I keep striving in my mind to keep America’s greater plan in place. Today I was in a car search near my same busy route home from shopping. They are grabbing people out of cars or walking in a parking lot. When you hear that they (ICE) and Border Security are capturing criminals, think twice. Most of the people caught up in their stings are just going to work or schools or doctor appointments or coming home from the stores. Most do not have any criminal records. Even my daughter, who is Vietnamese and came on the famous Orphan Air Lift 50 years ago, carries her proof of citizenship. She is afraid to walk her dog. Her husband, who was born in the US, has parents born in El Salvador and Guatemala. He has to carry paperwork that shows where he was was born. It is not enough to have a driver’s license. It is not enough to have a work permit or temporary status papers, they are grabbing you anyway.
Today, in the Los Angeles Times, another man was taken to the ground and held down by three men. He went into convulsions on the sidewalk. A young woman hugged a tree as 3 men kept pulling on her and dragging her into the SUV. The officials show up masked with no identification and no markings on the vehicles. They are putting out want ads looking for construction workers and gardeners trying to trick them into applying. This is completely indiscriminate and not looking for criminals. They have also disguised themselves in pickup trucks to encourage immigrants to get in for help. There is inherent danger in at-large arrests. You can’t control for everything. There is high risk for violence, someone being hurt or having a medical incident. The tumult appears to be part of the government’s plan to spread chaos and fear orchestrated by Staff member Stephen Miller. It is working. Today another daughter is trying to get heart medication to her father in detention, yesterday, a wife was trying to get diabetes medication to her husband. More often than not, the detainee’s whereabouts are unknown or they have been shipped out of state. I heard on the radio that a woman’s friend had been picked up in the morning and later in the day called from Mexico. She was taken out of country within hours.
What has happened to America and her exalted destiny dedicated to the ideals of civil and religious liberty? She is to become the melting pot of the world. “The Soul of America cannot be satisfied with such self-accomplishment alone; her call is to larger world service. It is for her to continue the pioneer’s role in carrying her own won freedom and her genius for assimilation and collaboration into the arena of world affairs and so further the ultimate establishment of the United States of the World.” Corrine Heline, “America’s Invisible Guidance“
For those who want to throw the immigrants out, they are very short-sighted. America’s has a declining birth rate and about 2 workers for every person receiving social security. The population has a booming age group of those over 65 and is the fastest age group in growth. Who is going to take care of them in nursing homes, day care facilities, at-home care? Who is going to work in our restaurants, grow and pick our food, work in meat packing plants, distributors, clean our buildings, build our homes (which will now slow developments), tend to gardens, and more. At my husband’s nursing facility, almost all workers are Latino with a few Filipinos. It is hard enough now to keep workers. It will get worse.
“Under these new immigration policies, everyday and essential goods and services would increase in price, according to new FWD.us estimates. Because a large share of impacted immigrants work in agriculture and construction, the goods and services produced by these industries would see the most significant price spikes. For example, producer prices can be expected to increase by 14.5% for most food products and 6.1% in construction. America’s working class spends most of their income on food and housing, and consequently would experience the highest cost-of-living increases.
Substantial price increases would hit the leisure and hospitality sector (3.9%) like hotel stays and restaurant food and service; transportation (2.2%) like ridesharing trips; and other services (1.5%), including child care and lawn service. These unnecessary percentage increases are above and beyond price increases associated with other potentially inflationary policies, like new widespread tariff increases.” FWD.us
“New immigration policies that would most significantly, and unnecessarily, raise the costs of goods and services include:
- The cancellation of work permits for millions of individuals with a temporary status, like people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) who are unable to return to their countries, paroled immigrants from Afghanistan, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), among others.
- The mass deportation of millions of immigrants with or without legal status.
- Significant reductions in new, lawful immigration in the years ahead.
Notably, these policies would negatively affect the economic prosperity for Americans, who benefit significantly from the contributions of immigrants. And, the rise in prices is conservative given the promise of the current administration to push even more undocumented immigrants out of the workforce, through arrest and deportation, or by pushing people to leave on their own. Consequently, the rise in prices shown in our models is likely a middle of the road scenario. FWD.us” This doesn’t include the enormous cost of the logistics of detention and transportation of the migrant-paid by the taxpayers. This is an enormous population that will no longer be contributing to our GDP.
I am a believer in sensible immigration policy, even quotas when necessary. We used to have decent immigration policy but it was killed through politicians and inertia. We let it be known that we had lax immigration borders and it was taken advantage by others. It is partly America’s fault. We needed cheap labor and the immigrants filled our needs. Now, it’s violently getting them out forgetting why we attracted them in the first place and what our domestic needs are. We will learn the hard way as we continuously are short of workers and prices rise as employers pay higher prices for labor. Not only that, immigrants paid into social security but didn’t collect it. Many had bogus social security papers helped set up by employers. They became an asset for a diminishing social security fund.
I used to travel often to Arkansas. I noticed that in the restaurants I visited, tables were not cleared. There was usually just a few staff serving but no Latinos clearing. The tables looked so uninviting full of messy dishes and glasses. The wait stuff was to serve and also clear the tables. The staff serving were always white. Perhaps this changes as immigrants reach more parts of the country. I fear now we have been set back with this new policy.
This will not end well. It is driven by ego, haste, fear anger. We are a nation made up of immigrants. The bulk of deportations are brown or black. It says much about our fear of losing our white, European heritage. It is America’s lack of history, knowledge and direction. This may slow it down but it will recover. All of us are immigrants or children of immigrants. We are an invented country. We will again reinvent ourselves.
I understand what you are saying and I wish we had a sane immigration policy but we don’t. We haven’t had any sensible immigration policy in 30 years. It got worse under Biden by allowing temporary protection and asylum. It is easy to paint a broad brush on the immigrants but it is a very complicated issue. Certainly, the way we are snatch and grabbing people who look suspicious is not a policy. Masked and unidentified enforcers is not a policy. Many were grabbed at court houses where they had been instructed to file their papers in routine checks. Most of the immigrants are not criminals, gang members or drug dealers. They work hard and contribute. America wants unskilled laborers to work the fields and other routine jobs that white Americans won’t take. These are not aspirational jobs. Grabbing Iranian grandmas who have been in the country for 40+ years is not getting rid of criminals. Do we send her back to Iran? She escaped the brutal takeover in 1979 in Iran. She files every year. Regarding birthright citizenship, we have had in place since 1868 and is our 14th Amendment. It granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people, and prohibited states from infringing upon the privileges and immunities of citizens, denying them due process, or denying them equal protection under the law.
Here’s a breakdown of its key components:
Citizenship Clause:
Declares that all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of both the United States and the state they reside in. This overturned the Dred Scott decision, which had denied citizenship to people of African descent.
Privileges and Immunities Clause:
Prevents states from making or enforcing laws that abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.
Due Process Clause:
Prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
Equal Protection Clause:
Requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all persons within their jurisdiction.
Apportionment of Representatives:
I wish that Congress would enact good immigration laws but they don’t and seem incapable of considering it. This entire country depends on immigration as it is made up of only immigrants and their descendants. Nobody speaks of all the industries that are benefitting from increased immigration detentions. For example, Companies like Geo Group and CoreCivic have been shown to lobby the government to expand immigration detention policies. Palantir gets a huge contract for writing up the software to track and find the immigrants. It is rumored that Stephen Miller, head of the immigration grab, has a large stack in Palantir. It goes on and on. It is always a good idea to follow the money trail.
I love your articles but this one really upset me. I am an immigrant but my parents and me came into America legally. Paperwork was submitted and they waited patiently to be allowed to come here. Since my mom was born in S.A the quotas
were open and she was allowed to come first with me, a minor.
My father had to wait a three years more before he was finally
allowed to come here. All these people that have crossed the border in the last few years are illegals. They were not properly vetted. We don’t know who they are!! Unfortunately, among them are gang members, drug traffickers, felons etc. I am all for immigration but not the way it
has been done in the last few years. Many of these people are unskilled labor who are getting free healthcare, education, housing etc. at our expense. Why should babies born to illegals automatically get US citizenship? This whole scenario is insane and it has to be cleaned up. If one wants to immigrate here…apply, wait for acceptance and then come over. This is the right way of doing things.
Right On Gail!!!
Thank you Karen. America must go through this rough period in order to learn how it wants to go forward. It must continually learn assimilation. Painful to watch, This current administration is part of the past and will complete this 80 year cycle. America feels as if it will destroy itself. It won’t. Much will finish up by 2029.
This is so heartbreaking ❤️ to even hear about, and to see it is even more cruel. Praying for those in danger, including your family members. Can numerology tell us if and when we will resolve this insanity?
Thank you Pam. I watched a whole line of military trucks come off the freeway on the main artery of Los Angeles, This was on Wilshire Blvd on the West Side at the 405 during rush hour. It was a mess. Supposedly we have 4800 national guards on duty now in LA and I don’t know how many marines and border patrol. We have no idea how long they will stay in the area. Clinics with desperately ill patients are having to go into homes to treat people. Even people with cancer treatments, are afraid to go out. They are trying to scare people across the nation by using us as example.
Thank you for this, Gail. Sharing to Facebook. I’m so sorry about the fear your family members feel. Your examples are chilling.
That is correct. This is an old dirge and revenge from Trump and Steven Miller. Trump hated it when the Japanese car industry became popular in the 70’a. He was very vocal about it. Steven Miller began his crusades at Santa Monica High School which he attended. He disliked having Mexicans attend his school.
If the current US administration was really serious about stopping undocumented people coming to the country, they would investigate, prosecute criminally and civilly all the companies that hire the undocumented. Until that happens, people will keep coming to the US for work. The current deportation push is really a distraction, a way to blame the economic problems on minority groups.
We are looking at challenges all this year and 2026. It’s a very difficult period for Americans. Overall, it is the form of disruption that goes on in America every 80 years. The last cycle was the end of WWII. The cycle before that was the Civil War. The cycle before that was the ending of the American Revolution. We will go through upheavals while this administration remains in office. After that begins the changes we want. America thrives best on reinventing itself. It is not in that time frame yet. It will come but first we have to go through these endings. Some of them are very destructive. The people will have to decide what is important to them. Many people made poor decisions for this last election. Similar to the turkey looking forward to Thanksgiving Dinner.
Yes we will reinvent ourselves, but in what time frame and cost?
And then there is factoring in the Supreme Ct’s latest decision regarding birth right citizenship? It is going to get a lot darker before the dawn…I am curious what will be time frame of this nightmare?