There is a tumor growing from the White House. It is seeping and spreading out of every pore in Washington, D.C., wrapping itself around the workings of government. Decisions and choices are made with it in mind. Sinister, draconian policies are created from it, fashioned with one overarching goal: to corrupt the minds and hearts of the people for the purposes of power. A twisted legitimacy is built from it, the poisoned pill that America is being forced to choke down. It is bitter, old-fashioned hate that I speak of, which drives us to division and blame. Hate towards minorities has long been a feature of American politics, and now that hate is being poured like tar on immigrants.
credit: IG @whitehouse
Who does the hate emanate from? Who spews the cancer and spreads it? Who makes a mockery of our nation’s attempts to do better than its history, blows past models of decency and legality and floods the news with more and more examples of their cruelty? As is so often the case, I am talking about Trump, and recent events have only made his hate fester and grow.
After the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. on November 26, one of which who died from her injuries, an Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal was arrested for the crime. He had helped U.S. forces fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and was granted asylum in America after the Taliban won back control in 2021. The shooting was due to the actions of one man, but Trump couldn’t resist spreading xenophobia and blaming immigration for the crime. In response, he called for a permanent pause on “migration from all Third World countries” and the deportation of immigrants who are supposedly “non-compatible with Western civilization.” To disparage all immigrants from countries that are not “Western” for one person’s crime is nonsensical but hate never had to make sense. As Trump has executed to perfection, playing on fear and anger is enough.
Trump’s rhetoric went further as he fine-tuned his rage, turning his ire to Somalian immigrants. He blustered, “I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason.” He added that “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.” Garbage. Are you paying attention to the language? What happens when we reduce human beings to trash? When they can be thrown away as easily as tossing a wrapper into a bin?
The answer is Trump’s inhumane and fear-based program of mass deportation, which has been carried out through his second term. And his new wave of hate has turned into policy dedicated to stopping even legal migration. Currently, all asylum decisions are paused, green cards for immigrants from 19 countries in the Middle East and Africa are being reviewed and asylum decisions made by the Biden administration are being reviewed. Proponents of Trump’s immigration policy have always called for people entering the country to do it “the right way,” but now the right way has become much less viable.
Of course, none of this immigration crackdown was ever about “illegal” versus “legal.” It was about hate.
Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched raids into New Orleans and Minneapolis. Minneapolis has a significant population of Somali immigrants. Despite the administration’s denials, it is no accident that ICE is going after Somalians. After all, this is Trump’s administration, and the actions of his government are based around his bigoted tirades.
credit: IG @potus
The combination of Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric and policy has created a poisonous national environment, one not easily fixed. The problem is that, as hateful and awful as his actions are, he campaigned on carrying them out. He ran in large part on bigotry and won. During Trump’s debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, he said of Haitian immigrants in Ohio, “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” We knew about the lie-fueled fear he was trying to spread. In addition, Trump directly stated that he planned to carry out the largest deportation program in U.S. history. We knew what his intentions were, but we still weren’t paying enough attention. Perhaps no one fully expected the lengths Trump would go to, but either way America is facing the consequences. After the 2024 election, I wrote in an edition of this column that “America has chosen hate.” At our present moment, I deeply wish I had been wrong.
As our government spreads hate through racism and xenophobia, we must pay more attention. As you go through your day, thinking of so many other different things, pay attention to the dehumanization of immigrants. Pay attention to the families being ripped apart by sudden arrests and deportations. Pay attention to every new policy that makes it harder for hardworking people to migrate and make a living in the America we once proudly celebrated as diverse. Pay attention, because history has many examples for those who fall into the trap of repeating its bitter bigotry.