Michelle Ming: An Attack on Immigrants is an Attack on Us All
By Michelle Ming
There’s been an undeniable rise in authoritarianism in the United States. In Trump’s first presidential term, he packed the judicial system in his favor, from the Supreme Court down to lower-level courts across the country. He installed heads of government agencies with the purpose of dismantling those agencies. He has doled out dangerous and anti-American executive orders to sow confusion and fear. Trump and his allies, including his cult of unelected billionaires like Elon Musk, know that the way to solidify control is to change laws, dictate the way laws are enforced, and shift the collective understanding of law from protection to punishment.
As the American daughter of Chinese immigrants who waited 20 years to become citizens, I grew up knowing that my civic responsibility was not only to myself, but to my parents and all immigrants who would be subject to the consequences of policy decisions that others make on their behalf. I grew up seeing the ways that policies targeting immigrants like my parents affected everyone, not just my family.
My experience tells me that Trump’s relentless efforts to criminalize and other immigrants at every turn are meant to leave us feeling overwhelmed, helpless, and silenced. It’s a tactic. This feeling of defeat is meant to keep us distracted from their comprehensive plans to strip away all of our rights, disguising many of these efforts behind the cruelty and fear-mongering aimed at immigrants.
When we talk about immigration in the United States, we are talking about a complex and deeply flawed system that impacts everyone – not just immigrants. This is clear in the most recent federal budget being considered in Congress as we speak.
Republicans want to cut billions of dollars of funding for everyday working people and funnel it directly into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), turbocharging Trump’s mass detention agenda and abduction of immigrants. This means cutting funding to hospitals, schools, and lifesaving food and water programs that millions of people depend on. Frankly, they don’t care about helping you provide for you and your family. They don’t care if you or your loved ones can afford the medical care you need. Or if your child is safe in their classrooms. They’re going to use your tax dollars to escalate their brutal crusade against immigrants while making it harder for you and your neighbors to survive. Then they’re going to turn around and tell you the reason you’re suffering –the reason you’re hurting– is because of immigrants.
The government is not just doing this for show. The real-life effects of scapegoating immigrants to justify their mass kidnappings are devastating. Just in the first month of the Trump administration, immigration agents have abducted nearly 40,000 people who call this country home. Targets include teachers, health workers, and farm workers whose absence will have devastating ripple effects on our education, healthcare, and agricultural systems. Children are being bullied – even tragically to the point of suicide– about their family’s immigration status.
The impact of these attacks extends far beyond the day-to-day. Anti-immigrant politicians—and the media outlets that platform them—are sowing confusion and anxiety by lighting a thousand little fires every day, tempting us to take the bait in the hopes that we get tired and give up. We’re too smart for that, and we won’t let them get away with it.
I’m sure we have all asked ourselves what we would have done if we were alive at a pivotal point in history when a group of people faced persecution. What would we have done when Japanese Americans were being interned during World War II? How would we have shown up when the Montgomery Bus Boycott was in full swing?
This is one of those pivotal moments. The very existence of immigrants is being criminalized and erased. So I ask you, how are you going to show up?
Now is the time for us all to become obstructionists in the face of unlawful and unethical tactics. We must face injustice with the clarity, defiance, and courage it warrants.
Make no mistake, state and local elected officials have a responsibility and the power to protect their constituents by rejecting all efforts to terrorize and rip apart families. We have started to see this happening in many places: San Francisco Unified School District has been providing ‘Know Your Rights’ training for staff. Police chiefs in cities like Omaha, Minneapolis and Grand Prairie have made it clear they’re not participating in raids. Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnson has threatened lawsuits to protect immigrants. The city of Los Angeles passed an ordinance that blocks the use of city resources in anti-immigrant enforcement. We must continue to demand that those elected to lead in our cities, states and neighborhoods meet this moment with the intense resistance these other elected officials have been demonstrating.
As obstructionists, our job is to raise the pressure when our elected officials aren’t doing enough and get in the way when they’re actively harming people in our communities. There are important steps we can take to make a huge collective difference in fighting back against attacks on our lives. We must hold our leaders, Democrat and Republican alike, accountable at all levels of office: call and email incessantly; attend their town halls and make our presence known; speak out at city council meetings and refuse to leave until your voice is heard; go to their offices and demand answers; protest. Being obstructionists is about being creative and finding ways – big and small – to create roadblocks that hinder the authoritarian agenda.
As Trump continues his onslaught of attacks against working-class people across the country, we must remember that no one is going to protect our community except us. We need each other. We can join organizations like United We Dream, where the Here to Stay Network already serves as a home for those looking to protect themselves and their communities from authoritarians alongside thousands of allies who are ready to fight back. Anti-immigrant politicians will try to tell us otherwise, but you and I and every person in this country holds the power in our hands to shape our collective future.
Michelle Ming is the political director of United We Dream.
