More lies

by Toddy Perryman, Hamilton

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media on Saturday: “Plenty of countries in history have experimented with importing a foreign labor class. The West is the first and only civilization to import a foreign labor class that is granted full political rights, including welfare & the right to vote. All visas are a bridge to citizenship. In America, for generations now, the policy has been that anyone who would economically benefit from moving to the US can do so, exercise the franchise in the US and their children, the moment they are born, will be full American citizens with all the rights and benefits therein.”

Much of this is not true. Many types of visas do not allow permanent residence and do not lead to citizenship. One must go through the naturalization process to gain citizenship if you are not born in the country. And non-citizens do not have the right to vote (franchise), no matter how many times the falsehood is repeated.

Now history is doing that rhyming thing again. In 1858, Senator James Henry Hammond (D-SC), a wealthy enslaver, rose to explain to his northern colleagues why their objection to human enslavement was so badly misguided. “In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life,” he said. “Such workers needed few brains and little skill; they just had to be strong, docile, and loyal to their betters, who would organize their labor and then collect the profits from it, concentrating that wealth into their own hands to move society forward efficiently.” This sounds a lot like the trickle-down theory we heard from Ronald Reagan.

In a nation of immigrants and men who had worked their way up from day laborers to become prominent men, Abraham Lincoln stood firm on the Declaration of Independence. He warned that if people started to make exceptions to the idea that all men are created equal, they would not stop.

The hierarchical system Miller embraces echoes the system championed by those like Hammond, who imagined themselves the nation’s true leaders who had the right to rule. They were not bound by the law, and they rejected the idea that those unwilling to recognize their superiority should have either economic or political power.

The horrors of the Epstein files show a group of powerful and wealthy men and women who sexually assaulted children and showed no concern either for their crimes or that they might have to answer to the law. They are certain they stand above the law. The public still does not know the extent of the horrors of the human-trafficking business in which Epstein and others were engaged. Not even half of the files have been released.

Federal agents acting for the Trump administration are trying to enforce the authority of those like Miller, tear-gassing, arresting, and killing American citizens. Thousands marched peacefully in Portland, Oregon Saturday, but as Alex Baumhardt of the Oregon Capital Chronicle recorded, “federal officers outside the ICE facility in Portland…indiscriminately threw loads of gas and flash bangs” at marchers, including children. Tim Dickinson of The Contrarian wrote: “Today I saw ICE gas little white kids in the streets of Portland with chemical weapons. Imagine what they’re doing to brown and black kids in the detention camps.”

In an order requiring the release of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias, from detention, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery noted that in their crusade against undocumented immigrants, U.S. officials are ignoring the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. “[F]or some among us,” the judge wrote, “the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.”

Once again, I have shamelessly plagiarized this letter from Heather Cox Richardson’s podcast on Substack (Jan. 31, 2026). I am pretty sure she will forgive me. There will be another No Kings march coming on March 28. If the above letter is disturbing  to you, I hope you can show up to show your opposition to the policies of the ICE/CBP/DHS abuse of citizens and migrants alike.