This Is Not America

There are some 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants in America.  Many have been here for decades.  They raise families here and they contribute to our society.  Most pay taxes.

Reasonable people, both liberal and conservative, long ago concluded that it's not only logistically impossible to deport all these people, it's not really in our best financial interests either.  Any genuinely dangerous criminals among them should go, of course, but the average undocumented person is shopping at WalMart right beside you and me.

Our new president is not a reasonable person.  He's decided to show his pique at having his travel ban shot down by the courts by instigating a vindictive and worthless round-up of "illegals with criminal records," focusing on fish-in-a-barrel "high-density" areas in the southwest.

His goon squads are raiding apartment buildings and trailer parks, looking for brown people to deport.  But it's not the targeted enforcement of previous administrations.  Trump's net is wide, cruel and arbitrary.  He's not snagging "bad hombres," he's deporting people with unpaid parking tickets.

It's appalling and reminiscent of some the worst episodes of the not-too-distant past.  We should all be ashamed.  Resist.  Fight back.  #NotMyPresident.