*Note from the editors: All opinions expressed in the following piece are those belonging to the writer and not those necessarily held by the publication or by GRHS.
As a little kid I, and probably you, were taught that one of the reasons why America is so great is because we are a big melting pot. We were taught that our diversity and differences make us the best country in the world, as people from all different backgrounds live in harmony and everyone has an equal say in things. But now, under Donald Trump’s administration, you can be detained and sent to a detention facility for simply looking Hispanic, speaking Spanish, or working a low-income job.
A little over three months ago, after a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, where they essentially kidnapped Hispanic residents off the streets of Los Angeles, the city of angels erupted into massive protests. These protests, which ended up with the national guard being sent in, even though that was illegal, as the governor did not ask for them, were mainly about the ICE raids and their targeting of anyone who looked Latino. So, an L.A. judge, operating off the same principles we were taught, ordered that ICE couldn’t target people based on their race, language, or anything other than legal status.
Then, on September 9th, in the case of Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, a 6-3 ruling in the Supreme Court granted a temporary suspension of this order. This has now allowed ICE to once again target people for their race, language, type of work, or even where they live.
It is essential to note that this is a temporary ruling, meaning it can be reversed at any time. In the meantime, this has caused lots of concern for Hispanic people, as they fear that they will get swept up and be sent to who knows where for simply existing. For example, Chicago is having a Mexican Independence Day celebration on September 16th, which is expected to have little to no people due to fear of ICE, along with the fear of the National Guard being deployed to Chicago.
Another important part of this ruling is that it violates the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment in layman’s terms means the government cannot search or seize you or your home without a warrant, which can only be issued based on probable cause. This prevents the government from barging into people’s homes without good reason. For example, it prevents searching a political opponent’s house. This ruling effectively removes part of the Bill of Rights from all 65.2 million Hispanic Americans, which is almost 20 percent of the U.S. population.
But this isn’t the only case of Trump violating the Bill of Rights, especially when it comes to our Hispanic population. The worst case by far was his violations of the Fifth Amendment, specifically due process. Due process, if you don’t know, means that everyone inside the U.S., regardless of their legal status, is required to have a fair trial before imprisonment.
These violations have come during ICE raids, where many people are held in detention centers with no information given about their trial and no contact with their families. Not only does this blatantly violate due process, but the victims are rounded up and sent to what are essentially jails in ICE detention centers without trial. This also violates another part of the Fifth Amendment, the part that reads, “nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property.”
By forcing people into cramped detention centers with little access to food, water, and protection from the elements, along with other generally terrible conditions, it’s pretty clear that this deprives people of their liberty. Keep in mind, they didn’t have a warrant or probable cause of arrest; they were simply people rounded up because of their skin color and/or speaking a certain language.
The worst part is that this is legal. In the year 2025, in the United States of America, the supposed global bastion of freedom, it is legal and encouraged by our administration to throw people into a detention center for having brown skin. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or if you’re here legally or not; your skin color is the only thing that matters.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
This is a famous poem written by Martin Niemöller. He wrote this after his time in Nazi Germany, where he was at first a free man, but then eventually had to go through the atrocities of a concentration camp. It’s about how he didn’t stand up or speak out when people got taken away, as he wasn’t affected, and that when he was taken away, no one stood up for him.
This poem is a classic piece of literature and is extremely relevant in today’s America. This is because Donald Trump is trying to take away the rights of many groups of people, mainly the LGBTQIA+ community and the Hispanic population of the United States.
He started by erasing history on government websites and the Smithsonian museums. Specifically, he erased all mentions of anyone LGBTQIA+ or anything associated with the community. They even scrubbed the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, just because it had gay in the name.
Then, he sent ICE to raid worksites, churches, schools, supermarkets, and even court appointments to go after the Hispanic community. He built Alligator Alcatraz, an ICE detention center in the Florida Everglades, to hold our Hispanic Americans, most of them being American citizens, and an even greater majority have no criminal record.
Then he began sending these “criminals” to overseas prisons, which is highly illegal. For example, Kilmar Ábrego García, a man living here in the U.S., was swept up by one of the ICE raids. Then, he was put into an ICE detention center. Then, in clear violation of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments, he was illegally imprisoned without a trial. Worst of all, he wasn’t even sent to a U.S. prison, but to the notoriously terrible El Salvadorian Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
A month later, he miraculously ended up back in his rightful home, the United States. Then, after a lengthy court case, the Trump Administration threatened to send him to Uganda. Thankfully, he stayed here, but now they are threatening him to send him to Eswatini, a small southern African country about the size of New Jersey.
Now to recap, García has been mercilessly beaten, tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved in an El Salvadorian prison, despite no trial and no criminal record in either the United States or El Salvador, with a bleak future ahead. This all happened because he was working and ICE showed up and detained him for having both brown skin and tattoos.
In conclusion, the Trump administration has re-legalized racial profiling, and is going to continue using it to attack the Hispanic community. Despite the fact that all of this completely violates the Constitution, federal laws, and the very values that our nation was founded on, it’s still happening. So, as you watch your fellow Americans lose their rights, you should start to ponder, “When will I lose mine?”
