When Donald Trump returned to office in January, he promised to change immigration enforcement, committing that the “worst of the worst” would be tracked down, arrested, and deported.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said in July that the administration is focused on “rooting out unvetted criminals” in the undocumented community. In an email, she praised the “continued arresting of the worst of the worst — including murderers, pedophiles, gang members, and rapists.”
I applauded that when Trump first stated it. I still do. Who would disagree?
Border czar Tom Homan claimed, “Nearly 70-percent of everybody ICE arrests are either public safety threats or national security threats.”
However, when confronted with a Tracreports.org report that found that 71-percent of people currently in ICE detention have no criminal convictions, Homan pivoted to, “Most national security threats don’t have criminal histories. They’re lying low to do the dirty deed.”
Really, Tom? Then I guess you should arrest them all.
Fast forward to this week and take a moment to salute the heavily armed federal agents who, Wednesday morning, courageously stormed a Chicago daycare center to subdue a dangerous bilingual pre-school teacher.
Is this what we signed up for?
ICE agents said that the woman had fled a police traffic stop and that she ran into the school to evade arrest. Parents at the school said she was a teacher and noted how their children screamed and cried as armed agents led their teacher away.
Officers showed no warrant, ignored her pleas to produce immigration papers, and carted her away in front of other teachers and students. The worst of the worst?
While other details may come out, I cannot imagine any detail that would justify this treatment of a pre-school teacher… Or, of anyone. While I applaud strength and accountability in law enforcement, strength is not the same thing as cruelty.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin called it “an attempted traffic stop.” She claimed the woman and another individual “ran into a daycare and attempted to barricade themselves inside.” OK. That’s disputed by the school’s parents, but if we give you that, the cruelty question remains.
“Worst of the worst,” a term once reserved for war criminals, now applies to anyone who looks different, awaits an asylum hearing, or mows the grass at an I-HOP. According to Homeland Security
Secretary Kristi Noem, they’re going after “murderers, rapists, and pedophiles.” That’s a great sound bite, but where does your kid’s teacher fit?
We can love our country without applauding scenes of armed men hauling away a preschool teacher in front of sobbing kids. Watch the video and see if “they haven’t gone far enough.? Because that’s what President Trump said on 60 Minutes last week.
When Norah O’Donnell asked if he was “OK with those tactics,” Trump responded, “Well, yeah, because you have to get the people out.” “…You have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people thrown out of their countries because they were, you know, criminals.”
Not far enough? Do you want ICE kicking down the door of your church because the youth pastor speaks with an accent?
Shouldn’t we step up and end this? The worst of the worst? Yep, I’m on board; go get em. But the schoolteacher, the landscaper, the bi-lingual student? That isn’t patriotism. It’s podcast propaganda; it’s bureaucratic code for “we’re behind our quota, let’s get to Home Depot and pick up the pace.”
And it’s not just the numbers. It’s the message being sent by the cruelty being displayed. When federal agents target day-care centers, churches, schools, and Home Depots as crime scenes, they send a signal, not just to immigrants but to everyone, that intimidation is the goal. Fear is the by-product. Anxiety keeps everyone in line.
We’re told this is about protecting Americans. But the tragic irony is we have a government agency claiming to protect children by traumatizing them, and public servants, sworn to defend our communities, raiding the very places where communities are developed.
My three grandkids attend a Spanish immersion school. They are bright, articulate in two languages, and are learning to see the world through two cultures. I am proud to watch them speaking fluent Spanish to their teachers and classmates and am pleased that these kids can navigate more than one world.
It is distressing to see federal agents treating bilingualism as a crime. Why are we so threatened?
So, to BOTH sides of our political divide: I know you love America. Please consider how these situations make us look to our enemies and to our friends. Please reflect on how these tactics affect the targeted individuals and empathize with the feelings of their families. Please consider that maybe humanity has a place in the process and that cruelty does little more than humiliate the individual and inflame the audience. What do you think?
If ICE can storm a day-care center because a woman had a broken taillight, or might have overstayed her visa, what makes you think they won’t storm something you care about next?
Unrestrained power doesn’t stop at the edge of your property. It seeps, it oozes, it spreads. Today it’s a preschool teacher. Yesterday it was a landscaper who had three Marine sons. Tomorrow, perhaps it’s a journalist. Next week, maybe it’s you. Think it can’t happen? Keep thinking.
How can we call ourselves a nation of family values while traumatizing children to make a point? How can we ask God to bless America if we can’t show humanity to our fellow human beings — no matter their accent?
Curt MacRae, a resident of Coldwater, MI, publishes regular opinion columns.
To be notified by email when a column is published, or to offer feedback email rantsbymac@gmail.com
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