I Can't Get Over These "Mass Deportation Now" Signs

People in a crowd holding up signs that say "Mass Deportation Now!" Image source.

[content note: anti-immigrant hate]

At the Republican National Convention in July, the Trump campaign handed out these "Mass Deportation Now" signs to the crowd. I went on Google Images and searched, and there are lots of photos of cheering crowd members holding up these signs.

And I just ... how? How can people cheer for "mass deportation"? Do they know what "deportation" means? It means you have to uproot your whole life and move to a different country. How can people wish that on anyone?

(How will I explain this to my children?)

I just ... I mean, I could say "this is a big deal to me because I'm an immigrant" (I'm American and I live in China) but, come on, you don't have to be an immigrant to understand that being deported would really screw up someone's life.

I just can't understand how people could be so heartless. It's hard to even look at these images of the crowds holding these signs.

Well... obviously the answer is that these are people who support Trump, and not only that, they support him so much that they actually came and attended the Republican National Convention. So I shouldn't be surprised that they really hate immigrants.

Anyway, I guess I don't really have anything else to say- if you don't understand how cruel "mass deportation" is, I don't think there's anything I can say that can make a difference.

Here, I'll just paste something I wrote in my May 22 blogaround:

I am an immigrant- I am American and I've lived in China for 10 years. Back when I was thinking about moving to China, I totally believed that I could just move to whatever country I wanted to. My whole life, I had heard about American missionaries moving to so many different countries around the world (and my decision to move to China was very much influenced by Christian missions ideology), and about Americans going on vacation to beautiful and interesting places all around the world. 

And at some point- I think after I moved to China- I found out that many people, because of where they were born, can't just go galivanting around to whatever country they want. *I* can, because I'm American, but many citizens of other countries can't. That was shocking to me. Everyone should be allowed to live wherever they want!

That's what radicalized me. Support all immigrants- legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, refugees, third-culture kids, etc etc etc. Support all immigrants.

Anyway, vote. Vote all these Republicans out.