Every day, if you watch television or even posts on social media platforms, there is news about more detentions, incarcerations and deportations by ICE, the Border Patrol, and, other police of Homeland Security. The latest statistics as of December 14, 2025 were that these agencies under the direction of President Trump, had  deported some 68,000 persons from US soil. They were not harden criminals much less gang members of Tren de Aragua from Venezuela. Many were lawful US residents and citizens, few have been criminals. They arrest people as if they are meeting a quota. This is exactly why they are doing this across the country.

There are hundreds of protests being held across the country protesting these “official” crimes including murders of innocent people whose crime was to be monitoring the ICE and Border Patrol officers dressed in incognito garb to hide their true identities. No body cameras are worn by them. They do not wear name tags. Their faces usually are covered up as if they were bank robbers. They have no warrants to arrest anyone; they just randomly arrest anyone they feel like. Kill them if necessary. Necessary now means resisting being in their way, manhandled by them, shouting at them to stop, filming them, asking what crime you have committed and being in a protest. What makes these mass arrests so illegal is the arbitrariness, lack of due process, side-stepping constitutional rights and being so blatant about their behavior.

All US presidents have deported people from the US. George W. Bush deported 2, 030,965 in 8m years. That does not break Obama’s record at 2, 749,706. That is why Chicanos and Mexican origin people nicknamed him Deporter in Chief . Clinton deported 863,958 in 8 yrs. while Biden in 4 years deported 545,282. But some of the most atrocious actions have been not too long ago.

During the Depression years, 1929 to 1939, about 2 million Mexican origin people were deported from the US. Estimates range from 40 to 60 percent, that among these  2 million were US citizens, mostly children.

Frankline Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. It was not meant to be a Happy Valentine’s Day remembrance.  He had his national police round up and detain 122,000 persons in the US because they were Japanese. Of these, 70,000 were US citizens. He suspected that any and all Japanese ancestry people were enemies of the US. It was World War II time when Japan was one of several countries the US was at war with. In my hometown of Crystal City,  Texas there was such an internment camp. When the war as over those facilities became our segregated schools for Mexican origin kids like me.

A decade later in 1954, Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated Operation Wetback. That is what the massive nationwide round up was called. The target to be deported  were Mexican origin people, some 1.3 million were deported. Approximately 26% of these were US citizens.

Ronald Reagan deported some 7.8 million people from all different ancestries in the US, not just Mexicans in his 8 years.

These statistics and presidential terms help realize that lots of racism is behind who get detained and deported. Usually, it has been Mexican origin people by Democrats and Republicans alike. We are not the most desired people to stay in the US, except when recruiting for domestic, agricultural, construction and service labor. It is as if the left hand brings us in as labor and the right hand deports us as unwanted, criminal, illegal aliens.