In early February, Emad Elsayed -- a student at the Universal Air Academy in California -- posted a photo of Trump on Facebook and wrote a post to the effect of, “If I killed this guy I wouldn’t mind serving a life sentence and the world would thank me.” Post like this are not uncommon, but for Elsayed he was swiftly rounded up by the secret service and put in Orange County jail. Elsayed now faces deportation, he will be forced to leave the country and return to Egypt.
Now it seems unfair to me that presidential candidate Donald Trump can say things similar to this, "I could walk out on 5th Ave and shoot someone, and my followers would still support me," or "I would carpet-bomb them into oblivion," or "I would kill the families of terrorists," and have zero consequences. Although he did not threaten anyone in particular, people could take these threats to heart if they feel like they are personally endangered by what Trump is saying.
So I wonder who is more threatening to our national security, Donald Trump or an impassioned college student from California? Although I do condone threatening to take any person's life, it may seems like Trump has been engaging in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric throughout his campaign.
Elsayed only made his post only after Trump called for the banning of all Muslims from the United States. One might view his threat as a way to defend himself and the other people of his religion. If elected Trump plans to require all Muslim citizens to carry religious ID cards and is open to wholesale surveillance of all Muslims. Simply put, under Trump, Muslims would have fewer rights than regular U.S. citizens based on their faith. Trump continuously attacks minority groups by making absolute statements with little regard to actual facts; if he called to ban all agnostic-Romanians, I would definitely feel threatened. Why do I deserve this? What have I done something wrong? Should defending my religion/identity be a crime? I am sure these are some of the thoughts racing through Elsayed's head as he awaits his hearing.
Trump has also threatened to deport around 11 million illegal immigrants if he gets elected. which would likely wreak havoc on the lives of millions of U.S. citizens, not just undocumented immigrants. If history is a guide, the last time we rounded up citizens was during WWII. The incarceration of the Japanese consumedsignificant budgetary and law enforcement resources and exposed the country to reparation claims for decades. Not only was this fiscally draining, but it caused a national social crisis.
I fear that to find all the undocumented immigrants like Trump talks about, immigration enforcement agents would have to question a good majority of the population just to whittle down who was legal and who was not. This would lead to the interrogating of U.S. citizens. This doesn't even begin to explain the injustice, so many undocumented immigrants are part of mixed immigration status families.
Would Americans start ratting out their neighbors, friends or relatives? Would we force families to be separated from their loved ones facing deportation?
If Trump can get away with threatening the livelihood of millions of American families, and Emad Elsayed is deported for threatening the life of Trump - someone who would shoot a civilian to prove he has loyal followers, who threatens to deport millions of working immigrants on the basis that they are a detriment to this country. Might I dare say, we are looking to deport the wrong people.