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As the political power of Donald Trump diminishes and his public demeanor becomes more erratic, he has intensified vitriolic attacks aimed at women in media and ethnic communities, with Somali Americans being the latest target. These disparaging remarks gain traction stems from the animosity behind them and his position, not any basis in truth. In a parallel manner, the government's actions against immigrants are haphazard and founded on falsehoods. It is abundantly clear that the objective is not targeting those who have committed crimes. The assault is directed at anyone with brown skin.

From Native Americans carrying tribal IDs to American citizens by choice, from essential workers in building sites and hospitals to those who served, university attendees, people in their own homes, and toddlers: a wide array of the country's inhabitants are being threatened.

"Immigration enforcement raids are cruel, unjust and do nothing for public safety," asserts a prominent New York City official. Scenes featuring officers concealing their faces shattering windows and separating parents from children, instilling fear and disrupting schools and businesses, achieves the opposite effect.

These waves of calculated hatred—directed at Haitians during the election, Venezuelan migrants this spring, and most recently Somali Americans—rely extensively on libelous lies and slurs. The reason is simple: the actual facts about these groups of people cannot support such hostility.

The Imaginary Nation of White People and Historical Reality

This campaign of terror and demonization purports to aim at recreating a uniformly white United States which is a fiction. Although America had a larger white population in the mid-20th century, it was never exclusively a "white country". In 1776, the original thirteen colonies included a significant percentage of African and Native American individuals—some southern states had Black populations exceeding a third.

Following American expansion, annexing Texas in 1844 and seizing Mexico's northern territories in 1848, it absorbed a vast Spanish-speaking population already living across the modern Southwest and California. It is documented that the first African Muslim in territory that became the U.S. arrived with a Spanish exploration party almost one hundred years before the Mayflower English Puritans landed in Massachusetts in 1620.

Population Truths Versus Coercive Fantasies

The systematic targeting of huge populations of brown-skinned individuals and attempts at large-scale expulsion cannot fabricate the ethnically pure country of far-right dreams. A city like Los Angeles, for instance, is close to 50% Hispanic, and regardless of aggressive enforcement, detentions and removals, its character persists. Its name itself is Spanish, an enduring reminder of who was there first.

The entirety of this animus and oppression looks like the fear of bigots attempting to believe they can stop the coming changes of a country that is ceasing to be predominantly white through sheer brutality.

This is paired with an attack on abortion access that is, at times, openly intended to encourage white women to bear more babies. The rationale cites a fertility rate below replacement level in the US, a trend less severe than in some other nations because of a hard-working population of immigrant laborers which keeps the economy functioning. Yet, rather than providing the societal assistance that might make raising children easier, the strategy has been punitive and coercive.

A prominent journalist notes that the reproductive politics of certain political figures—along with insults toward childless women—amount to pronatalism. This philosophy "typically merges worries about declining birth rates with anti-immigration and anti-women's rights ideas."

Similarly, analyses show that "attempts to raise the birth rate cannot make up for broader policies aimed at slashing government assistance initiatives like Medicaid and children's health insurance. This focus on families isn't merely about promoting having children. Instead, it is being weaponized to push a right-wing political program that endangers the health of women, bodily autonomy, and labor force involvement."

Incoherent Policies and Public Rejection

Together, the anti-immigration and pro-birth policies constitute an effort to artificially redirect the nation's demographic trajectory. In the end, both amount to senseless intimidation by individuals filled with hatred who inadvertently reveal that their assertions of being better must be based on skin color and sex; without these constructs, their arguments collapse into meaningless idiocy.

Much of the justification put forward by the administration does not match up with observable realities and real-world results. For example, naval operations in the Caribbean Sea often target small vessels not confirmed to be carrying narcotics and not able of making it to the United States. Likewise, Venezuela's role in the fentanyl trade is minimal, and its role in cocaine trafficking is much smaller than that of other South American nations.

The administration's stance extends to environmental policy, with a dismissal of "climate change ideology" and "Net Zero goals." An emotional attachment to coal and oil, especially coal mining, resulting in measures that compel localities to spend money on outdated and polluting power sources while sabotaging cheaper, cleaner renewables. At the same time, public health leadership have promoted anti-scientific dietary schemes while eroding general public health safeguards.

The foundational assumption of the attacks on immigrants is that people of color not born in the US are threatening outsiders. However, across the nation—in cities like L.A. and Charlotte, from Chicago to Portland—it is the administration's own agents, immigration enforcement personnel, whom local communities perceive as the unwelcome, violent invaders.

No symbol is more powerful of the widespread rejection of these tactics than the countless individuals mobilizing, demonstrating, risking safety and arrest to defend their neighbors. Municipality after municipality has stood up in defense of its residents. No amount of derogatory language and threats can change that reality.