By Roman Soto
As an elementary schoolboy raised in a community rich in Latin American cultural traditions, I was taught to embrace the privilege of life in the United States. While Bachrodt Elementary was a demographically diverse school, many of our closest friends and their parents were undocumented immigrants from another country who had settled in San Jose, California, for many years.
On a day like any other, one of my friends hadn’t attended school. I assumed he had caught a common cold, so I thought nothing of it. As the hours turned to days and the days turned to weeks, my mother soon informed me that my best friend, the boy who grew up with me, had been deported back to Colombia, his parent’s home country; he had been born an American citizen. In their attempt to start fresh, the family had been forced to leave their newly established American livelihood as a result of the unjust misrepresentation of the Latino people under Donald Trump’s first presidency. His second presidency will be identical.
From the recent rise in corruption in formerly established Latin American governments, a wave of immigrants have made the arduous journey in search of stability and a better life. In future years, their welcoming to the United States will be the same systemic oppression and dreaded unease as in their home countries. As a result of President Trump’s hateful bigotry against “illegal aliens” fleeing from socioeconomically unstable government structures in third-world countries, “Federal immigration authorities will be permitted to target schools and churches [in the United States]”. Now, instead of taking refuge in a modern, politically stable country to seek new opportunities in the workforce, Trump’s discriminatory actions against Latin American immigrants have led to an invasion of the most sacredly established aspects of American life: School and Church. Under the direct legislation of President Trump, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been given the authority to abolish any sense of occupational privacy and deport immigrants back to their country.
While Donald Trump consistently pledges to ban chain migration to the United States, the hypocrisy behind his words exhibits a direct contradiction to his family’s history. For example, in a tweet made by President Trump on November 1, 2017, the politician said, “CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can truly be evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!” Aside from his blatant prejudice in referring to all immigrants as “evil,” Trump solidly asserts his standpoint on the immigration dilemma. Ironically, Trump’s family success derives from chain migration: his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, chain migrated from Scotland to America, where she then gained her citizenship twelve years later. In direct contradiction to his mother’s immigration, Trump’s treacherous words against chain migration refute the recorded truth behind his family’s rise to success from a foreign country to America. The politician’s entire family immigrated from a foreign country, and now, suddenly, he promotes ramifications for any immigrant seeking opportunity in The United States. “Rules for thee, but not for me, seems to be his adage,” a writer for the Washington Post, Milton Coleman, cleverly words President Trump’s sanctimonious controversy.
Regardless of Trump’s ridiculous pretense, his order to command the ICE invasion still stands. As the President pursues mass deportation, undocumented immigrants will inevitably be sent to staging facilities similar to the ICE holding camps. After two to three months (some have even reported staying for a year) in the most dehumanizing conditions, which include filthily overcrowded metal cages, parental extraction from children, and illness-ridden camps, the deportees are then officially flown back to their native country. Such extreme conditions have even resulted in a small number of deaths. Worst of all, the lack of representation among immigrants has resulted in the absence of the federal right to a legal representative; therefore, migrants can be held indefinitely.
In the upcoming years, injustice and deceitful imposture imposed by the Trump Presidency will plague the minority demographic of the United States. So, readers, please educate yourself and advocate for others against President Trump’s injustices.