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It is hard to understand how harassing Canadian students who are crossing the border to attend classes in Maine is making America more safe, or great again.
Or how a decline in international travelers to Maine, and the U.S., will strengthen our economy.
Yes, our border security needs to be tightened and people who have been convicted of murder and other heinous crimes should be imprisoned and, if they are not citizens of the U.S., deported — after the required judicial due process. At the same time, we need an orderly and timely process to allow immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years, contributing to our economy and helping care for our residents, to become citizens. We also need to process asylum applications more quickly.
However, randomly, and cruelly, rounding up people and kicking them out of the U.S. is not a sustainable, or humane, way forward. Harassing international students and deterring international visits to Maine is not improving America.
The Trump administration’s approach to immigration is as nonsensical as it is cruel.
They have demonized immigrants, to put it harshly but bluntly, with brown skin. Law enforcement officers, often without badges and with their faces covered, are raiding communities and taking away long-time residents, often with no explanation. Maine State Police even ensnared a 17-year-old with no criminal record who was following the lawful immigration process after reuniting with his parents in Maine, according to legal advocates. He was turned over to federal immigration officials and now faces deportation.
The administration is flying people to prisons in Central America with no due process, and it refuses to return them when courts order them to do so.
White South Africans are eagerly welcomed to the U.S. while our Afghan allies, who put their lives at risk by helping the U.S. during our long war in Afghanistan, are being forced to return to that country, which is now run by the Taliban.
The Trump administration detains students and others involved in protests in support of Palestinians who are being killed and tormented in Gaza, claiming that these protesters are antisemetic. Yet, Trump plans to accept a $400 million plane as a “gift” from Qatar, which is a major funder of Hamas, which brutally attacked Israel in October 2023 and long advocated for the elimination of Israel.
In Maine, the whitest state in the nation, with an ongoing shortage of workers, immigration is not a pressing problem, despite efforts from Republicans, including former Gov. Paul LePage, to claim that it is.
Take the recent example of students crossing the border into the U.S. from Canada, which is not the source of dangerous drugs or illegal immigrants that President Donald Trump has falsely suggested.
In many cases, these students, who have been enrolled at universities in Aroostook County, have been regularly crossing the border for months, maybe even years. Yet, in recent weeks they’ve been asked for additional documentation and subject to more searches. Many of the students have given up attending their classes in person at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the University of Maine at Fort Kent and finished the semester online.
“They’re totally legal, they have student visas, but they’re being subjected to extensive searches and questioning,” Sen. Susan Collins told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. “I don’t want us to discourage Canadian students from studying at the northern Maine institutions that we have for education.”
People crossing illegally deserve scrutiny, but the students have legal visas and other necessary documents in order and many have crossed the border for years without trouble, Collins said. Noem said she’d look into the situation.
It’s nice that the Department of Homeland Security will look into this. But why is it happening in the first place?
Demonizing immigrants is one of the oldest tricks in the political playbook. Convincing people to blame others, especially those who are from different countries and backgrounds, has been a winning political strategy for centuries.
Yet, America has been built on immigration. Unless you are an Indigenous American, you and your ancestors came here from somewhere else. New arrivals, who have been leaders in innovation and service, have powered America’s growth and propelled the country to become a world power. Certainly, there are dark chapters including the theft of land from Indigenous peoples, slavery, and the internment and persecution of immigrants.
But, immigrants from around the world have strengthened our communities, our economy and our families. Take them out of the equation and America is a weaker, less prosperous country with a less promising future.
