Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 77, printed December 11. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Summer/Fall 2025 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

By Phil Wilayto

On Nov. 27, “Thanksgiving Day,” a U.S. holiday supposedly dedicated to honoring friendship between the Indigenous peoples of North America and English immigrants to their lands, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued new restrictions against people trying to move to the United States.

The restrictions apply to people from 19 countries, all of which are in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

This action supposedly was taken in response to the attack, allegedly by an immigrant from Afghanistan, on two members of the West Virginia National Guard assigned to patrol the streets of the country’s capital.

The Trump administration is claiming that the alleged shooter, a former member of an elite CIA-led military unit in Afghanistan, was “radicalized” after being allowed to enter the U.S.

New information is now being reported that there was no “radicalization.” Instead, the suspect was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), likely caused by his experiences in his home country and his inability to find work in the U.S. sufficient to care for his wife and five children.

Like many of Trump’s policies, this one has nothing to do with the reasons being claimed. Instead, the entire campaign of attacking immigrants is designed to rid the country of anyone who isn’t “white.” It is a profoundly racist policy that aims to “return” the country to something it has never been: an all-white, right-wing, Christian society.

Those who control a country built on land stolen from the Indigenous peoples, worked by stolen African labor and enriched by predatory foreign policy have no moral right to prevent others from moving here – certainly not those from countries that have been devastated by U.S. economic and military actions.

It is encouraging that polls now show that the majority of people here do not support Trump’s immigration attacks, leading growing numbers to come out onto the streets to defend those targeted by the government.

Hopefully, that movement will grow until all our people – from whatever land they come from – can live here in peace, justice and equality.