LBJ: War on Poverty. Nixon: War on Drugs. Trump: War on Immigrants

President Donald J. Trump and his administration’s immigration agenda centers on draconian, enforcement-based policies and executive orders, exacerbating an already dysfunctional immigration system. As an extension of Trump’s then–presidential campaign, the Trump administration’s immigration policies also represent racist and xenophobic practices, such as anti-Mexicanism and Islamophobia. Like Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, these immigration policies and orders promote an isolationist and white nativist philosophy, hearkening back to the more oppressive periods of U.S. history when racialized groups (e.g., Latinos, African Americans) lacked basic civil rights, privileges and freedoms under the law.

Mas…LBJ: War on Poverty. Nixon: War on Drugs. Trump: War on Immigrants

Mexican immigrant parents: From my shame to my pride

dignidadlaloWhen I first applied to UCLA, I wrote in my personal essay that I didn’t have any positive role models in my violent neighborhood.

Having grown up in East Los Angeles’ Ramona Gardens housing project, I wrote that most of the adults represented gang members, drug dealers, thieves, tecatos (heroin addicts), alcoholics, felons and high school dropouts (or push-outs). I also wrote about my disdain for housing authority officials and government workers for behaving like prison wardens and guards toward us: project residents who depended on government aid or welfare.

Moreover, I decried the police abuse that I had witnessed and experienced, like the time when a cop pointed a gun at me. My crime: being a 15-year-old making a rolling stop while learning how to drive.

Mas…Mexican immigrant parents: From my shame to my pride