First, They Came for the Immigrants. Now, the Citizens.The next 100 days will decide how far they go.
We're now at the end of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, and we're witnessing something many feared but hoped wouldn't happen: U.S. citizenship becoming conditional rather than absolute. The Reality on the Ground In recent weeks, multiple verified cases have emerged of U.S. citizen children being deported alongside their undocumented parents:
These cases aren’t bureaucratic errors. They are a deliberate shift, where citizenship no longer guarantees protection, and the Trump administration is counting on us to accept it. Bear with me as I get personal for a moment: I am disgusted by what this administration is doing to these families, and especially to these children. Kids with cancer deserve medical care, not deportation. They deserve treatment, follow-up, and a fighting chance. To deport a child without their medication isn’t just cruel. It’s inhumane. It’s indefensible. It crosses a line no decent government should ever cross. This isn’t immigration policy. It’s cruelty, weaponized against the most vulnerable. And if we don’t call it what it is, if we don’t fight it now, it won’t stop at the border, or at the hospital doors. The Blueprint for Dismantling Protections The policies enabling these deportations align precisely with Project 2025, the administration's published blueprint. This plan explicitly calls for:
The real-world implementation of these policies is already visible in the administration's actions:
The Erosion of Citizenship The administration's defenders claim that "having a U.S. citizen child doesn't make you immune from the laws of the country." But what law did these children break? In America, citizenship is supposed to mean something. Due process is supposed to mean something. Deporting citizens, especially children, without due process isn't law enforcement. It's lawbreaking by the state itself. The dangerous precedent is clear: if citizenship can be stripped away by executive whim for some, it can eventually be stripped from anyone. A society where your rights depend on the government's mood is not a democracy. It's authoritarianism. It’s precisely why we need to pay close attention to the direct challenge to constitutional protections that’s about to come to a head. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on May 15 regarding President Trump's executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship, with a decision expected by late June or early July that could fundamentally reshape who qualifies as an American citizen by birth. The Historical Warning Signs History teaches us to recognize these patterns. When governments begin targeting the most vulnerable populations, the circle of those considered "other" inevitably expands. Consider: In Nazi Germany, the White Rose movement, university students, and their professors, distributed leaflets exposing Hitler's crimes at enormous personal risk. Sophie Scholl, executed at just 21, asked: "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause?" During Argentina's "Dirty War," the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo marched weekly in Buenos Aires wearing white headscarves embroidered with the names of their disappeared children. Their silent visibility shattered the regime's wall of silence. These examples remind us that resistance often begins with refusing to look away from injustice. What Comes Next The deportation of U.S. citizen children isn't the endpoint. It's the test run. Project 2025 is a 180-day plan to fundamentally restructure the system before effective opposition can mobilize. We're now 100 days in. If the government can deport some citizens today, what prevents it from targeting political opponents tomorrow? What stops them from stripping dissenters of citizenship altogether? This isn't improvisation or overreach by individual agents. It's a documented plan being methodically implemented. The Heritage Foundation's agenda explicitly calls for:
The Choice Before Us The next phase will move even faster as the administration accelerates the implementation of its immigration and citizenship policies. The erosion of protections, expansion of detention authority, and acceleration of deportations are set to escalate. Communities across America face a choice: to remain silent or to resist. During the Nazi occupation, the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small French village, collectively protected Jews fleeing deportation. They didn't wait for permission. They acted because it was right. Across the country this weekend, Americans gathered in protest, refusing to look away, refusing to be silent, and calling attention to what is happening before it's too late. The question now is whether we will heed history's warnings and act to protect America's fundamental promise: that citizenship means something, that due process is non-negotiable, and that no one, especially a child, should be stripped of their rights because of who their parents are or where they came from. The future they are planning isn't hidden. It's published proudly for anyone willing to look. What You Can Do
More soon, Olivia |