Every American recognizes these words and believes they apply to everyone of us because we are all born equal—regardless of gender, race, or social class. These were the words that Jefferson chose to justify the new world’s separation from the old world of European stratified societies. What followed, in due course, was a war of independence—which Americans just celebrated—and the formation of a new self-government that begins with the words, “we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
This statement was a clarion call that transformed the way we humans see, live, and interface with each other. Successive generations of Americans have recognized the need to respecify that transformation. The thirteen Amendment of our Constitution abolished slavery. The fourteenth Amendment asserted the obvious fact that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States.” And the nineteenth Amendment assured women the right to vote. These amendments did not change Jefferson’s words or the initial intent of our Constitution. They did, however, clarify their meaning and inspired all the laws enacted to assure their enforcement. But how do they apply to the America of today, or more specifically to those seeking American citizenship?
Our current Congress can specify how many migrants can be admitted and what is required for them to seek naturalization as American citizens. But neither Congress nor the President can legally deport or imprison anyone seeking naturalization without cause and due legal process. Nor can the children of migrants born in America be deported as unwanted aliens. To do so would violate both Jefferson’s intent and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Moreover, neither Congress nor the President should deny any human being the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for those are the very foundational principles that defined America. The deportation of people not born in this country can be a violation of those core principles unless justified by due process in a court of law. Immigration laws, however, were designed to grant citizenship to migrants who pledged allegiance to these foundational principles. As a matter of fact, America exists as a nation developed by immigrants.
But the current President is illegally deporting migrants without due process. He has even detained citizens by birthright—usually those who happen to be brown or speak a foreign language—with the intent to deport them as well. And, yes, these migrants can be children who know no other life but what they experienced in America. The justification for this mishandling of migrants is the President’s assertion that they are the “worse of the worse” –that is, killers, thieves, rapists, and so on. But his assertions are without merit and not supported by facts that even remotely match his assertions. Moreover, these assertions are compounded by Congress’s recent passage of President Trump’s appropriations bill that expands the ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) force to become the largest arresting agent in the country. Like Hitler’s gestapo, ICE now arrests, jails, and deports anyone perceived as a non-citizen without “due process” or any form of legal/judicial procedure. Many so-called “illegals” have applied for citizenship and appear monthly before the Department of Homeland Security. But now, instead of their request to become American citizens being processed, they are forcibly interred in jails like suspected criminals or in hastily developed ICE internment camps for eventual deportation. Then, without any judicial review, they can be deported to a foreign gulag, much like a Nazi concentration camp. Instead of a gas chamber, they may face the rest of their lives in a foreign prison, facing eventual death in obscurity. Not since the Japanese internment camps of World War II has America established such interim encampments, but none as intimidating as the President’s new “Alligator Alcatraz,” located amongst wild animals in the Florida everglades. There is no wartime justification for such inhumane treatment of migrants. Their only “crime” is their intent to become US citizens and be treated as fellow Americans.
The irony here is that a vast majority of Americans are descendants of migrants. It is not just the welcoming message engraved on the Statue of Liberty that is violated, but the very core of America’s promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as the birthright of every human. There is indeed a defined path to gain American citizenship. Many of America’s illegal migrants have applied for citizenship and demonstrate their allegiance to its ideals. They obey our laws. They work in our homes, in factories, in fields, and pay taxes with only the promise of obtaining the liberties and government services granted with full citizenship. My grandparents came to this country with the same aspiration as many others—to realize the promise of America. Why would we turn away those who now follow in the same path?
This question belies the title of this blog. In another sense it reprises George Washington’s greatest fear. In “Revolution, Evolution, Devolution,” (published on 7/3/2023) his fears of that fatal tendency to backslide into self-serving factions are reiterated. Washington had warned us about political parties deteriorating into “factions” that would compete for power rather than for the common good and mutual interests. President Trump, for example, has never been invested in the common good or mutual interests. The faction he leads is only vested in the power of wealth and control. And that power he would consider wasted in service of any one or any group other than himself, his self-appointed apparatchiks, and those who benefit and serve his interest. And his interest is in the power of his office and the size of his wealth. What service has he rendered to average working people, to racial minorities, to women’s bodily autonomy in pregnancy and childbirth? Since migrants encompass every one of these people and more, it is understandable—even predictable—that he would order ICE to arrest without warrant, imprison without due process, and deport to foreign prisons without consideration for the families deprived of their love and support. But Donald Trump’s war is not just against migrants, but against the very fabric of American democracy, that is, the assurance of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
In “American Revolution 2016,” (published on 8/28/2015) there were many suggestions for political campaign reforms designed to focus on universal participation, to include voting and funding guidelines replete with limits on campaign commitments and funding to include both public and private contributions, and the even-handed structuring of government sponsored televised debates. Although it is presumptuous to assume all these suggestions could or would be adopted someday, they were offered to encourage their consideration and debate. For they promoted specific changes, like eliminating large individual campaign contributions to selected Party candidates. Instead, actual campaigns for the selected candidates would receive equal government funding for their campaigns six-months before votes would be cast and counted. Individual campaign contributions would either be not permitted or limited to amounts a low-income citizen could afford. Why would we make such changes? Well, should not Candidates for office be duly elected by an informed voting majority, rather than by how much advertising and extravagant campaign affairs can be bought. Let us level the playing field monetarily to focus on the substance and impact of individual campaigns. For example, Donald Trump’s second election to the Presidency may have reflected disproportionately one man’s contribution of over 200 million dollars to his campaign rather than his qualifications for office. What could a twice impeached former President who was recently convicted of multiple felonies and sexual abuse offer to “to form a more perfect union . . . promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty,” as demanded by our Constitution and quoted in the above referenced blog? Not even 200 million dollars can or should qualify him for America’s highest office.
In “American Democracy in a Dangerous World,” (published on 4/2/2016) the structure of America’s democracy is described and related to its place within the context of other nations. Unrepresentative democracies and communist states, for example, can present opposition to American involvement in global affairs or specific economic enterprises. And international tensions can result in tariff wars, competition for resources, the shifting of alliances amongst states, economic hegemony, and confrontations that reflect opposing world views and conflicting self-interests. But America’s most effective opposition is from within where “progress is obstructed by those who use power for their own purposes to the exclusion of the majority’s welfare. They tear apart the fabric of democracy and expose us to the viral infection of power seekers both within and without,” as stated in the above referenced blog. Although Donald Trump had only begun his quest for the Presidency when that blog was published, it unwittingly forecasted the impact a Trump presidency would have in world affairs. For example, as soon as Trump assumed office, he began to associate himself with his fellow power mongers, namely, Kim Jung-un, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping.
In “The World We Live In,” (published on 7/20/2017), “political validation” was described “as a feeble attempt to project our personal perspective on everything and everyone. In effect, we would either expect others to share our childlike fantasy or, if circumstances permitted, compel them to accept it.” Although Donald Trump is a grown man, he demands that his followers mirror his limited, often adolescent, perspectives and personal beliefs. Otherwise, he will insult, attack, or simply depose you from any position you may hold within or even without his domain. He knows no other way in which to validate himself, his actions, or his office. Considering his two terms in office, how better could one have described the Trump phenomenon other than as the world we now live in?
As Americans we know how the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution define our shared values and the legal structure of our democratic country. But the immigration practices of the Trump Administration have violated those values and discredited the legal basis of our laws. But, as early as 2015, it became obvious that Donald Trump could not and would not comply with traditional American values and the legal structure of our government. From the start of his first campaign for the highest office in America, he formulated his qualifications in terms of his business acumen and wealth. He spoke and dressed in the same fashion as his character on the Apprentice– ‘the boss,” a man of power and money, who could promote or fire anyone at his own discretion. In 2016, despite his dubious background as a womanizer, charlatan, and fake millionaire, he was elected to his first term as President, but without winning a majority of the vote. Once in office, he proceeded to associate himself with dictators, rather than the democracies of Europe and the NATO alliance’s dedication to honor the territorial boundaries of independent nations. By 2017, he had already transformed the office of the Presidency into his private domain that served only his own interests rather than the welfare of his supporters and the American people at large. If a Rip Van Wrinkle had awakened in 2017, he would not have recognized this Trumpian version of America. For it reflected Trump’s personal political validation rather than the birthright of every American to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” America’s pursuit of justice for all was also redefined to suit the whims and actions of a President who believed and acted as if he was above the law. Or, as Nixon once espoused, “when the President does it, it is not illegal.”
Today, in 2025, America finds itself witness to a systematic erosion of its principles, including the norms, legal protections, and laws derived from those principles. Some American cities are now “protected” by their own National Guard troops activated by a rogue President to confront alleged—though yet unwitnessed —lawless behavior. And masked ICE agents roam the streets arresting, jailing, and attempting to deport suspected “aliens” who fail to produce papers that might validate their legal migrant or citizenship status. Without the ability to contact family, friends, or a lawyer, these suspected black and brown “aliens” may find themselves delivered to another state’s jail. If not located in time by family or defense lawyers, they may even be airlifted to another country’s prison before those who love them even know they are missed. President Trump has already promised to extend further these roaming ICE agents to Democratic cities in many states, avowedly beginning with those led by black mayors. Is the President skirting the law in support of his bigotry and not-to-obvious racism?
But the real question is how long it will take before Americans realize the victims of Trump’s reign of terror is not just those deported, but all of us who believe in America’s promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That promise, if lost, may not ever be restored.