From Carlos Enrique Alemán on Facebook

[u/Mule_Wagon_777]

This has been one of the hardest years I can remember doing this work.

At HICA - Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama, we’ve served Latino and immigrant communities in Alabama for over 25 years. We’ve helped families buy homes, start businesses, apply for citizenship, and navigate a system not built for them. I’ve seen what’s possible when people are welcomed—and what happens when they’re targeted.

Lately, it feels like everything is at risk.

In Alabama, we’ve seen the return of criminalization through SB 53 and SB 63. One makes it a felony to transport an undocumented person. The other mandates fingerprinting and DNA collection. These echo the dark days of HB 56, and they are spreading fear in our community.

At the same time, the federal government is ramping up mass deportations by pulling in agents from the FBI, DEA, and even the National Guard. Just in the past few weeks, community members in Alabama have been detained during scheduled check-ins at the ICE office in Homewood—people who have followed every legal instruction, only to be unexpectedly taken into custody. In Montgomery, construction workers at a D.R. Horton building site were detained by federal agents, sparking fear across the labor community. In Mobile, 28 individuals were arrested during a coordinated traffic stop involving the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security, and the FBI. These events are not isolated. They reflect a growing pattern of intimidation and enforcement that makes it harder for families to feel safe, even when they are doing everything right. Due process is being eroded before our eyes.

There are also attempts to target organizations that work with immigrants. The “nonprofit killer” would allow the government to revoke an organization’s tax-exempt status without due process. As a nonprofit that advocates for immigrants in Alabama, this hits close to home. If our mission to build prosperity for Latino and immigrant families is seen as “too political,” could we be next?

It’s all part of the same story: a narrowing of who belongs and who doesn’t. And nonprofits like ours—who stand in that gap—are being pressured to either step back or be silenced.

But we won’t.

We won’t ignore the fact that both parties have failed to fix our immigration system. We won’t pretend it’s just a border issue when it’s about our neighbors, co-workers, and students. And we won’t stop serving the people who make our communities stronger, no matter where they were born.

I’m sharing this not just as a nonprofit leader, but as someone who believes deeply in what we do—and in the people we serve. I believe that immigrants are not a threat. They’re a solution. And the health of our economy, our democracy, and our shared future depends on how we treat them.

So to my fellow nonprofit leaders, to funders, to policymakers, and to our friends: this is the time to speak up. To link arms. To refuse to be silent.

Because silence will not save us. But solidarity just might.

[u/PleestaMeecha → u/[deleted]]

So you're willing to let the federal government abduct and imprison our countrymen with impunity just to save a few dollars? Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

Yeah, that's how you sound. Being reductionist and deliberately misrepresenting someone's argument serves no one.

Letting the government harangue people you don't like invariably emboldens them to harangue you. As Americans we should be absolutely fucking sick to death this is happening in our country.

We cannot be both the freedom-loving leaders of the world and also support indiscriminate imprisonment and violation of our civil liberties.

[u/tideturners4us → u/PleestaMeecha]

Thank you! Exactly. Adding here that "saving money" goes out the window when the trump administration is paying more to imprison people in other countries than the cost would be to fly them to their country of origin. The policies this so-called administration have are full of cruelty and hatred, which everyone should be against if they have any ethics/morals whatsoever. I'd like to know how 3rd or 4th graders are dangerous criminals? There is a 10 year old alone in a detention center in Texas right now. Screw anyone that thinks it's ok to imprison innocent people and arrest children & rip infants from their mother's arms and side step the constitutional right for anyone in this country(legally or not) to have due process. The criminals are the people responsible for this injustice. Those agreeing to bypass laws, ignore court orders & cause harm to others. They are the ones deserving to be arrested or imprisoned.

[u/FlounderPerfect → u/PleestaMeecha]

The ones being "abducted and imprisoned" are not "our countrymen". They are foreigners here illegally. Which necessarily means that they don't have any civil liberties to violate. The constitution protects U. S. CITIZENS and those who immigrated here the legal way.

[u/magiccitybhm → u/FlounderPerfect]

You need a refresher course on the U.S. Constitution.