Recently, I had an unexpected trip to the emergency department and a stay in the hospital. Throughout the ordeal, I encountered staff — physicians, nurses, nurses assistants, food deliverers, cleaners — who were competent, compassionate, and kind. They made a difficult experience tolerable and they helped get me back on my feet. I’m thankful for their care.

I couldn’t help but notice that many of them almost surely were immigrants or children of immigrants. I’m sure that some once were international students at U.S. universities. It got me thinking about Trump and Trumpism.

The Trump administration has “revoked” Harvard University’s right to enroll international students (with the MAGAverse’s not so subtle hint that it will do the same to other universities if they refuse to bend to Trump’s tyrannical will), although such “revocation” probably is illegal. Trumpworld has waged an unfair war on immigrants that is fueled by one lie about them after another. I think that all of us who are not powerful billionaires will suffer from these shameful actions. Many smart, kind, generous people from other nations who might, for example, help heal our bodies and find cures for illnesses that plague us are in danger of being deported or denied entry to the U.S.

I am also repulsed and frightened by the Trump administration’s tendency to exercise its power arbitrarily and violate people’s right to due process. First it’s immigrants who are being targeted for deportation without a hearing. Then prestigious universities and law firms are threatened with economic strangulation if they do not abide by Trump’s demands. (Another policy that probably is illegal.) Now even judges are being arrested on fake charges for defying Trump and trying to get the administration to obey the law. What group is next? Will it be anyone who opposes Trump’s destruction of American democracy? I can’t help wondering if security forces someday will break down my door in the middle of the night and cart me away for publicly criticizing President Trump. Who is safe? I fear that it is only those who publicly worship Donald Trump.

If we don’t resist Trump’s lawlessness, I’m afraid that the U.S. will have a government that is strictly of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires.

Emmett Barcalow

Amherst