We’re getting the bad ones out. Bad people out of this country—people that shouldn’t be whether its drugs, murder…. Donald Trump speaking to followers.
I was a new Special Agent in the U.S. Secret Service—only a couple of weeks on the job. My boss assigned me my first case to investigate: A deceased man’s Railroad Retirement checks were cashed for several months after his death.
I went to the retirement home where his widow lived. She was old and frail, kind and cooperative. She acknowledged cashing his checks after he died. She thought it was okay. She said to me, “I can pay back a dollar a month.” I said, “That will not be necessary.” If I had to take a dollar a month from this lady, I didn’t want to be a Secret Service agent. I closed the case. No one objected.
I watched a news report recently and felt saddened by the reports of good people being swept up under Trump’s executive order on immigration. He said he wasn’t after people with minor criminal records or who made administrative mistakes. His order said otherwise.
One husband and father, in the United States for 16 years, was arrested and quickly deported to El Salvador for missing a meeting. His wife wept as she asked, “Why would you hurt me like this? Why would you hurt my kids this way?”
Another man was pulled over by ICE agents as he drove his children to school. He was arrested in front of his children while his 13-year-old daughter video-taped his arrest. His serious crime? A DWI 10 years prior.
A woman spoke publically about her fear of deportation. Shortly afterward, she was pulled over, detained and awaits deportation for overstaying her visa. She has lived in the United States for 16 years.
And the stories go on and on across the country. Millions of people live in fear.
ICE agents had discretion in these cases. They could leave these people alone. It’s easy to build up one’s statistics by prioritizing such people. People inflate numbers all the time to make themselves look better or for political use. I haven’t read of the arrests or deportations of any murderers or rapists. I wonder how ICE agents feel about these arrests—often done in cruel ways? If I was a young ICE agent, I would ask, “Is this what I have to do to be an ICE agent?”
We will remember Donald Trump as a cruel man without compassion.
I believe people allowed to live and work freely here for as long as these people were should be allowed to remain here forever. We should not break up families.
One way we resist Trumpism is to refuse to behave as he does: We tell the truth, have a higher purpose, treat others with respect, act with compassion and always seek to grow in our awareness of what is happening right in front of us.
The “bad ones” are not those being snatched off the streets.
Tom's Thoughts 
Well said, Tom. Good people are being hurt for the single purpose of perpetrating a campaign illusion that Trump will make America great by getting rid of a bunch of foreigners who don’t belong here. The truth is that he is making America sad and ashamed by destroying the lives of people who wanted nothing more than a better life for themselves and their families. As the midnight tweeter would say: sad!
LikeLike
Really sad. Thanks Bruce.
LikeLike
Really, really sad. And not only as regards the “immigration” file…
Who knows where all this chest-thumping will lead…
I am unfortunately now in a life-stage that doesn’t leave much energy for the activist spirit that still lives in me, so I am looking toward others — those on your blog list, Tom, and other similar sane and aware Americans — to shine a relentless light on all that is currently under attack BY the U.S. EXECUTIVE!!
Keep the light shining, from the people’s side of things, and pointed into those corners to rout out the injustices coming from (in this case) “ICE” — perhaps the descriptor of what the members of this force have in their veins…
In loving spirit, Eleanor (a Canadian-American perspective)
LikeLike
Thanks Eleanor, you have done your activist work. I look forward to more work on my part when I get home from our winter in San Diego.
LikeLike
Your last paragraph is very well stated. The reason this country is great is because of the exact behaviors you describe there. I’m still trying to figure out what country Mr Trump grew up in? It could not have been here. It is hard for me to wrap my head around the notion/idea that a person, like Mr. Trump be born with a silver spoon and act as though he were disenfranchised . . .and then the actual disenfranchised buy into his act hook, line and sinker. Mr. Trump is not a friend to the disenfranchised but I think they are too gullible to see that. Mr. Trump is out for himself only. I keep praying the country is going to wake up and demand the House and Senate do something about it before it is too late.
LikeLike
Thanks Bob. I agree with you.
LikeLike
Law enforcement can be a quota system. So, if an officer can do an easy job, and check a box, they might be inclined to do that. The really tough ones are dangerous, and the officer may think that they would rather go home tonight to their families, rather than get shot trying to get rid of an MS13 killer. So, my question is “why is this Trump’s fault?”
LikeLike