Those of us who participated in the No Kings rallies on Saturday didn’t just hold signs and march.
We made history, with what I’m convinced will have been the largest protest in American history. I know the effectiveness of such protests to affect change is being endlessly debated. I’m hopeful it will lead to change. The cultural momentum it represents could show up in many ways and many elections to come.
But one thing’s for sure. It felt damn good. Yes, we’re fighting. Yes, we’re suffering. And the reminder that we’re not alone in these struggles is such a personally valuable thing.
I loved all the signs folks carried, especially the one that said, “THANK GOD CONGRESS ISN’T ALIVE TO SEE THIS.”
This was a place to be seen and heard, and I heard at least one rational oppositional voice.
Amid the solidarity, a tall man in front of the Colorado Springs City Hall shouted, “My sister was killed by an illegal alien!”
He had a few other things to say, such as asking why the Biden administration hadn’t released the Epstein Files. A legitimate question. I’ve wondered the same. Who was Biden protecting?
But I’d like to address the real motivating factor that drove this man to stand in defiance of the huge crowds of anti-Trumpers.
He lost his sister. Grief and anger drove him to this rally.
I feel for him. That loss has motivated him to action, and that’s a good thing. The grieving deserve all the grace we can muster in this broken country.
I don’t know the details of his sister’s death, but I know the general motivating narrative. An “illegal alien” was wrongly allowed to enter our country, and they committed murder, a murder that would have been preventable with stricter immigration policies and/or enforcement.
If that happened to a member of my family, I’d be devastated, furious, and look for justice. We all want justice. The murderer should be punished.
Trump has used individual horrific crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to support a broader narrative that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” and making us less safe.
Americans have largely accepted that as fact. According to recent Gallup polls, nearly half of Americans think immigrants make the country more dangerous.
But the facts don’t support those views.
A lot of the related studies focus on incarceration rates because that’s where immigration status is recorded.
Some of the most extensive research comes from Stanford University, which found that immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.
Studies that looked for a correlation between immigration increases and increases in crime found the opposite. The studies suggest that immigrants – legal or not – actually commit less crime than American born citizens.
In fact, Trump’s insane crackdown on immigrants has caused at least 40 deaths from shooting and the harsh conditions of incarceration.
I get that these facts don’t change the tragic murder of a family member. The grief and anger are real, and they are justified.
So is the grief caused by pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionists, more than 33 of whom have been re-arrested for various crimes, including two incidents of fatal, reckless driving, and six for sex crimes.
Those deaths of both citizens and non-citizens were preventable. So are the many deaths to come if we allow inhumane treatment by federal immigration agencies to continue.
The difference here is that the broader narrative – that the violent insurrectionists who tried to overthrow an election are more likely to commit crimes than the general populace – happens to be supported by facts.
The stereotype of the dangerous immigrant is not supported by facts, and it’s a myth that triggers more violence, making us all less safe.
That said, a grieving brother deserves more than cold statistics. He deserves compassion. He deserves our respect for standing among those he might see as his enemies. He deserves justice, and I hope he gets that.
What he doesn’t deserve is vengeance against the innocent.
