to Vote to Protect Our Immigrants

Do you remember January, 2017? The new 45th President and his sycophant racist adviser Steven Miller issued an Executive Order banning Muslims from entering the country. There were protesters at airports and in the streets, outraged that this jingoism and racism was being done in our name.?

It wasn’t too long before children at the border were being separated from their parents who were then deported back to their home countries. We were all appalled. Children in tent camps in chained cells lying on the floor. We heard babies crying for their mothers.

Now imagine it’s January 21st, 2025, and Steven Miller once again is in charge of “mass deportations”, the prominent sign at the Republican national convention. All these “nice” white people cheering to have people of color removed from the United States, a nation built by immigrants. Every one of us, other than Native Americans, came here from somewhere else.

For a moment, let us remember what Trump/Vance have said about deportations in their Agenda 47 and what Project 2025 promises (Sources 2, 3):

Trump’s Top Priorities:

o?? Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion

o?? Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history,18,000,000 immigrants,

people of color who have come to this country for the promise of freedom

o?? Separate families again, build massive deportation camps along the border, and continue building his wall that Mexico will NOT be paying for

o?? Weaponize the use of the military, national guard, local police forces to round up immigrants in their homes, places of work, and places of worship, and anyone of color will be subject to being stopped and taken to these camps

The American Police State (everything in italics is quoted from Project 2025)

o?? US military mobilized to round up immigrants

o?? Horseback Border Agents:?Customs & Border Patrol should restart and expand use of the horseback-mounted Border Patrol

o?? Detain & Remove “Aliens”:?Customs & Border “Protection”, Immigration and others work to remove “aliens”

o?? Eliminate State’s Rights & Erect Detention Tent Camps:?A single nationwide detention standard should be codified that prevents individual states from mandating that federal government agencies adhere to widely expansive and ever-changing sets of standards

o?? Eliminate/Reduce Number of Student Visas, Especially “Enemies”

o?? Maximize Expedited Removal:?ICE should make full use of existing Expedited Removal (ER) authorities

o?? Invade Workplaces to Arrest Immigrants:?The use of Blackies search Warrants to remove immigrants from workplaces

o?? Eliminate “Unlawful Programs” like DACA & Help for Ukrainians and Others—Focus on Nuclear Families

o?? Expel “illegal aliens” Immediately

o?? Continue Building the Wall Paid For by the US:?Mandatory appropriation for border wall system infrastructure. The monies appropriated would be used to fund the construction of additional border wall systems, technology, and personnel in strategic locations

o?? Deprive Immigrant Children of Benefits

o?? Deport Unaccompanied Children:?…all unaccompanied children, regardless of nationality, may be returned to their home countries in a safe and efficient manner

o?? Keep Immigrants in Mexico

o?? Mandatory Detention of “Aliens”

o?? Prevent a “Mass Migration” Event:?Provide that whenever the Secretary of Homeland Security determines that an actual or anticipated mass migration of aliens en route to or arriving off the coast of the U.S. presents urgent circumstances requiring an immediate federal response, the Secretary may make…rules and regulations prohibiting… such mass migration… including through the expulsion of such aliens.?

So much for the Christian scripture to take care of “the least of these”, and the saying on the Statue of Liberty,

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses

?yearning to breathe free

The Bottom Line: It is our duty to ensure that we protect all immigrants in this country from deportation based on a racist policy of exclusion.

The Antidote: Make sure everyone you know, and everyone they know, votes the full Democratic ticket, starting with Harris/Walz

Sources:

1)???? Kinsey Crowley, Fernando Cervantes, Jr., Pivotal battleground state North Carolina surpasses 1 million votes cast in 2024 election, USA TODAY, Oct. 21, 2024, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/21/north-carolina-early-voter-turnout/75775318007/

2)???? Trump/Vance Platform,?Agenda 47,?https://search.app/2tz4imrsbtvjsmtZ6

3)???? The Heritage Foundation,?Mandate for Leadership,?pp. 133-69, Washington, DC, 2024?

?“A Republic, if you can keep it”. Benjamin Franklin

Edward

Edward M. Marshall, Ph.D.

Adjunct Professor, Leadership (Ret)

Pratt School of Engineering

Duke University