This is exactly who we are

I’ll bet you have heard the phrase “This is not who we are” any number of times.  It is certainly in use since Trump was inaugurated in January 2025.  

It is time to own up.  This is who we are.  We have held migrants in tiny cages, called “small metal enclosures” by the Department of Homeland Security.  According to the report, “the use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards of humane treatment.” 

The report, produced by an internal Department watchdog, was then denied by the Department.  “All detainee facilities are clean, and any allegations of inhumane conditions or excessive use of force are FALSE.”[ibid.]  The cages were used at the detention facility called Alligator Alcatraz.  That is so cute, isn’t it?  Trump made jokes about it.

Gov. DeSantis said conditions at the state-run facility were part of the state’s efforts to remove criminals in the country illegally from the streets of Florida.  The governor’s communications director said “left-wing media wants to focus on a confinement area for violent criminal aliens who have proven they cannot remain peaceful while awaiting deportation.  He added, “[W]e’d make it even smaller if we could.”

We are also paying countries to take deportees who have no connection to their destinations.  For example, we are paying Equatorial Guinea to take deportees, a country where those deportees are kept in prisons and horribly mistreated.

I’m going to imitate Trump in a Truth Social post:  THIS IS EXACTLY WHO WE ARE.  IT IS WHAT WE HAVE BECOME.  WE ELECTED THIS DICTATOR, AND OUR COURTS, OUR CONGRESS, AND OUR BILLIONAIRES PERMIT THIS.  AND COME NOVEMBER, WE HAD BETTER STOP THIS.