Channing Justice

Through 400 years, from the pilgrims’ first steps ashore at Plymouth Bay to Afghans seeking refuge in the nation they aided in war, we have confirmed that we are a nation of immigrants. Yet there are some who would argue that this characterization is wrong. No, they say, we are, rather, a nation of settlers, with Europeans – white Europeans – moving farther and farther westward. No matter that the land didn’t belong to them. As Lakota Chief Red Cloud observed, “the white man made many promises, but he kept only one. He promised to take our land and he took it.”

 

Let the historical debate continue. We know the truth. We are a nation of immigrants. We or are ancestors came here for many reasons: to escape war, poverty, starvation, disease, political persecution, to practice a religion of our choice. Some came here in chains, some for economic opportunity or maybe, like Mr. Trump’s grandfather, to own a brothel in Alaska.

 

It is estimated that 72 million people immigrated to the U.S. since 1776. Fifty-eight percent of America’s population growth comes from immigration. We wouldn’t be the country we are today if not for immigration. Yet today, we face the severest test of the ideals Emma Lazarus wrote and inscribed on the French statue in New York harbor.

 

Since Mr. Trump’s second inauguration, we have witnessed, what Thomas Jefferson called in the Declaration of Independence, “a long train of abuses.”

 

• He has expanded the expedited removal process allowing immigration officials to deport immigrants without a court hearing.

• He has initiated mass deportations involving hundreds of removal flights.

• He has made it nearly impossible to seek refuge and asylum.

• He has extended the boundaries of presidential power by invoking centuries old laws like the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, unconstitutionally depriving immigrants of due process under the law, immigrants like Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

• He is spending billions of dollars to construct private detention centers that will result in profiteering and corruption.

• He has deployed the military on city streets to aid in abducting immigrants.

• He has engendered fear in every immigrant community with his strong-arm, unaccountable, unidentifiable ICE agents roaming the streets detaining law-abiding individuals.

• He has enlisted local law enforcement officers – county sheriffs – in this inhumane practice through what are called 287g Agreements.

 

We will stop these agreements. 

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Delegate Nicole Williams (Dist. 22, PG County) has said that she will reintroduce a bill to ban 287g agreements in Maryland.

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We can protect our immigrant neighbors and their families. We can end the fear.