iwildcasino Fear grips immigrant communities: Trump’s undoing of the America we know

FILE PHOTO (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Breaking News: Donald Trump is not a liar.

Not when it comes to immigrants. He said he would do what he’s doing. But that doesn’t mean he has to do it with an iron fist.

Trump authorized ICE to arrest 1,000 of immigrants last weekend. All undocumented? All criminals? Hardly.

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With quotas installed, mistakes will be made. Innocent immigrants here legally will be arrested. He said he would do it, and won the election.

Now there’s a real fear present in all immigrant communities. Not just Latino ones. Filipino. Spanish surname. Visa overstay?

Confirmation Tuesday from the new press secretary Karoline Leavitt: You are a criminal and be subject to deportation.

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But I don’t deal drugs, or am a gang member, pare…I’m not that kind of criminal you say.

Immigration law is now seen as criminal law in this new administration.

The eyes of scowling Donald Trump are upon us.

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He is not just the new president, he’s the new face of the Statue of Liberty.

Doesn’t make it right.

By executive order he’s authorized DEA and other federal agents to be judge and jury during raids.

He’s allowed for them to go into churches, places of worship and even schools.

That wasn’t done before.

FILE PHOTO (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

And he has a quota. Quotas are a bad word, for example when it comes to affirmative action.

But quotas in a “negative action” like a mass deportation? The better for Trump to run up the numbers.

And for countries that don’t want to get along, like for a brief second Colombia, here comes the threat of Trump’s big stick—tariffs.

Two weeks in and this is our country. More executive orders than ever, every day, reshaping the country we thought we had.

And it’s only beginning, for all of us.

With his new order to halt the flow of all federal grants and loans to government entities and organizations, he’s again usurping power. The Congress appropriates and now Trump wants in to negate it? That’s unconstitutional.

He’s doing it anyway.

At the last minute, a federal judge has temporarily delayed it, but that just means the fight is on.

But who is he hurting. Not just immigrants, undocumented or not.

But all the people. Even supporters.

And a big filter will be if any money goes to fund “woke” programs in diversity, equity and inclusion, or fund climate programs, or generally programs good for us all.

That raises Trump’s ire. DEI.

But it means reversing all the laws and programs that gave Filipino Americans, Asian Americans and all people of color equal footing in society.

Undoing America

As an American who grew up in the “Civil Rights” era of the ‘60s, I could not conceive or dream of an “Un-Civil Rights” era.

But here we are, nostalgic for an America where the prevailing belief in fairness was on our side. The peoples’ side.

Still, even with all we had to support us in the past, it wasn’t easy.

Someone asked me the other day why I looked so young. An old guy like me? It was flattering. But how I look isn’t just due to the increased melanin in my skin or my ethnic Filipino Asian-ness.

Part of it too was I have been underutilized—all throughout my life in my various careers. The door opened occasionally for me but mostly remained shut.

When it did open, I had my chance to prove myself, and I was always proud of what I could show. I worked hard for the little work they allowed me to do and I’m grateful for that.

But there never were enough spaces. I was often the only Filipino or person of color in the room.

And too many times one of us was deemed enough.

Hard to imagine now in a diverse America. But I’m talking 50 years ago.

Now my heart aches when I see the federal government is not only keeping the door shut, it’s eviscerating the office and its founding philosophy intended to help minorities and people of color get a fair shake. ​ Donald Trump’s executive order on affirmative action aims his wrecking ball at the order issued by President Lyndon Johnson in the ‘60s. Johnson’s vision led to more than six decades of trying to erase the white bias in government jobs and contracts. It served as a model to both the public and private sector.

It created the crack in the door where I got my shot.

Johnson’s order also served as a model for higher ed. Those efforts were essentially killed when the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action in the Harvard case in 2023.

house of fun play now

We all knew with that ruling the next step would be public employment and contracts in some fashion. Some states had already banned what was rebranded as DEI. But since the Trump election, it was clear the feds would follow suit. The private sector was already ahead of the pack. McDonald’s, Walmart, Meta, have all ended or changed DEI policies.

Trump, in his inaugural speech, didn’t dare mention the J6 pardons to come, saving that for his COB surprise. He didn’t even mention the unconstitutional act of dismantling birthright citizenship from the 14th Amendment.

Philex Mining president and CEO Eulalio Austin Jr. said they have an application to explore a nickel tenement adjacent to the firm’s site in Zambales.

But his official inaugural address was clear when he said he’d get “race and gender out of public life, including standard policy of America is color-blind and merit based.”

Color blind just means you’re blindfolded. Unless you pledge allegiance to Trump.

So DEI is dead, strange coming from the president who said he was saved by God to make America great again. Does he even know DEI is God in Latin?

But we’re no longer in Johnson’s “Great Society,” we’re in 47’s diminished “Trumpville.”

Welcome to  Trumpville

It’s where the remedies of discrimination are seen as the sources of discrimination. It’s an America in reverse in a speedy cybertruck, heading back to our racist past. And masking it all as color-blind meritocracy.

That’s why Trump’s leading by example, nominating some of the most unqualified people to his cabinet. Pete Hegseth now the head of the Department of Defense as an example of meritocracy? Or White affirmative action.

And what are other nominees like RFK Jr? Or Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard? They are as unqualified as a nomination hearing is long.

When I started writing primarily for the ethnic media it was because we anticipated a New America, where minorities would grow in number, we had a real voice in society.

Trumpville is not the New America I imagined.

Note: I am in New York appearing in the theatrical premier of “The Shine Challenge 2025,” by Oakland author Ishmael Reed. The show opens Jan. 30 and runs through mid-February. If you’re in New York, come by, or tell a friend. It’s a must-see for Black History Month.

See more here.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, commentator, speaker and humorist. Watch his mini-talk show “Emil Amok’s Takeout” on www.YouTube.com/emilamok1 Or join him on www patreon.com/emilamok.

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