The United States was first inhabited by Native Americans, then along came Christopher Columbus to the Americas with his medical diseases.

This made way for Europeans to IMMIGRATE to a new place. They came to what is now the United States in search of economic opportunities and to escape religious persecution. These immigrants were accepted with open arms and welcomed.

These European immigrants went on to take land that belonged to the Native Americans and claim it as theirs. The European settlers could have been deported by the Native Americans but the Native Americans let them stay.
Now, when people immigrate to the US, for the same reasons the Europeans came here (to get better jobs or to escape violence), they are not welcomed and are threatened by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be sent back home.

The Trump administration is claiming that we need to get rid of immigrants because they are stealing jobs from Americans, putting a strain on our resources and claiming they are dangerous people.

Unlike his claims, according to tracereports.org, 74% of detainees have no criminal record. Other data also estimates that only 5-8% of people that have been arrested have convictions for violent or property crimes. Most immigrants come to the US for a new life and opportunity, they are here to get away from crime rather than come to a new country just to commit more crimes.

Immigrants often fill the jobs that people born in the US don’t want to work in. For example, it is estimated that 46-73% of crop workers were not born in the US. This industry is one of the most grueling, yet most vital. Farmworkers pick the fruit and vegetables Americans need to survive and take the jobs Americans are not willing to take on due to their physically taxing demands.

In outrage of President Donald Trump’s immigration crack-down, protests have broken out all across the country. One of the areas that have been hit the hardest are Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Citizens of the state are outraged by the ICE presence and have been protesting since early January. The protests were spurred on even more after Renee Good, a US citizen, was shot three times in her car by ICE agents after they pulled her over.

17 days later, US citizen Alex Pretti was shot and killed by an ICE officer. Pretti was attending a protest in Minneapolis and exercising his 2nd amendment right, which allows him to carry a gun. The officer who shot him claims that Pretti pulled his gun on him so the officer shot him in defense.

The US gives its citizens the right to protest and have freedom of speech yet someone has been killed while protesting and many others have been tear gassed, flash banged and arrested.

ICE is terrorizing innocent people, NOT “aliens” all over the US just because they weren’t born on the right side of the map. American ancestors were the first immigrants in what is now the US and they were welcomed, yet we can’t keep that tradition alive and treat all people equally and like humans.