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I have a brief story to share with you from my days in Congress. This tale connects Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and yours truly.
In 2011, President Obama said Republicans would never be satisfied with his efforts at the border unless he proposed building an alligator-filled moat there. As a Tea Party Congressman at the time, I was miffed. I believed Obama wasn’t taking the border crisis seriously enough, and his comment, delivered in jest, seemed to prove that to me. So what did I do? I took a toy alligator to the floor of Congress to introduce phony “moat” legislation backing Obama’s sarcastic idea. I was joking. To make a political point.
In 2019, Trump as President demanded his aides look into the idea of an alligator-filled moat at the border. He loved the idea. He wasn’t joking.
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This week, Trump, as President again, flew down to Florida to visit a hastily-built migrant detention center, deep in the alligator-filled Everglades, known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” There, amongst the cages, Trump shared some laughs with Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He took a few cheap shots at Joe Biden, as he usually does. And he boasted that migrants would be eaten by alligators if they tried to escape. He’s dead serious about it.
Today, I cringe at my joke all those years ago. While it was satire to make a political point, I’ve since apologized for it and condemned the idea as utterly cruel and inhumane. Fourteen years ago, the idea was so preposterous, it hardly seemed possible that anyone might take it seriously, much less a President.
But Trump and the GOP are utterly serious about using alligators as a real-life threat/deterrent against immigrants. They aren’t joking, they’re implementing. Today’s Republican Party is fully radicalized. Which is why I am no longer a Republican.
While visiting the facility, which has already flooded, Trump said, “Well, I think I would like to see them in many states. Really, many states. And, you know, at some point, they might morph into a system."
A system, huh? Yeah, we’ve seen that before.
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Look, I’ve always refused to compare Trump to Adolf Hitler. To me, the comparison diminishes the memory of the 11 million people killed by Hitler’s regime. But I do believe Trump is a fascist, and we know that he has praised Hitler.
We are not where Nazi Germany was. Let’s be clear about that. But we are starting down a similar path. The path begins with dehumanization, and that monstrosity in the Everglades, a temple to dehumanization, is already taking in migrants as I write this.
I sometimes wonder how the Germans who voted for Hitler felt much later, after the Nazis were defeated, and they were forced to reckon with the hideous legacy of the Third Reich. The shame must have been overwhelming.
How will those who voted for Trump feel when this shameful chapter in American history comes to a merciful close? Will they wish they had stood with us? Stood for freedom? Stood for the rule of law? Stood for humanity?
I don’t know.
I’d like to believe that Americans are better than this, that we would never, ever keep going down the sickening, slippery slope the Germans did in the 1930s and ‘40s.
I’d like to believe that it’s the cruelty—not the stupid tariffs, not the price of groceries, not the daily assaults on democracy and the Constitution—that finally wakes some Trump supporters up from their slumber, that stops this train before it goes one inch farther down these tracks.
I’d like to believe that Trump’s cruelty is why he and his party will lose decisively in 2026—because most Americans aren’t cruel.
I hope I’m right.
Here’s some other stuff I’m furious about. I’m documenting it here, because we have to bear witness to the truth.
Man Arrested, Possibly Deported After Saving Girl in Shark Attack —NBC 6 South Florida
U.S. Citizen Arrested During ICE Raid in What Family Describes as ‘Kidnapping’ —The Guardian
ICE Agents Arrest Mother of Two at Assisted Living Facility —Newsweek
Green Card-Holder With 2 U.S. Citizen Kids Held by ICE for Over Two Months —Newsweek
Afghan Ally Who Was Detained by ICE Now Facing Fast-Tracked Deportation —Military.com
‘Who Are These People?’ Masked Immigration Agents Challenge Local Police, Sow Fear in L.A. —Los Angeles Times
U.S. Sees Spate of Arrests of Civilians Impersonating ICE Officers —The Guardian
Texas Farmers Hit Hard as Migrant Workers Avoid ICE —The Hill
The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Add Billions to ICE’s Budget —TIME
Judge Again Delays Abrego Garcia’s Release from Tennessee Jail Over Deportation Concerns —AP News
Trump Administration’s Prosecution of Kilmar Abrego García Leads to Release of Convicted Shooter —The Washington Post
Kilmar Abrego Garcia Says He Was Beaten and Subjected to Psychological Torture in El Salvador Jail —AP News
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