But This is What We Wanted

America asked for this

On Mondays, I volunteer at an all-girls school in Los Angeles. The school’s mission is to serve young women who have faced circumstances that make graduating from a traditional high school difficult. The school is a second chance. There, I run a club called POPS, which offers arts-based healing for those students impacted by the carceral system.

Yesterday, I sat proudly at the graduation for the POPS seniors. One of my students was the valedictorian. In her speech, she spoke of perseverance, of battling through obstacles and leaning on your people.

Then she transitioned to Spanish to thank her mother for the sacrifices that put her daughter on that podium.

Shaking with emotion, my student smiled to herself and declared that she is the first in her family to graduate high school.

For an immigrant family, it’s all you could ever want for your child.

I sat there listening to her and tried to blink away my own tears.

My student will go on to do singular things — of this I have no doubt — but she’ll do it in a country that’s made its position on her people clear.

We want an end to diversity.

We want an end to immigration.

Donald Trump campaigned for a decade on anti-immigration. And it paid off. In 2024, DJT was handed a decisive presidential victory, in part due to the rising fear that we’ve let in too many people who “don’t belong.”

America has closed its borders. There are new travel bans. Our leaders are attempting to redefine who is considered “American,” who is considered “safe.” And with the votes of 77 million Americans, Trump and his goons have returned to power kicking and screaming and tearing things up. Immediately, DJT’s administration took actions to increase deportation numbers and crackdown on immigrants of all kinds. Trump moved fast to squash many Biden-era programs that protected individuals from removal, sped up the deportation process, and is even challenging birthright citizenship in the courts. The Department of Homeland Security (led by ICE Barbie Noem) has canceled protections for hundreds of thousands of people, despite courts’ moves to block such actions. Student visas have been revoked with little explanation, and ICE is on a generational purge, a warfare run, detaining even long-protected people and fast-tracking their removal. They now have a hardline quota, with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller declaring that “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day.” That’s a lot of arrests, about three times the prior daily quota…but it CAN’T mean ICE is cutting corners, right?

Today, the government is holding more than 48,000 people in detention centers — a 20% increase since January. Many of these people are held in private prisons, where immigrant rights advocates have raised concerns about treatment and inhumane conditions.

Trump promised arrests and deportations. He spoke of it like war. He wouldn’t shut up about it, so we wouldn’t shut up about it. Now, we’re getting what we wanted.

They are your neighbors, your classmates, peers, co-workers, lovers, and friends. And they have been made to fear us — the proud Americans whose only difference from them was the dumb fortune of being born here.

Our leaders have told us to fear immigrants because some commit crimes and atrocities. That can be true. What can also be true is that the majority of immigrants in this country are people we desperately need.

They work unwanted jobs. They pay taxes. They farm our food. They take care of our children and elderly. They root for our troops. They cry for our losses. They love our country more than many of us could ever fathom.

I’ll say it again: America needs its immigrants. And we have turned against them.

We have turned against them happily. Willingly. We have turned against them with pride, with force, as we hunt them in the Land of the Free.

In 2025, immigrants in America are anxious. They’re afraid. Profiled. Silenced.

And this is what we wanted.

We see the stories. We scroll past. We let ourselves become numb as ICE attempts raids on elementary schools. As it detains restaurant workers. Children. Parents. Veterans.

And while I can admit that our border system has real challenges, this is a kind of sweeping cruelty. This is a moral collapse.

Just last week, on May 31st in Milford, Massachusetts, Marcelo Gomes da Silva — an 18-year-old junior — was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice with his friends. ICE came looking for his father, but they found and detained Marcelo instead — claiming he had overstayed his visa after coming with his parents to the United States from Brazil when he was just seven.

Yesterday, Marcelo recounted his time in the detention center. He slept on a cement floor in a cramped, windowless room for five days. He was dirty and not permitted to shower. He was sick, and when taken to the ER for severe headaches, guards made sure he was handcuffed and shackled. He was scared and alone, even as his community — hundreds of high schoolers and townspeople — protested the unlawfulness for days.

Upon release, Marcelo started his interview by saying, “I don’t want to cry.”

Why are we dehumanizing teenagers? Because we wanted to.

Go watch ICE Acting Field Director Patricia Hyde give her press briefing about Marcelo. Watch how she talks about a beloved 18-year-old high schooler. Wait and try to listen for the empathy. The humanity. The sensitivity. The nuance. It’s not there.

The Trump administration says, “If you’re undocumented, you’re a dirty little criminal no matter what.”

And we’re okay with that.

Marcelo Gomes da Silva (center and not a dirty little criminal) reunited with friends upon his release from detainment.

Why is ICE targeting 18-year-old students to get to their fathers?

Why is ICE detaining immigrant families upon arrival to their check-in appointments?

Why is ICE capturing student visa holders for pro-Palestinian activism?

Why is ICE armed for war, masked, and shooting flash grenades into American crowds?

WHY IS ICE ARMED FOR WAR, MASKED, AND SHOOTING FLASH GRENADES INTO AMERICAN CROWDS?

Because we wanted this.

We let Trump say that immigrants are:

• Migrant criminals
• Illegal monsters
• Escaped convicts and mental patients
• Thieves stealing public benefits
• American killers
• Poisoners of our country

We let him because we wanted to. Because we need scapegoats. We need demons. We need people to put our anxieties and fears into. We need “others” to cast out.

We wanted this.

When Trump was re-elected in 2024, I cried for days (I’m still crying). I knew what his reign would bring. I knew the people who would hurt most because of him. I knew who would suffer.

Every Monday, I’m back at that special all-girls school in LA. A second-chance school. Most of my students are Latinx. Their families come from countries all over. Their families come chasing the promise of America — for their daughters.

One month ago, we installed additional locks on every door of that school.

To keep out ICE.

To keep out violence.

To keep loving families together.

To keep hardworking students safe.

But this is what we wanted, right?

This is what makes America strong. Unique. Great. Undeniable.

This is what we wanted.