I am a veteran who proudly served my country. What I see in the thuggish tactics used by our Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency does not represent the values I swore to uphold. The America I grew up in was better than this, one that had greatly improved over decades by extending an increasing level of equality to people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and religions, and one in which the rule of law included due process.
While we still have room to improve, I fear that we have lost our way and worry that normalizing a brutal police state will lead us toward a day when such tactics are turned toward U.S. citizens for simply doing the most American thing of all—challenging the misuse of state power.
There is no question that the Biden administration failed to reform a broken immigration system or adequately secure our southern border. That failure was the primary reason voters returned Donald Trump to the White House last November with a mandate to deport dangerous gang members and other criminals who were trafficking fentanyl and other drugs in our communities. However, a mandate does not entitle one to use any means necessary, especially when those means include suspending fundamental rights meant to protect citizens from the state.
Day after day, I watch as masked, unidentified paramilitary forces roughhouse men, women and even children who present no threat to anyone. They refuse to show identification or warrants to family members (many of whom are citizens themselves) while threatening force against them merely for wanting to understand who exactly is attempting to disappear a loved one and by what authority. In one particularly vile example, the undocumented elderly father of a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan was thrown to the ground and beaten by ICE agents when they caught him in a raid while performing landscaping at an IHOP. There is no reason for such brutality unless the cruelty is the point.
The architect of this cruelty is Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and the United States homeland security advisor. The 39-year-old rose to prominence during President Trump’s first administration as a champion of the “build the wall” movement. The President has joked that “if Stephen had his way, there would be 100,000 people in this country and they’d all look like him.”
Only Miller’s actions suggest it's no joke. When rounding up violent members of gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua and other “rapists, murderers, and mental patients,” proved more difficult than we were told it would be, Miller told ICE to focus on Home Depots, 7-11s, and other places where they might find undocumented immigrants more easily, including courthouses in which immigrants who were trying to follow the legal pathway were sure to be found. If such mass deportations are the plan, why does it require such lawless and brutal tactics when dealing with harmless, hard-working members of a community? Why do agents have to be masked? Why do fundamental human rights not have to be extended? Why does the constitution, which guarantees due process, and not just for citizens, not have to be followed?
For years, members of both parties have used immigration policy as a political tool instead of working together to make meaningful reforms. As a result, we have not had a system that adequately addresses the economic need for immigration that we continue to face as birth rates among Americans decline. You can make an argument that some trades have been negatively affected by employers who take advantage of undocumented workers they can exploit by paying less and forcing them to labor under worse circumstances to turn a higher profit (and you can go after them for doing so, even though we rarely do). But you can also make an argument that there are industries, such as agriculture, shrimping, and meatpacking, for example, in which adept workers from other cultures run circles around our own, who rarely apply for the work.
My experience with workers from Mexico, Honduras, and other countries south of our border has shown me that they are among the hardest-working, most family-oriented, and law-abiding people in the world. Many of them have escaped dangerous places with little to no economic opportunity for a chance to work hard and prosper in what we call the greatest nation on Earth.
They would have been happy to go through a viable legal process if one had existed. I also served in the military with many Puerto Ricans and Mexicans who came to this country for a better life and loved it so much that they were willing to lay down their lives to defend it against our enemies. They were brave men and women whom I would have welcomed into a neighboring foxhole at any time.
I don’t disagree that there should be a very high standard for entering the United States and having a shot at citizenship. We should not allow those who have committed violent crimes or shown a propensity for other criminal activity to be among them. For this reason, a secure border and an orderly entry process are essential. And if those who have slipped by have committed violent crimes or larceny while here, send them back without a chance for reentry. However, if someone has been a hardworking, productive member of our society and their only crimes have been administrative, such as illegally entering the country, overstaying a visa, or not having a driver’s license they cannot apply for, we should have a process in place that allows them to continue working toward citizenship. Otherwise, it begins to look as though the main criteria for being welcome here are your primary language and the color of your skin.
During the Obama administration, right-wing conspiracy theorists pontificated that liberals were going to turn us into a police state. We were going to have national databases of American citizens, FEMA camps, First Amendment violations, deployments of our military against American citizens, etc., and arming yourself to the teeth was the only defense against the tyranny of government. Yet here we are with Palantir creating that database, FEMA funding being redirected for detention centers, and the United States Marines being deployed to an American city. Where is the outrage?
As I sit here on Independence Day writing this column, I fear that the enormous funding increase given to ICE in the final budget reconciliation will mean that we have only seen the beginning of something that is about to get much worse. ICE is now the largest interior law enforcement agency in the United States. Its staggering new budget is greater than that of the United States Marine Corps, as well as most of the world's militaries, including Israel.
Every brutal authoritarian regime in history has had one thing in common: a secret police force. From the Russian KGB to the Nazi Gestapo to Saddam Hussein's Mukhabarat, to East Germany's Stasi, unidentified and therefore unaccountable police forces have been a hallmark of fascism. We must consider the very real possibility that this will spread from ICE to other federal law enforcement agencies or even new ones that may be created.
I hope that my fellow veterans, who have worn the uniform and served our nation, will take some time to consider that there must be a better way to enforce immigration law than the one put forth by Stephen Miller, who did not. There must be something between a failed border and a lawless band of militarized thugs disappearing people from American streets with no due process, many of whom are being sent to a foreign torture chamber at the expense of United States taxpayers. We were once a better nation than this. We have an immigration problem, but we do not have to make the cure worse than the disease.
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch is also the author of three novels and a short story collection available here. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.
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Dave
Trump and his minions don’t want to fix immigration. They want an issue to rail against. If they really want to fix the “problem” arrest the farmers, contractors, restaurant owners and so on that attract migrants. No work, no migration. It would wreck the economy but hey you have to “break some eggs.”
Saturday, July 5 Report this
spreziosi
Mitch, You've perfectly stated what I suspect many of us think and feel. The strong arm tactics being used are appalling and terrifying. So many innocent lives destroyed to satisfy a horrible individual.
5 days ago Report this
rayfusco68
Mitch, I agree with what you have said in this article. We also need to remember that there was a bipartisan agreement about controlling the border that our current president used his influence to stop. Granted this issue should have been acted upon while the Democrats controlled the house and Senate, but that is water under the bridge. We have seen the pendulum swing from the far left to the far right. There is a middle ground that allows legal entry for asylum, migration, and temporary work that would be beneficial to all concerned. I have friends that have told me how for years they had legal temporary workers that came for the working season from Mexico and returned at the end of the season. The employers are responsible for making sure they hire legal workers and should be held responsible. We are a nation of immigrants going back to the first humans that crossed the bearing straight.
5 days ago Report this
jazzman
What is happening with ICE has happened many times before, even at an escalated scale. That does not diminish its importance but it should make for a change in perspective of your readers. This is not a country of immigrants for persons who care to be accurate enough to do a little research. At one time the majority of beings in this country did not come freely across the Bering Strait or the Atlantic. They enslaved people, almost all black Africans. Why is this fact continually misstated and/or diminished? The progeny of these enslaved people were and are beaten, jailed, lynched, and suppressed in every way possible in this country including the committing of real estate crimes by the current President.
Why doesn't ICE go after illegal Irish, British, Germans, and other caucasian individuals who overstay visas and also run drugs? Fentanyl's dealer network is primarily non-latin and non black, and so is the money behind it. The epidemic before it, methamphetamine, was centered in good ole boy labs in rural areas and urban trailer parks. The local sheriffs did not even keep statistics on it – I checked. Doctors pushing drugs were barely and rarely busted. Even the drug companies were in on it with only one being busted as an example, and they were allowed to buy their way out of it. Essentially, the criminal actions of white men seem to be continuously facilitated without them being tracked down, jailed, tried, sentenced and sent to isolated illegal prison camps like Guantanamo. A probably greater amount of economic damage is done to the country by hackers who hold whole cities hostage then collect ransom; where is the big push to arrest, charge, try and jail them in isolated pens? Well, that is probably due to their being primarily young white males, somewhere in the 95 percentile. Further complicating things are the deals the US government has with primarily caucasian countries like Ireland. The Irish deal basically allows 50,000 Irish per year to immigrate, no problem. Meanwhile about the same number of 'illegals' make it across the southern US border into the country. Why not establish a 50,000 immigrant quota for the southern border? The whole point of immigration policy is to keep non-whites out of the country. This what I have seen, researched and been active on in my 72 years of living in this country.
5 days ago Report this
Cat L
You have echoed my thoughts exactly. The majority of adults in my family have served our various militaries, and this is despicable. I'm horrified by the disregard of their sacrifice and the public distortion of common sense and decency. What I'm seeing from this administration, as well as the corrupt compliance of many conservatives, is brazenly un-American.
Cosplaytriot - (a term derived from cosplay, where people dress up like sci-fi characters) is the perfect term for the alleged patriots, who do nothing to verify their favorite pundits are faithfully honoring the Constitution. Slapping flags on everything does not make you patriotic, doing the work to maintain the well being of your country does.
There's a lot of people swearing their representatives are "all that, and a bag of chips" based off what they say. But what they actually do is the important part.
5 days ago Report this
paita_2000
Thank you for this article. I found myself in full agreement with the perspectives you shared. I hope your article reaches all those who are in denial of what is going on.
5 days ago Report this
jimandlope
I too am a veteran who cannot believe our country has sunk so low. Well said Mitch but no one mentioned trump the architect of this fascist regime. He needs to go as in impeachment please. Jim Tierney
5 days ago Report this
gwtenery
Well said Dennis!
5 days ago Report this
writerlynn9717
I agree with your opinion, Mitch. Why the brutality. Reports show most of the detainees have no criminal background. And, the immigrants are vast majority Christians believing in the right to life for goodness sake! Isn't that the religion the administration promotes and all of the MAGA? The immigrants possess the same values of family and hardworking that Americans do. The attacks should have begun with the businesses hiring them. What is happening to the employers who enticed them into working in the roofing businesses, restaurants, lawn maintenance companies? Only a warning or slap on the hand from reports. We are not a democracy right now, and are run by a pseudo king. Only voters can get us out of this horror. The congress and administration have rubber-stamped the foundations of our government, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence to be trashed. Just when we thought that Trump's criminality could not get worse.
5 days ago Report this
klmsinc
Well folks, I just want to let you know that there are others that just don't agree with you.
What is a shame is that it was permitted to get this bad that it resulted in this type of attitude to get America back to some moral recognition that the country was founded upon.
5 days ago Report this
rjckeuka4
Folks, we've got to get rid of the enablers of such horror as Mitch describes...the Buchanan's, the Stuebe's, the Gruber's, the DeSantis', the Rubio's, the Scott's et. al., all the weak sycophants! We did it with VanOstenbridge, Satcher & Baugh...we've got to finish the job!
5 days ago Report this
pattybeenutty
Right on!!
5 days ago Report this
vwaters
Immigration has been a longstanding problem that Congress and multiple administrations have failed to address. The fact that Congress last year came up with a bi-partisan approach to addressing many of these problems, but failed once again, is due to election-year politics - a truly wasted opportunity. Instead, we have this draconian approach which is doing great harm to us all.
None of us disagree with prosecuting and deporting true criminals, but we forgot to ask how Trump Inc. defined the term. As far as they are concerned, any immigrant who didn't go through the proscribed legal process (and even some who did) are included.
Next time we find food shortages in our groceries, higher costs for just about everything, unrepaired roofs from weather events we didn't know were coming our way, and many other services we've come to expect, we can thank Trump Inc. and a complicit Congress, and remember all of that in November 2026.
5 days ago Report this
gdrahal
Writing "we still have room to improve" is an understatement thar minimizes the loss of rights and freedoms and the threats every American faces.
It is a patently false statement that "There is no question that the Biden administration failed to reform a broken immigration system or adequately secure our southern border." Biden's bipartisan bill to do EXACTLY that was throttled by the current President. You do not place the responsibility where it belongs. Blaming failure on Biden and, by association, Dems, is either gross error or a deliberate appeasement of reigning Republicans.
You say Biden's immigration "failure was the primary reason voters returned Donald Trump to the White House last November with a mandate". Are you deliberately lying about the November election? Harris lost by ONE PERCENT. Only in the fictional MAGA universe is one percent a mandate and immigration the cause. Thinly won elections demand cooperation and bipartisanship for lasting legislation, NOT fraudulent mandates.
You say "masked, unidentified paramilitary forces roughhouse men, women and even children"...roughhouse? You mean kidnapping, abduction to concentration camps and forced deportation to foreign prisons but YOU DON'T SAY IT. (Okay, later you almost do.) The 70% of your readers including your editors who are Republican do not need appeasing, they need to be held responsible for today's fascist government. "There is no reason for such brutality unless the cruelty is the point." THIS is what 49% of the electorate/25% of eligible citizens voted for. Its all in Project 2025. Dems told voters this all during the campaign. THERE IS NO SURPRISE! You never once mention that voting Dems was and still is the only alternative to MAGA.
"Why does the constitution, which guarantees due process, and not just for citizens, not have to be followed?" Because you voted a lifetime criminal in office. This is NOT a partisan issue. Are there no law abiding, non-corrupt, non-felon Repubs to run for office?
"For years, members of both parties have used immigration policy as a political tool instead of working together to make meaningful reforms." Another bald faced lie, Biden's Border Act, 2023's Immigration Act and executive orders-all scuttled deliberately Trump, Repubs or Repub judges, was just that. And again, you don't place responsibility on Repubs or Trump. You still call us the greatest nation on earth, but with passage of the big terrible bill funding America's first secret police suspending the Constitution and rule of law, maybe you need to reconsider.
You say "Where is the outrage?" Where is YOUR outrage? You continue to clearly describe the problem in detail but you avoid blaming the cause, Repub voters. Sadly, 70% of our neighbors are responsible for voting this criminal in office. You do not offer the only alternative, vote Dems.
5 days ago Report this
David Daniels
Very well written, Dennis. Thank you, and thanks to Dawn (in TBT's podcasts) for your leadership in speaking out against the path our Country is on. Masked men in unmarked cars not providing identification and just taking people off the street and putting them on a plane without any due process. What is saddest to me is that so many of our neighbors, who are normally kind people, take to social media and cheer this on. As Dawn pointed out in a podcast, who among us has been harmed by an immigrant? Who has had a job taken? Who has been a crime victim? I just don't get the hatred, the cruelty.
5 days ago Report this
Lktinsanfran
As I have always claimed, America is one of the few countries in the world that people put their lives at stake to try and get into. Just because a majority of immigrants are not white is no reason whatsoever to persecute them and treat them like criminals. They are human beings. The true criminals are actually the politicians that are taking this great country hostage. I have never seen such a level of cruelty and hatred. It is appaling. I remember Trump saying before the 2024 election, "If you vote for me, you will never have to vote again." That is terrifying. For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would vote for him after a comment like that. In one way or another, he always informs us of his diabolical plans. I guess that make us the suckers.
4 days ago Report this