• July 28, 2025

‘Big Brother’ Trump threatens everyone’s rights

‘Big Brother’ Trump threatens everyone’s rights

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:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urged undocumented immigrants to self-deport using the iconic image of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a 1982 Steven Spielberg film that ironically carried a message of acceptance and empathy.

But the display of cruelty is to be expected from a government that terrorizes immigrants with its crusade of detentions and deportations, including detainees held in deplorable conditions at a center in the Everglades, Florida, which they mockingly call “Alligator Alcatraz.”

“Illegal aliens, take a page from E.T. and PHONE HOME. If you are here illegally, leave NOW— the easy way— using the CBP Home App. You will receive travel assistance and a stipend to return to your home country,” the bulletin says.

The intention is also to continue dehumanizing immigrants by comparing them to aliens.

For the Trump administration, it is not just about arresting and deporting, but about humiliating. In the best style of the president, who thrives on denigrating both his opponents and his supporters, his immigration policy is based precisely on inflicting as much damage as possible, as he did with the separation of families at the border during his first term.

Everything is calculated. Right now, ground zero in his war on immigrants is the city of Los Angeles. This is no accident. Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, was born in Santa Monica, California, and his hatred of immigrants and desire to deport them seem to be his life’s mission.

Miller overlooks the impact of deportations on various industries in our economy, including agriculture, construction, services, and even nursing and elder care. Business profits are also suffering because fear is causing immigrants to stop shopping. Detentions and deportations result in immigrants being unable to work, pay debts, rent, mortgages, and taxes, including federal, state, local, and sales taxes.

But Miller, Trump, and the MAGA movement blame immigrants for all social ills, especially crime, even though study after study concludes that they are less likely than US-born Americans to commit crimes. And they accuse them of fraudulently obtaining benefits they cannot access, such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, which they pay for but cannot receive.

The danger is to think that everything that is happening to immigrants is an isolated issue limited to undocumented immigrants. It is not. The assault on due process, indiscriminate detentions, masked agents who do not identify themselves, detainees who are then impossible to locate, violence, the use of racial profiling that has led to the detention of authorized residents and US citizens, and collaboration between ICE and various federal agencies to disclose and share private information about these immigrants are just the prelude to what could happen to all of us.

ICE’s tentacles have even reached the confidential information of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to corroborate the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants with final deportation orders.

Likewise, last week the Associated Press reported that ICE “will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States.” The agreement has not been made public, the agency reported.

With access to confidential information about finances, taxes, residential addresses, and even medical records, does anyone believe that the Trump administration will limit itself to undocumented immigrants? Of course not. Organizations and individuals that Trump considers “enemies” will be next on his list.

Because under the guise of mass deportations, “Big Brother” Trump is threatening the rights and freedoms of all of us.

The original Spanish version is here.

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