America is a nation of immigrants. It’s one built on the fundamental right of migration. Unless you’re 100% native, you’re descended from immigrants. Whether you call it colonialism, conquering or discovery, your ancestors crossed borders and oceans to be here (The forced migration during the era of slavery is a whole other conversation, and is therefore excluded from that statement, as it was not a voluntary move.). The movement of people to the United States has remained constant. Through years and years of forging our national identity, the idea of the “American dream” and the hope of opportunity fills the minds of immigrants hoping for a better life for themselves and their family.
As a product of this, it’s impossible to pin down what a “real American” looks like. American culture is a multi-faceted product of countless different types of people combining their traditions and values into a larger, entirely unique way of life. No American lives exactly as another does, and that’s what is truly so fantastic about this country. Anyone, with any background and from anywhere can become an American, not because they have to shape themselves into a new mold, but because the mold really doesn’t exist.
But like all things, the acceptance and welcoming of newness and variety into this nation ebbs and flows. Right now, especially under the Trump administration, huge efforts have been made to exclude, bar and remove people from this country, regardless of their legal status or reason for being here. ICE —federal agents who are NOT police enforcement (though their uniforms often claim otherwise) —are brutally attacking, detaining and now killing people as they carry out Trump’s horrifically violent regime.
Under the guise of making America “safer,” ICE detentions rose 75% in 2025. Arrests of people with no criminal record have risen 2,450% during Trump’s first year, which was largely a product of large scale arrests and raids. Detention centers like Alligator Alcatraz provide abhorrent conditions to those detained. Detainees are kept in crowded units that suspiciously resemble a cage, with biohazards like overflowing toilets posing several health risks. Many report having only one meal a day, and some even report the lights being on constantly with no clocks on the wall. Renee Good was in her car attempting to flee ICE agents when she was shot three times in the head. She was killed not because she was illegal — she wasn’t even an immigrant — and not because she was attempting to run down the agents; she was killed in a blatant abuse of power. She’s not the only one. Thirty-two people died in 2025 while under ICE custody, the most deaths at the hands of ICE agents in more than 20 years.
The most shocking part of this whole thing is how little people care or support this ongoing violence. Statements like “just comply, bro,” fill comment sections of anyone condemning ICE or Trump’s administration. The importance of immigration to our economy is conveniently unimportant and forgotten about. This crusade through the nation for “violent criminals” has absurdly expanded to include full citizens and families. That doesn’t matter though, because “you need to do it the right way.”
So many of us have seemed to forget who we came from, and who shaped this nation. The United States is a country founded on the very idea that anyone from any walk of life or corner of the earth can come here to throw their hat in the ring. Whether you are here for safety, opportunity or education, there is a place for you. Our nation’s most iconic symbol, the Statue of Liberty, crossed an ocean to be here, and inscribed onto her is “The New Colossus,” a poem that welcomes the weary and those yearning for more.
