In my Clark Kent life, I am a science writer for a big research university, which of course makes me a dangerous smarty-pants socialist who is part of the Deep State. This job also exposes me to a lot of folks from all over the world.

Two of these folks are people who have become the kind of coworker who becomes your friend, a married couple from Mexico. He is a brilliant physicist/materials researcher, and she is one of two remarkable graphic artists I work with, two of the best I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a workplace with.

I enjoy working with both of them. The graphic artist is an officemate, and given my love of cooking real, authentic Mexican cuisine, we often talk about food. I learn a lot about the world of Mexican cooking, which is often quite different than the Tex-Mex offerings in many Mexican restaurants in America. They often bring me back something food-related from Mexico, and in return, I offer them chili peppers from my garden, which they appreciate because, apparently, American grocery store chilis aren’t so great.

Each summer, the two of them and their children take a long trip back to their homeland to visit family and relax at various vacation spots around Mexico. I am hoping they will be allowed back.

The news outlets bothering to report on this right now are full of stories about people being snatched off the streets, often in terrifying ways, such as smashing windows to yank terrified people out of their cars in front of their families. There are also plenty of stories about people who are U.S. citizens being detained.

I am deeply worried about my friends. They are U.S. citizens now, but as I noted above, that seems to no longer matter.

You might say, well, okay, but he’s a well-respected physicist, and she’s a great graphic artist, they are contributors to society. That also no longer seems to matter. A Vermont school district superintendent was detained in Houston for hours and had his personal electronic devices searched after visiting family in Nicaragua. This is despite his being a naturalized U.S. citizen who’d previously completed the interview and verification process for the Customs and Border Control’s Global Entry program.

Trump’s “immigration program” is flat-out fascism, designed to create an all-white nation down the road. Their theory to replace the valuable work of immigrants apparently is to make scientists and college professors do it. Look it up, you’ll see Trump administration members hinting at this, often with a sick, gleeful expression.

My two co-workers are good people and absolutely do not deserve this. None of our immigrants do. To accept it or defend it is simply not what this nation is supposed to be about, nor is saying this divisive. It should be self-evident.

The last word goes to Anais Mitchell.