Republicans are coming for your neighbors.

They will use unmarked cars, a highly armed police force answerable to no one local, grab them off the street, pull them out of stores or schools, and drag them from their homes, separate them from their children and families, send them to distant holding facilities, often without bothering to determine innocence, guilt, or even citizenship, then deport them to notorious prisons overseas never to be heard from again.

“Not us,” say the Republicans, “we are good, family-friendly people.” But yes, it is Republicans who are doing this. It is what they voted for. During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly promised mass deportations, putting the number at 15 to 20 million, claiming most are “migrant criminals” and “illegal monsters.” Republicans voted for this, some claiming it is ‘common sense.’ Forcibly separating parents from their children is not common sense, it is cruel inhumanity and this is what Republicans support.

Trump claims that his secret police are only rounding up dangerous criminals, but facts and video evidence show something else entirely is happening. Your friends and neighbors are being swept up and disappeared. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants have no criminal record and have lived here for over a decade. They have jobs, businesses, families, they are your neighbors, part of your community. Republicans turn a blind eye, casting them as illegal.

They turned a blind eye as long as they weren’t affected. Once they realized that there would be no one to harvest their crops or clean their hotel rooms. they began having second thoughts, lobbying Trump to slow down. Suddenly, these 15 million migrant criminals are “very good, long-time workers.” So how do we know which are good and can stay, and which are monsters without due process? If they work in an industry Trump favors, are they all magically good people?

What Republicans are allowing Trump to do is dangerous and cruel. They have the ability to stop it, to call their representative and say, “not in our name.” To stand up for what is decent. I don’t hear them speaking up until they start losing money. If basic human decency does not sway Republicans, then perhaps the cost will. The Cato Institute estimates that mass deportations on the scale Republicans want will cost $1 trillion and take a decade.

When this police force finally completes its job by separating the very good immigrants from the immigrant monsters, what then? Do you really think they will just congratulate each other on a job well done, turn in their badges, and join the unemployment line or, will they look for other undesirables to deport? Who will they go after next?

Tom Meara is a Jamestown resident.