HAVANA TIMES – A friend of mine—a prominent professional and a US citizen—stopped by to visit me in Miami and shared a detail that struck me. When he told his wife he would be in South Florida, she asked him to bring his United States passport along… just in case. “What if you get stopped by ICE agents?” she asked. It has reached a point where traveling within the United States has become a risk for Latinos, for those of us who speak English with an accent, or simply for anyone whom immigration authorities might perceive as a foreigner.
ICE—the dreaded immigration police—has changed its tactics for detaining undocumented immigrants, as well as those currently in the process of regularizing their immigration status. In the past, they operated in a highly visible, aggressive manner, with clear abuses of authority. A quick search on YouTube or social media reveals countless examples of violent raids and the separation of families in places like Minneapolis and Los Angeles. But the backlash was so intense that they were forced to temporarily pull back from the streets.
Now, they operate quietly
They check your license plate; if the registration indicates you were born in another country, they pull you over on a deserted street corner—or at a gas station, a laundromat, or even as you’re leaving the supermarket. I know people who are now afraid to even take their children to school or go to the bank. And if government statistics are to be believed, hundreds of thousands have chosen to “self-deport” rather than face the humiliation of being arrested—for no reason—in front of their own children. How are you supposed to answer your children when you’re being handcuffed—with your hands behind your back—and they ask you, “Why?”
Simply saying “Trump” isn’t enough. More than 77 million people voted for him, and the United States has become far less tolerant toward immigrants. Police forces across the country are cooperating with ICE to detain foreign nationals, and hardly anyone within the president’s own party dares to challenge him or state that cruelty should never be state policy.
For these reasons, Amnesty International has called for the dissolution of ICE. In a new report, the organization states that “the Trump administration is implementing mass detentions and a deportation system fueled by racist, xenophobic, and false narratives.” The organization’s executive director, Nadia Daar, put it this way: “Our report documents a chilling pattern of human rights violations in the United States, intended to instill fear within the community of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.”
And despite all of this, we Latinos continue to believe in the American dream.
I know—it’s incredible—but even in the face of persecution, unjust raids targeting people with no criminal records, the harrowing separation of parents from their children, job losses, the closure of small Hispanic-owned businesses, and an anti-immigrant climate, we Latinos still believe that things will get better.
Let me explain. I just read the latest report from the Pew Research Center, which indicates that the majority of Latinos still believe in the concept of the “American dream.” Fifty-three percent feel that they have either achieved the American dream or are on the path to doing so. This concept varies widely, ranging from owning a home and sending one’s children to college, to having health insurance and some extra money for travel. But at its core, it is the conviction that, in the United States, one’s standard of living will improve.
What struck me most about the study is the clear sense of progress from one generation to the next. Fifty-seven percent of the Hispanics surveyed believe that their standard of living is higher than what their parents had at the same age. and 53 percent believe that their children will live better than they do once they reach the same age.
I count myself among the optimists. Trumpism has begun to decline. Following the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the outbreak of war in Iran, and persistent, intractable inflation, Trump’s approval ratings have fallen to just 37 percent. He no longer appears as powerful as he did at the start of his second term. And with Trump out of the White House, 2029 will be a different story.
I must confess that I have been fortunate enough to live the American dream. I arrived in the United States with very little, and, all things considered, I have come out ahead—much like millions in my generation and those that came before us. What strikes me most is that, despite all the hardships and the fear in which millions of Latinos live, the hope that things will get better remains very much alive.
I certainly hope so. And I hope that, one day, my friends will be able to come visit me without needing to bring their passports.