THE POWER OF ONE: YOU DECIDE
Our small immigration clinics have served the utterly poor and low-income undocumented families for more than 16 years. During his presidency, Donald Trump imposed a “zero tolerance” policy requiring the arrest of anyone caught illegally crossing the border, which led to the cruel separation of children from their families. Cruelty, indeed, was the point. His administration enforced strict immigration policies, including family separations at the border. It aimed to reduce immigration by implementing legal changes and decreasing the number of refugees allowed into the country.
Solid evidence now shows that President Trump’s cornerstone immigration policy was built on a wholly false premise. Yet, the power of his rhetoric and position made our task more difficult from that cold January morning when he was sworn into office until the end of his term. What emerged was an unsparing picture of the “Leader of the Free World,” providing a lesson in some of the worst bigotry seen in this nation in the last one hundred years.
Donald Trump’s tenure not only threatened our global relationship but had deleterious effects on race relations in our country. It impacted social justice and closed down many immigration support centers like ours, which experienced an awful, hellish struggle waged against immigrants by a rogue “commander-in-chief” in a country that fancies itself “the cradle of liberty” and prides itself on its illustrious past. I hope that Americans inclined to vote for Donald Trump in the next election will remember the terrifying reasons he was voted out of office in the first place.
Then, like now, Trump was captured by the same television cameras that bring us our daily quota of his vulgarity and pointless rhetoric, all in service of the most important person in his world — himself. His content has never changed; it is filled with useless figures of speech and other tasteless and moronic compositional techniques.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in public accommodations. It prohibited state and municipal governments from denying access to public facilities on these grounds, including immigrants! These provisions were designed to overcome legal racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. However, Trump’s executive orders nearly destroyed these provisions, and the spirit of the Act was largely abandoned. You watched him gut human rights, and you watched him try to strip men and women of their dignity, –– year after year, day after day. We all got a Ph.D. in his crazy!
Donald Trump has pledged to implement even harsher anti-immigrant policies if re-elected. These policies would undermine fundamental democratic values and the rule of law, harming immigrant communities and diminishing freedoms for all Americans. His severely anti-intellectual attitudes, which he so quickly and openly expressed, should have impacted our collective conscience more. Why aren’t Americans, as a whole, suffering from the twinge of their conscience and asking why Trump is the Republican nominee?
Trump’s propensity to hate people who are unlike him continues unabated and is presently at its highest level among Republicans. But his hatefulness, in and of itself, is not the primary subject of this message. It is about us — how much we are willing to excuse, condone, or simply ignore events that threaten democracy. It also begs the question: Is America willing to look into its soul and admit to the subtleties of hate and terror that persist under the guise of “liberty” or “law and order”?
Americans have muscle, and although Trump may try to justify the unjustifiable or deny his moral obligation to oppose what is blatant discrimination, the vote remains a powerful tool for establishing “Justice for All.” The vote nurtures the gift of freedom. It empowers Americans to address compelling issues that will ultimately have far-reaching consequences. If we turn away and cast our eyes in denial, we risk plunging into the abyss of catastrophic outcomes, unable to eliminate or even navigate the complexities of cruelty and injustice.
A Kamala Harris presidency would be crucial in transforming the judicial system, which has denied women the right to protect their bodies. She would also manage international relations and ensure American aid to those most in need.
As president, she will mediate a cease-fire and increase humanitarian aid in Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan during a pivotal period in American history.
Ask whether it is worth creating a more equitable society and suppressing conflict.
Our votes count. We must use them to leverage liberty so that the Commander-in-thief” does not return to the Oval Office and stunt progressive issues while increasing his power to benefit narrow-minded interest groups.
You know, as well as I do, that every election is determined by the people who show up to vote.
Khalilah Sabra, Esq.
