longer.blue

I love immigrants. The stock response to this that you'll see on Facebook is, "Well, I love immigrants too, as long as they're LEGAL." Maybe you've said that, or some iteration. Ask yourself: Is that really how you feel? Really? Not me, man. I just love immigrants. I love the ones without papers and the ones with papers. I don't know the difference, because I don't ask about the papers. I think it's odd -- and I'm being very charitable with "odd" here -- to decide whether you approve of someone's existence on the basis of whether a government gives them the proper set of documents. Remember, this is a government that *everyone acknowledges* is extremely flawed, regardless of who's running it. Immigrants came here to make a better life, and they make our communities better places to live. They share music, food, and other forms of culture. They present you with ideas and wisdom. In other words, they're humans. Now, the government expects them to carry papers wherever they go. And if they don't have those papers, the government, which is flawed, will make no attempt at due process -- out of the country, to somewhere else. "Why didn't they just do it the legal way?" Some tried. That's why ICE is arresting people at courthouses; those are people trying to be "legal." Others are unaware that they made a mistake. Others got in over their heads, and hoped that the problem would go away. You know all of this. Put yourself in that situation, facing a labyrinthine, expensive system designed to keep you out, and you can imagine a myriad of ways that you might mess it up. But people have been convinced that immigrants are the problem. Never mind that this is an ahistorical and illogical view; blaming an out-group feels intuitive. So this is where we're at now. All of the following are factual statements: The government is murdering people in the streets, then lying about it. It's using intimidation as an intentional tactic to discourage dissent and direct action (we used to call this terrorism, before the term lost all meaning). It's sending people to countries that they have no relationship with. There are reports of abuse at detention centers, both domestic and foreign. The campaign is being operated with intentional, overt, and gleeful cruelty. It is despotic, and if you believe in evil, it is evil. I have friends in Minneapolis. They have sent me pictures of abandoned cars with smashed windows. ICE smashed those windows and abducted parents with their screaming children, leaving the vehicle behind. My friends have witnessed this, and they are not bleeding heart Leftists (well, not all of them). If you support what is happening, I would love the opportunity to talk you out of it. In person, though. Not online. But if you'd like to take me up on that, do it soon. Because there's barely any time left to stake your claim and say that you're on the side of humanity and compassion. At a certain point very, very soon, that will be off the table. If it's not already. For everyone else: Now is the time to speak out, with your own voice. Don't just share memes. Tell people in your own words why you want things to change. In person, where possible. Silence is complicity.