These poor people! I’m so glad to see he was released, his mom must have been terrified.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/18/florida-us-born-citizen-released-ice
I live in a city with a large Latino population… things have been very somber around here.
People are really scared– I feel it, and I see it in their eyes.
I can’t imagine having to spend your life like that, always looking over your shoulder, worrying about your family members, knowing that there’s a good chance if you are arrested and detained that people might not even believe you or want to help you.
I know, I’m white, so why do I care, right? But I’m still a pretty “dirty” white, since I’m both Italian and Irish, neither of which were acceptably white enough for Ye Olde Puritan Bluebloods back in the day. My ancestors probably faced poor treatment and discrimination too.
This country has never been kind to immigrants: from the Chinese immigrants who built many of our railroads, to the Irish and Italian immigrants in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, to the West Coast Japanese Americans who were rounded up and kept in camps during World War II, to the many different kinds of Latinos who have come here in the last 50 years or so. And of course, the African Americans, who weren’t even immigrants so much as kidnapped and forcibly enslaved, but still.
And I keep thinking, why are we like this?
Like, why is this such a consistent theme in our history?
Is it because of what happened with the Native Americans?
This nation was founded with so much blood spilled.
I took the most amazing American History class in high school that was paired with an English class. So all of our books and reading materials in English that year were about what we were learning in history class, and it really helped things to come alive for me, and also led me to a lifelong interest in history. That’s how I first learned about the Japanese American concentration camps, and the discrimination that Irish and Italian Americans faced.
But my favorite unit from that class was about the Native Americans.
So many people have NO idea about the history of this country, and what really happened to the Native Americans.
If you have never delved into America’s history, especially the Native Americans and their rich cultures and traditions that are all but lost today, I encourage you to start. It will open up your eyes, and hopefully your heart as well.
I still read I Will Fight No More Forever by Chief Joseph sometimes and it still makes me tear up.
https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/october-05/
And did you know our Constitution was influenced by the Iroquois Confederacy? And that Mount Rushmore used to be called Six Grandfathers, and was once a sacred and highly revered site to the Lakota Sioux that we stole from them and defaced without their permission by carving our presidents onto it?
In my eyes, the white European settlers are the immigrants.
They are NOT better than everyone… WE as white people are not better than anyone else.
WE ALL came here from somewhere else.
And for a lot of us, when our ancestors came here, there weren’t nearly as many immigration laws and various hoops to jump through. All you had to do was basically get on a boat and survive the trip, and you could start a new life here.
But it isn’t like that now, and I don’t think that’s right either. Like, if people want to be here, and they want to work hard, and they want a better life for their family, they should be allowed to stay.
I am happy as an American citizen to support that, and encourage it, because I think everyone deserves a shot at the fabled American Dream.
And for the life of me, I don’t understand why more people don’t see that.