By Sue Winthrop

When Donald Trump was elected president, I promised myself I would stay away from politics. Though, after reading the news coming out of Washington, D.C., and what President Trump is doing, I am unable to stay quiet any longer. I was especially disheartened, and sickened by the story of ICE raiding the Ocean Seafood Depot in Newark, and staff at an elementary school in Chicago turning away agents they feared were from ICE. This reminded me of the conversations I had with people that were Jewish and had survived the Shoah and the horrors they had experienced. I have visited Yad Vashem — the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; and the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center in Naples, Fla. The Shoah was real.

President Trump has issued several executive orders around immigration that break my heart. There have been many revisions, including, ordering the expansion of “expedited removal.” This allows the U.S. to deport someone without a court hearing. Another area includes requiring people who are not citizens of the U.S. to register and present their fingerprints to the U.S. government. If someone does not register, they could be subject to a criminal penalty. This could make anyone who entered the U.S. without authorization a target for arrest and criminal prosecution. Even if someone has a pending immigration application, Trump has instructed the Department of Homeland Security to make sure work permits are not given to anyone without another legal status. Trump is also threatening the revocation of all federal funding to states and localities that are considered “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

I have been thinking about the courageous words spoken directly to President Trump by the Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington. They came from her heart and soul. I hope and pray others are thinking about these words too.

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you, and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. … The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara and temples.

“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth for one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people, (the) good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen.”

It took courage and compassion to speak these words. I cried the first time I heard this, and cried again when I was writing them. I wish others had the courage to do the same. I am a product of the people who came before me. My great-grandparents, and my father’s parents, family members that survived the Shoah and those that did not. I believe in my heart and soul that if I do not say something, if I do not stand up for those that are suffering, then my upbringing, who I am, will be in vain.

Sue Winthrop is a longtime resident of Longmont. Sue has a bachelor’s in elementary education and a master’s in early childhood special education.