By László Bartus
Donald Trump has deliberately exploited a long-standing reality for political gain and personal profit: that millions of undocumented immigrants—approximately 12 million—live and work in the United States. It was America’s own failure that allowed them to remain in this country for decades, caught in a gray zone of legality. They received benefits, paid taxes, and were not actively pursued or deported.
It is a slap in the face to these people that, after being tacitly tolerated, after politicians repeatedly floated the idea of amnesty, after the American economy and service industry openly relied on their labor, they are now being hunted like criminals. Restaurants, schools, and workplaces are being raided in pursuit of them as if they were murderers.
These individuals have become a part of American society. They have neighbors and friends. They pay taxes to a country that refuses to recognize them, even as it benefits from their labor. They were encouraged to believe that paying taxes would help them attain legal status, and that their personal data would not be shared with authorities.
Even before Trump, America treated these people unfairly—acknowledging their existence, using their labor, even offering them healthcare and education—while simultaneously permitting other government agencies to deport them. Immigration courts provided a balancing mechanism, weighing the circumstances of each case.
The crimes committed by undocumented immigrants are minimal compared to those committed by U.S. citizens. This is a matter for law enforcement, not immigration authorities. The U.S. Constitution guarantees legal protections and rights to all people, regardless of status—and undocumented immigrants have relied on these rights. They have been able to turn to the courts, regardless of their legal standing.
While the political elite remained unable to reform outdated immigration laws for decades—paralyzed by partisan conflict—there existed a silent agreement between the nation and its undocumented residents. Even though immigration authorities continued deportations before Trump, those actions were at least carried out through legal proceedings and court orders.
It was an ambiguous and imperfect situation, but despite its contradictions, it was still more humane and lawful than the current police state, which now wages open manhunts against these people. Overnight, America has shattered the spoken and unspoken agreements it once made with them. When the far-right enters this fragile balance with its hateful campaign, everything changes.
The disorder in immigration policy gave way to hatred, racism, white supremacy, and exclusionary propaganda—replacing lawful solutions with the criminalization of immigration and immigrants themselves. The undocumented became the perfect scapegoat, the ideal target, a convenient tool for Nazi-style political agendas.
A peaceful nation, once proud of its humanity and tolerance—not merely preaching love, but living it in everyday life—has, in an instant, been transformed into a place of torment, synonymous with hatred and cruelty. A police state has emerged, one more brutal than the very countries these desperate people fled.
In many places, undocumented immigrants have disappeared. Even in Florida, the Spanish language is now heard far less often. But this has not made the country any happier. Americans have not grown more joyful. In the places where those taken or driven away once stood, only emptiness remains—coldness, silence, shock, and a chilling absence of compassion. What remains is Donald Trump’s heartlessness. Without these people, the country is worse off.
This is not America. This is not what America is supposed to be. Trump is the very opposite of everything that defines America. America is a nation of law, of humanity, of fairness, dignity, decency, predictability, generosity, openness, kindness, diversity, and equal rights. Trump is the antithesis of all of it.
What Trump is destroying is precisely what makes America valuable—what has brought it greatness, strength, and success. A fascist, authoritarian police state ruled not by love, understanding, or inclusion, but by hatred, violence, threats, and fear will ultimately destroy everything that once made America great and lovable.
What is happening in Los Angeles—and increasingly across the country—is America’s act of self-defense. It is the beginning of resistance against an anti-American, dictatorial, racist, hateful, and violent police state. America must now decide what it wants to be. People are reacting instinctively; their basic human instincts are rebelling against inhuman terror. They are protecting their friends—and themselves.
Because no one wants to live in a country where their neighbors are fleeing, where armed agents hunt them down, where military vehicles flash their lights in front of grocery stores, and where the nation has become a battlefield—its military deployed against its own citizens, within its own borders, by a dictatorial government. Dissent is labeled “insurrection,” and disagreement is silenced with machine guns. This is not America.
And this reveals the truth: this is no longer about border protection. It’s not just about the undocumented immigrants, who are already being treated in shameful, unjust, and illegal ways. This is now a threat to the entire nation. Those who defend the real America are branded anti-American, and the people themselves are being threatened. We must wake up to the fact that a purge is underway.
This is an ethnic and racial purge, carried out under the guise of immigration enforcement. But it is also a purge of all diversity and difference—on the basis of race, origin, gender, sexuality, and ideology. America is becoming a homeland of white supremacy, where Black people, Asians, women, and members of sexual and identity minorities are pushed out. This is a purge against Americans themselves.
ICE agents storm through the workplaces, restaurants, schools, and churches of Americans. People in this country are witnessing scenes that resemble those from films about Nazi Germany—or from Westerns where outlaw gangs terrorize small towns and hunt down innocent people and children.
But this is not America. America rejects this.
The nation’s largest universities are under attack. Their funding and rights are being stripped if they refuse to abandon academic freedom, if they admit foreign students, or if they consider diversity and equal rights when selecting faculty and students. Black students are being prohibited from studying and speaking about slavery.
Leading newspapers are already writing that once the country is free of Trump, immigration must be addressed anew. Humane and legal rights must be guaranteed. For those who were treated illegally and inhumanely, reparations and fair compensation must be provided—so that America can cleanse its conscience.
What they are doing to the souls of children is irreversible.
Trump has inflicted deep wounds not only on the constitutional order and the judicial system, but also on the soul of the nation. The “battle” is only beginning, as Americans are raising their voices against the practices of ICE—practices that reflect Trump’s mindset. And now he launches a war against them, using soldiers, military force, and Marines.
This conflict is inevitable if the country refuses to live under terror. Its outcome is unpredictable. America is under attack. And the attack is coming from within the White House.
