Immigration Letter (better late than never)

Note: I'm mainly writing on Substack now (join me there!), but am posting this letter here, too, as I think it's that important. Please share widely, if you feel so led. ~Sara

On the surge in immigration during the Biden administration: “Biden and Harris never acknowledged their role in causing the surge… They never apologized. They never acknowledged the cost in places like South Texas or on the West Side of Chicago. And, you know, Harris basically wouldn’t answer the question of why she changed her position.”

On the Trump admin’s rhetoric re immigrant crime rates: “It’s important to say that immigrants to the United States commit crimes at a lower rate than the native population in the United States. Donald Trump lies about that, and many Republicans lie about that, and they lie about it in really alarming ways.” ~David LeonhardtChotiner, Isaac. The New Yorker, March 3, 2025 (Read the entire article for as balanced an article as we’ll find today.)

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution

“We’re all used to implausible spins by White House officials. But White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has stooped to a new level. An appallingly low one. And he has done so in the disservice of spurring the White House to defy a Supreme Court ruling.” Noem v. Abrego Garcia. Whelan, Ed. “Stephen Miller’s Brazen Misrepresentation of Abrego Garcia Ruling” The National Review, April 17, 2025

Dear Conservative Friend,

I ask you to imagine this:

It’s 2028. Trump’s (unconstitutional) dream of a third term has been dashed, and a Democratic President has been elected. As his first act, the new President arrests former President Donald J. Trump, calling him a “danger to society.” Trump is immediately deported to Greenland to rot in a Danish gulag. An American judge rules this unconstitutional in the extreme and says Trump must be immediately brought back to the United States, to which the sitting president replies, “Oopsie, too late, judge. Former President Trump is a clear and present danger. Also, he’s out of the country, it’s out of my hands, and much like Trump himself, I never liked that part of the Constitution anyway…”

Now imagine this:

Your co-worker is originally from Mexico. She is a U.S. Citizen. Her beloved son, also a U.S. citizen, is an upstanding young man, but like many young people, he has tattoos. He is picked up by ICE and put on a bus to El Salvador, never to be seen or heard from again because, “Oopsie…”

And finally, imagine this:

It’s your son.

***

I can tell you this in no uncertain terms: If we, in this country, decide that due process is for some and not for others; if we ignore the constitution, decide that judges orders are optional, and/or make a habit of lying (Steven Miller style) about Supreme Court rulings, it’s a whole new world in which no one is safe, law and order is a thing of the past, and our great Democratic experiment is over.

***

Twenty or so years ago, I sat down at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Dickson, Tennessee, to share a meal with a young woman named Maria. Maria, the sister of a waitress there, had agreed to talk to me about a play I was writing - a docudrama (based on real people, in their own words), which would include a piece on immigration. Maria and her family were originally from Mexico. They had been in the US since she was a young girl, and they were “undocumented.” I was new to the interview process. I was also new to the immigration issue, and my questions were rudimentary: How did immigrants get here from Mexico? What was the journey like? Why did they come? Why not just come legally? Were undocumented immigrants taking American jobs?

Maria listened patiently while I asked these questions and more. I remember her telling me how, in Mexico, her family was food insecure when she was little, and about how her mother once picked up used gum from the ground so Maria would have something to chew. It was the only way to stop her crying. I remember her telling me about a family member who worked at the Banana Republic Factory in Mexico for a criminally low hourly rate (this was a little over a decade after NAFTA went into effect) and how, when Maria shopped at Banana Republic at the mall in Nashville, she was often treated differently than other (white) customers. Employees assumed she had very little money to spend, Maria theorized.

She talked about missing her family and her culture. She talked about loneliness and isolation, especially for her parents, who didn’t speak English fluently like she and her sister did. She talked about the many painful sacrifices her parents made so their children would have enough food to eat. And I remember the words that ring in my ears all these years later: “You have to understand,” Maria said, “We don’t come here because we want to. We come because we have to.”

After talking with Maria, my next stop, all those years ago, was the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), where David Lubell and his colleagues helped me (begin to) understand the complexities of our immigration system and how utterly broken it was/is. I remember someone from TIRRC telling me at one point, “People say undocumented immigrants should just get in line and enter the US the right way, but what they don’t understand is, there is no line…”

There was a lot to learn.

I continued to meet and talk to folks. I listened, I learned, I wrote, and eventually produced FAIRVIEW: An American Conversation, a four-part docudrama which included the immigration piece.

Fifteen years later, when I was commissioned by the Tennessee Women’s Theatre Project (Nashville) to write a full-length play about New Americans, I had a basic understanding of the issues surrounding the immigration debate. I understood that crossing the border was a dangerous and harrowing experience, often born of desperation. I understood that the offense of crossing the border illegally (the first time) was a misdemeanor; no more serious than getting a speeding ticket. I understood that, overall, undocumented immigrants are not a net drain on the economy in the U.S., but that in certain areas a large influx of immigrants can put considerable burdens on local municipalities; burdens, David Leonhardt tells us, “on the working class that more affluent voters largely escape, such as strained benefit programs, crowded schools and increased competition for housing and blue-collar jobs. Working-class families know this from experience. Affluent leftists pretend otherwise and then lecture less privileged voters about their supposed intolerance." One way or another, I knew the system was utterly broken, and that both President Bush and President Obama tried to pass comprehensive reform, which was scuttled for political reasons. Here in America (as in much of the world), we prioritize scapegoating and demonizing immigrants over sensible reform that would benefit citizens and non-citizens alike.

I have talked with many Americans who reflexively view undocumented immigrants with utter disdain, categorizing them as deviant for the simple act of entering the country illegally, even though we haven’t left them much choice in the matter. “There is no line…” remember. I hear the fear in their voices. In the minds of those who don’t know better, all, or at least most, undocumented (“illegal”) immigrants take the form of José Antonio Ibarra, gang members, or members of the cartel. All are “criminal” by default. Dehumanized. Rendering people less than human enables us (some of us) to watch impassively as our Government tears mothers from their children in broad daylight, and instead of feeling compassion, we say things like, “Well, if they hadn’t broken the law…”

The immigration system is broken, and the costs for citizens and non-citizens alike are immense. The only way to fix it is through real conversations about real reform. Democrats must get their heads out of the proverbial sand, acknowledge the widespread fear and very real hardship in some working-class neighborhoods, while Republicans must employ zero tolerance for the misinformation and disinformation that is disseminated and perpetuated by the Trump administration and the Republican party.

And, of course, you and I must help each other see beyond the histrionics.

***

We’ve all heard, by now, of 29-year-old Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran citizen who was deported from the US on March 15, in what the Trump administration calls “an administrative error.” He now sits in an El Salvadoran prison.

In the weeks following his deportation, Democrats seemingly went out of their way to lionize Garcia (devoted husband! Loving father!), while Republicans fully committed to demonizing him. (Monster! Gang member!)

None of this is helpful.

Kilmar Garcia came to the United States when he was 16, presumably to escape the gang that terrorized him and his family in El Salvador. In the US, he married and had children. Garcia, it would seem, was himself capable of terrorizing his family on some level. We’ve all heard, by now, about the alleged domestic violence in 2021 and the restraining order his wife sought at the time.

Democrats are championing this man and fighting to bring him home, while Republicans are outraged. “The democratic and media outrage over Abrego Garcia, an MS13 illegal criminal alien who was hiding in Maryland, has been nothing short of despicable,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Strong words. One way or another, let’s get our facts straight.

Recently, Attorney General Pam Bondi said of Garcia, “In 2019, two courts, an immigration court and an appellate immigration court, ruled that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.”

This is a misrepresentation of the facts (and if you’re the Attorney General, you ought not misrepresent the facts, which are HERE).

Beyond the facts we can read in court documents, we don’t know the whole truth about Garcia, who was accused but not convicted of being a gang member. What we do know is that one U.S. Judge deemed the accusation credible, refusing Garcia bail. Another judge upheld the finding. Later, still another U.S. Judge granted Garcia “withholding of removal,” ruling that he could not be sent back to El Salvador, where he would likely suffer persecution. From that point forward, Garcia had yearly check-ins with immigration officials, which he attended “without fail and without incident,” according to his lawyers.

Ultimately, Garcia may be more than his worst act on his worst day. Or he may be an irredeemable asshole. Or, in addition to having a full-time job as a sheet metal worker, he may be a gang member. (I’ve read the human sex trafficking allegations, but they are exceedingly flimsy despite the White House press secretary’s misleading insistence that the evidence is iron-clad.)

The thing we all must wrestle with now is this: in the United States, we’re not allowed to strip assholes or gang members – even undocumented ones – of their fundamental rights. So sayeth our constitution. The very constitution our President swore an oath, on a bible, to uphold.

And yet, President Trump, the Republican party, and the Attorney General of the United States have apparently decided to abide by the parts of the Constitution they like and ignore the parts they don’t like. The fact that they seem to be getting away with this – and that large numbers of Americans don’t seem to mind – takes my breath away.

I am all for getting dangerous gang members off the streets, don’t get me wrong. But we honor due process for a reason. Without it, no one is safe. Anyone can accuse anyone of anything.

Did we ever really care about the Constitution at all, I keep wondering? Did I miss something? Do we care about the truth? The law? The fundamental tenets of Democracy?

No, as it turns out. The hard truth is that a surprisingly large number of Americans are ok with a lurch toward authoritarianism so long as the authoritarian in question shares their politics or ameliorates their fear. For this, I grieve.

I grieve, also, the death of the Truth. Of the 238 migrants sent to one of the world's most notorious prisons, it’s not clear that all or even most of them have any criminal record whatsoever. The White House says they do, and they very much want us to take them at their word. But to take this White House at its word would be foolish in the extreme.

***

Because I cannot carry this alone, friend, I must briefly tell you about Andy Hernandez Romero, the gay, 31-year-old makeup artist from Venezuela who was one of the 238 men sent to the gulag in El Salvador. Andy is my son’s age. He loves the theatre (a young man after my own heart!) and was a member of a theater troupe in his hometown. He had no criminal record. He left Venezuela because he was targeted for his politics and sexuality. Once upon a time, America was a safe haven for such people, a “shining city upon a hill.” But now Andy, along with other innocents, as much as we would like to believe otherwise, has been sent to starve and to be tortured in El Salvador. President Trump, JD Vance, and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele apparently find this funny. They very literally laughed about it all in the Oval Office a few weeks ago. (My next sentence was, “They will not laugh in hell,” but my husband suggested I strike that sentence...

We could have prevented these human tragedies simply by adhering to the law of the land; specifically, the 5th and 14th amendments, which guarantee that undocumented immigrants in the US are entitled to due process, which protects against arbitrary government actions and ensures fair treatment.

The precious, young Laken Riley was murdered for reasons having to do with unfathomable cruelty and lawlessness. The Government held her murderer accountable, and he is now in prison for the rest of his life, with no possibility of parole.

It is now the Government that is engaged in unfathomable cruelty and lawlessness. Who will hold them accountable?

There is only us, friend.

The immigration system must be reformed. There is a way to reform it. This is not the way.

Love,

Sara

PS. I know there is a lot of fear, on your side of the divide, about alleged migrant crime in New York City. To hear Fox News tell it, NYC has for years been a hellscape, and to ride the subway is to take one’s life in one’s hands. I can see that Republicans and conservative media have gone out of their way to create an apocalyptic narrative (this John Oliver episode, if you can stomach it, exposes the machinations behind the false narrative) and that all data tells us their narrative is fantastical. But I haven’t been to my favorite American city since 2017 and so can’t speak to this first-hand. So, I asked a friend, the estimable Renate J Lunn, who lives, works, and raises her son in the city, to share her experience. (Renata, who is the Director of Training for the New York County Defender Services, has her finger on the pulse of the criminal legal system in NYC. If there were a migrant crime wave, she’d be among the first to know.)

Here’s her reply:

What I tell people freaked out about subways in NYC is: My 13 year old son is an 8th grader. Since 6th grade, he’s been riding the subway to and from school every day. His school is about 45 minutes and two trains away. That is, he has to do 1 transfer. I’m perfectly comfortable with him alone on the subway. In fact for the past year or so, he takes the subway to meet us for dinner in Manhattan after school, or if we’re out and he’s bored, he goes home early on his own.

I worry more about him crossing streets in our residential neighborhood where people regularly run red lights. But that’s another story!

-Renate

VOICES OF NASHVILLE

PPS. Quick, local update:

Sunday, May 4, 2025, Nashville, TN: Yali Romero wakes up at 5:00 a.m. to discover her husband missing. Leugium Romero, originally from Venezuela, never made it home from his 12-hour shift at Walmart. Yali eventually learns through social media that Yalo has been arrested by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, who, in partnership with ICE and Homeland Security agents, pulled over Leugim and 150 other people in the wee hours of the morning, detaining and transporting (to out-of-state- immigration centers) an unknown number of them, leaving their families with no information.

According to the Tennessean, Leugim and Yali Moleo “fled political persecution in Venezuela and arrived in the United States nine months ago through the CBP ONE App, a Biden-era program that allows migrants to schedule appointments and apply for work authorization in the U.S.

After the Trump administration announced it was ending the program, they hired a lawyer to help with their asylum case. A court date for their asylum case is March 2027.”

"It's a moment of anguish, despair, not knowing if he's okay," Molero said of her husband.

ICE says they are targeting criminals, but with the Trump Administration’s stated goal of deporting over 1,000,000 people this year alone, the vast majority of immigrants deported will not be criminals at all. They will be hardworking folks, like this fellow.