Fighting the extremism that impacts us all

Access HERE

Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish. It ran in several Spanish-language media outlets earlier this week:

If the No Kings demonstrations involving more than 7 million people across the country repudiating the administration’s extremist and autocratic policies are any indication, the American people’s discontent is growing as attacks on the rule of law, due process, and democracy itself intensify.

I don’t know how the drama unfolding in the United States will end. Still, at least we are witnessing resistance at various levels: individuals, organizations, churches, communities, cities, states, and courts. Even in towns and states ruled by Republicans, there were protests because the policies affecting millions do not distinguish between Republicans and Democrats.

In fact, there are policies such as Medicaid cuts and the elimination of subsidies to pay Obamacare premiums that will significantly affect residents of red or Republican states.

The primary reason for the current federal government shutdown is the cuts to these programs, along with millions in reductions to the federal food assistance program, SNAP. Democrats propose eliminating these cuts, which Republicans support, to finance tax cuts for billionaires.

But Republicans are lying when they claim that Democrats want to provide health coverage to undocumented immigrants and that this is the real reason for the government shutdown, even though undocumented immigrants are not eligible for any federal assistance.

Perhaps gradually, more Americans will have the blinders removed and understand that the policies they think affect others ultimately affect us all.

As in the case of extreme immigration policies, when the mass deportations machine went into full force, many ignored it, thinking they had nothing to worry about because they were citizens or authorized residents. But the story changed once U.S. citizens, including veterans, were detained by ICE.

An investigation by ProPublica found that ICE has detained more than 170 U.S. citizens since the start of Trump’s second term.

The analysis notes that “Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.”

“The cases include people who were detained for days without access to a lawyer and nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer,” La Opinión wrote.

The situation was to be expected because ICE uses racial profiling to detain individuals suspected of being undocumented. Simply because of their physical appearance, if they speak Spanish, if they do specific jobs, and if they are in certain places.

Similarly, some may think that the militarization of cities led by Democrats means nothing. But the presence of the military interacting with civilians in the long term has proven to be a time bomb throughout history.

“Military occupations spark resistance and alienate even supporters of the occupying regime. Today’s leaders would be well advised to consider these lessons before turning the army into a tool of domestic police,” wrote Donald F. Johnson, associate professor of history at North Dakota State University, in Time magazine.

Our individual rights and freedoms are vulnerable to the dangerous intentions of an aspiring autocrat.

And while housing prices and rents are skyrocketing, as are food prices in supermarkets, due in part to the arrests and deportations of farmworkers, many wonder if all this deployment of military and ICE agents is a distraction to keep Americans from realizing how extreme policies are affecting their wallets, their access to health care, their jobs, and their individual freedoms.

In a purely political analysis, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has recently clashed with her party on several issues, said the following:

“I can’t see into the future, but I see Republicans losing the House if Americans are continuing to go paycheck-to-paycheck. They will definitely be going into the midterms looking through the lens of their bank account.”

Peaceful demonstrations like the ones last weekend, combined with practical strategies, will undoubtedly help more people open their eyes.

The original Spanish version is here.