The Worst of the Worst

Kristi Noem frequently likes to tell the media that ICE is apprehending “the worst of the worst.” The website for the Department of Homeland Security states, “Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, DHS removed more than 670,000 illegal aliens including murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists from American communities and another two million have self-deported.” What we aren’t told is how many of those 2,670,000 people were murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, or terrorists.

In touting the “accomplishments” of Trump and Noem, the DHS website shows us twenty-two criminals that ICE has apprehended. Those twenty-two people represent just 0.0000082397 percent of those deported. No mention is made of the other 99.9999917603 percent.

Trump and Noem embrace a thoroughly collectivist approach. They aren’t concerned about the actions of individuals. If a member of a particular group—immigrants—commits a crime, then all members of that group are guilty.

Xenophobia is not new in America. Throughout our history, immigrants have been denigrated. Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, and many others have been the object of scorn and persecution when they have immigrated to America. They have been accused of taking “our” jobs, suppressing wages, corrupting our culture, and worse.

With few exceptions, those expressing outrage at immigrants are themselves descendants of immigrants. With few exceptions, their ancestors experienced the hostility that they are now expressing toward new immigrants.

To xenophobes, immigrants are not individuals to be judged on the basis of their ideas, actions, and character. Instead, they are to be judged based on the nation of their birth. That which is volitional—ideas, actions, and character—is irrelevant. That which is accidental—the nation of one’s birth—is all that matters.

Trump, Noem, and the rest of the MAGAngsters want us to believe that the well-being of our tribe is threatened by their tribe. And so, they highlight the worst of the worst to justify their vilification of immigrants. In doing so, they want us to forget that the overwhelming majority of immigrants come to America for the same reason our ancestors did—to make a better life for themselves and their families.