albertsperspective

In his August 31, 2016, Phoenix, Arizona, immigration speech, Donald Trump’s stated intent – if elected President – should strike fear into the heart of anyone who could be singled out. He said:

“We will issue detainers for illegal immigrants who are arrested for any crime whatsoever, and they will be placed into immediate removal proceedings if we even have to do that.”

The statement raises the specter of a police state, where police feel empowered to create or manufacture reasons to arrest persons based on appearance alone. In Trump’s speech, to be arrested is to be convicted, and “any crime whatsoever” could include a burned out taillight, jaywalking, suspicion of shoplifting, or, as an officer once told me after pulling me over, “You almost didn’t stop at that stop sign.” It’s not hard to imagine other scenarios reminiscent of other police states, including Pinochet’s Chile, Franco’s Spain, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and – the ultimate – Hitler’s Germany, where millions of Jews were unfairly blamed for the country’s economic problems and were then systematically rounded up and exterminated in gas chambers.

As a nation of immigrants, we know that any of us or our family members or friends could be unfairly singled out. Our common sense tells us to say No! to Trump and not go down Trump’s terrible path.