On Immigration
-and the original undocumented
We hear the following refrains constantly today, shouted by the Trump regime, echoed on cable news, and algorithmically amplified on social media:
“They are here illegally.”
“They did not follow the process.”
“They were not vetted.”
“They were not documented.”
“I don’t care what they suffered in their country of origin—none of that is my problem.”
It all sounds chillingly familiar.
Because yes—these same objections were voiced over four centuries ago by Corbitant of Pocasset, a powerful sachem within the Wampanoag Confederation of tribes who warned Massasoit not to trust our ancestors, the strange, pale newcomers settling on the ruins of Patuxet.
Our ancestors did not follow proper immigration procedures.
They did not seek permission to enter Wampanoag territory.
They did not present paperwork at a border station (there was none).
And they arrived with no vetting, no documentation, no proof of identity, and no claim or legal right to be here.
Some had fled religious persecution.
Some fled poverty.
Some fled political repression.
Some were escaping their own societies’ brutality and scarcity.
In other words:
Our ancestors were undocumented immigrants. So if you find yourself against undocumented immigrants, perhaps its time you consider self-deportation.
Immigration and Economic Growth
Migration—voluntary, forced, desperate, opportunistic, or hopeful—has built every phase of this country’s economy. To pretend otherwise is to deny both our history and our prosperity.
https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/north-american-century/benefits-of-immigration-outweigh-costs
https://www.epi.org/publication/immigrants-and-the-economy/
From the earliest days of colonization to the modern tech economy, new arrivals—documented or not—have always been the catalyst for American economic expansion:
• Agricultural and frontier growth — powered by immigrants clearing land, farming, and sustaining rural economies.
• Industrialization — fueled by Irish, German, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Polish, and countless other laborers.
• The railroads — literally held together by the hands of Chinese immigrants who were banned from citizenship upon completion.
• Technology and innovation — where immigrants founded nearly half of America’s top tech companies.
America’s economic power—its wealth, its infrastructure, its scientific and technological lead—has always depended on immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and undocumented workers.
https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2016/1/27/the-effects-of-immigration-on-the-united-states-economy
Corbitant & The Criminal Elect Trump
Corbitant wanted to isolate the newcomers, cut them off from support, and preclude them from thriving economically and politically.
Fast forward to the cruelty and corruption of the Trump administration:
Family separation as state policy
Children in cages
Mass prison/detention systems
Deportations that continue to shatter families and dreams
Cruelty as political theater
A white-supremacist ideological framework that views asylum seekers as contaminants, not human beings
ICE enforcement is less about “law” and more about political spectacle—a message to immigrants and to anxious white voters that America would defend white supremacism regardless of unconstitutionality and illegality.
Cruelty and Abuse: A Fine American Tradition
Private detention centers are the darkest fusion of American capitalism and state-sponsored brutality. Under Trump, ICE is not merely an enforcement agency—it is a weapon. Raids were staged like military assaults, designed to terrorize through domination and fear. Parents disappeared from factory floors and grocery store parking lots. Children came home to dark and empty apartments. Immigrant communities lived with the constant dread that any knock on the door might be the last. And Trump, Noem, and Homan, and their SS/Goon Squad revel in the masked terror they wreak upon neighborhoods.
Private prisons and detention centers turn human suffering and despair into executive bonuses and investor dividends. Some are publicly traded, such as the GEO Group and CoreCivic. Others, such as Utah’s Management & Training Corporation, are privately held corporations (more about Management & Training Corporation is here: https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/07/13/commentary-utah/).
There’s an entire industry, a constellation of entities who gleefully transform suffering into caged line items on an invoice—representing children torn from their families, asylum seekers fleeing torture, refugees desperate for safety all reduced to bodies in beds, invoiced line items in a supply chain of abuse and despair. The business model depends on full cages, minimal services, and maximum pain. Supplies withheld. Hygiene ignored. Food rationed. Cold cells, fluorescent lights, sleep deprivation, medical neglect—conditions that experts say meet the clinical definition of trauma. Under Trump, this cruelty wasn’t a failure of oversight or an unintended excess; it was the operational blueprint. The privatization of detention is a leading example of our own societal moral decay.
Family separation as policy. Suffering as deterrence. Capitalism as a happy face on a package of abuse.
The architects of this system remain unapologetic. Of all the blatant corruption, criminality, and cruelty of the Trump Administration, if there is to be real justice and morality in American society -all who have profited from this human suffering will account for their crimes against humanity with civil forfeiture and indictments.
Scared Little White Men
Immigrants and refugees expand the labor force, raise productivity, revitalize communities, and contribute far more to our economic strength than they consume. The only real threat they pose is to systems built on exclusion, concentrated power, and the political machinery of white grievance. And make no mistake -Trump and his Cabal are the political machinery of white grievance:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-kill-border-bill-sign-trumps-strength-mcconnells-waning-in-rcna137477
Corbitant lost his argument because the world was moving—with or without him.
Trump and the modern nativist movement cling to the same losing argument, terrified of diversity and a future they cannot stop.
But here are the truths Trump, Vance, Noem, Homan, and others cannot extinguish: immigrants have always driven our economic vitality, from the farms and railroads to research and start-ups.
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/how-does-immigration-affect-us-economy
What threatens us is a political movement willing to weaponize lies, racism, and state power to maintain the premise of white dominance. What threatens us is the refusal to build an immigration system worthy of our values and our future.
Real reform means dismantling the for-profit detention regime that turns human desperation into a corporate balance sheet. It means restoring asylum with integrity, modernizing our immigration system, and refusing to let fear—manufactured and monetized—define our national character. Immigration is not the enemy. The true threats are insatiable greed without guardrails, blatant corruption without shame, and willful ignorance without remorse.
In 2026, we will arrive at a crossroads with no neutral ground.
One path begins the long work of repairing our nation—recognizing our failures, learning from them, and building a future rooted in justice, equality, compassion, and courage. The other path accelerates a slide into authoritarian cruelty marked by racism, xenophobia, and fear weaponized for profit.
The future our children and grandchildren inherit depends entirely on our choice.
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I’m honored, George! This article is excellent 💙🇺🇸!
I would love to see those whining about 'undocumented immigrants' self deport, out of the USA! My message to them?...Don't let the door hit you on the a** on the way out!