In 2016, Donald Trump announced his candidacy with the inflammatory claim that Mexican immigrants were “bringing drugs, bringing crime,” and that “they’re rapists.” This grotesque generalization—unfounded and incendiary—set the tone for a political movement fueled by xenophobia, white resentment, and the illusion of restoring a “greatness” defined by exclusion. What followed has been a relentless campaign of racism and cruelty, masked as immigration reform but rooted in a deep hatred for non-white, non-European populations.

 

     Trump claimed he would deport criminals and gang members. That was the lie. The truth is more horrifying: under his leadership and influence, the United States has arrested and deported sick children, law-abiding workers, and devoted parents whose only crime was seeking a better life. These are not criminals; they are the beating heart of American labor. Their only sin is being non-white and indispensable.

     Today, Trump’s policies have devastated countless families and communities. ICE raids have dragged fathers from their homes, separated children from their mothers, and deported terminally ill patients to countries they left as toddlers. This is not justice. This is not law and order. This is state-sanctioned racism, a tool of terror used by a man who has never hidden his disdain for minorities, whether they be Black, Brown, Muslim, or immigrant.

     It is important to name this for what it is: hatred.

     The economic implications are equally tragic. America is now facing a self-inflicted wound: a growing labor shortage that affects almost every industry. The 2004 satirical film A Day Without a Mexican imagined a California that collapses when its Mexican population vanishes. That fiction has become a sobering reality. Drive through any American city, and you will see the absence. Who will tend the gardens, care for the children, repair the homes, cook the food, clean the streets, and support the very infrastructure of daily life?

 

     It will not be the Trump supporters who cheer mass deportations at rallies. White Americans, by and large, will not fill these roles. And if they do, the costs will skyrocket. A plumber, once available at a reasonable rate, will charge three times as much. A restaurant will cut hours due to a lack of kitchen staff. Elderly parents will go without care because no home aide can be found. This is the price of racism.

     Trump’s America is a country eating itself alive—spiritually, morally, and economically. His obsession with purging non-whites has not made America great; it has made America cruel, inefficient, and financially unsustainable. We are watching a nation sabotage its own prosperity out of fear and bigotry.

     This must end. Not only because it is immoral, but because it is suicidal. No nation can thrive while waging war on the very people who keep it running. The gardeners, the nannies, the delivery drivers, the dishwashers—they are not invaders. They are America.

     Trump and his gang of enablers must be stopped—not just at the ballot box, but in the conscience of the nation. To remain silent in the face of such inhumanity is to become complicit in the destruction of the very fabric that holds this country together.

     If we want a future defined by justice, decency, and sustainability, we must reject Trumpism in all its forms. America does not need more walls. It requires more workers, more compassion, and more truth. And the truth is this: racism never builds a nation. It only tears it apart.