“Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free”

Voters rejected ICE's cruelty, and Democrats now have the subpoena power to examine it.

White House Chief of Staff and ICE Nazi Stephen Miller Credit: Finn Gomez / Getty Images

10 November 2026 was the FIFTH Anniversary of The Good in Us! Looking back, it’s extraordinary how much we’ve witnessed, experienced, and been through together. It’s amazing how much this community has grown, and how far we, as a country and a people, have fallen and, how, finally, at long last, gloriously we have prevailed.

Thank you, to every single one of you—for your presence, your persistence, and your power. I am so looking forward to another five years during which we can shift our attention towards holding the Trump regime accountable and creating a truly representative multi-cultural democracy.

The Good in Us in particular and Mary Trump Media in general would not be possible without you

With deepest gratitude and hope for the future.

Mary

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[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

On November 3, Americans came out in the tens of millions to reject the racism, sexism, attacks on transgender Americans, and demonization of immigrants that have defined so much of the last ten years, especially the last two under the Trump regime.

In that process, they made history. In Georgia, voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first Black woman to govern the state, and she is the great, great granddaughter of an enslaved man. In New Mexico, Deb Haaland was elected the nation’s first Native American female governor. Minnesota elected Peggy Flanagan, the first Native American woman to serve in the US Senate, and Michigan elected Abdul El-Sayed, the nation’s first Muslim senator. These victories represent more than historic firsts, though. They stand in stark contrast to an administration that has made targeting vulnerable communities central to its political agenda. Nowhere has that agenda been more aggressively pursued than by Stephen Miller, the incoming chief of staff.

It is his immigration policies, and the conduct devised under his shadow leadership, that we need to talk about. In 1883, Emma Lazarus wrote the words that would become synonymous with America’s promise to immigrants: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Those words are etched on the Statue of Liberty, greeting immigrants on their way to Ellis Island. More than 140 years later, that promise sounds empty given what the Trump regime has done with its cruelty toward immigrants. On May 1, 2025, so called border czar and Nazi Tom Homan stood outside the White House and offered his own vision of what America had become.

When Homan was asked on camera why the administration did not simply arrest the leaders of sanctuary cities, his answer was a warning. This is how the exchange went:

Fox host: So the president signed an executive order just this week threatening to defund sanctuary cities for their policies. Why not just arrest the leaders who are harboring and shielding illegal aliens, actually terrorists, from deportation?

Homan: Wait to see what’s coming.

With the exception of the Native population, every one of us comes from immigrants. So it is rich to hear people like Tom Homan be so despicable. It is rich when people like Stephen Miller are in charge of policies that are destroying people’s lives, even though his family fled Nazi Germany. I think one of the messages sent last week was that a party that refuses to evolve, and that would be the Republican Party, will ultimately lose.

Latino voters shifted dramatically toward Democrats last week, but they were not alone. According to a November 5 post election survey from Asian Americans Advancing Justice, there was a nine point partisan shift among registered voters toward Democrats compared to 2024. The economy and cost of living remain major concerns, but immigration enforcement, civil rights, and government accountability were also significant issues. Do not let anybody tell you that this was a one issue election.

According to the Associated Press voter poll, approximately 60 percent of voters said the Trump regime’s immigration enforcement had gone too far. A similar share disapproved of ICE’s performance, while approximately 60 percent said immigrants contribute more to the United States than they harm it. They certainly contribute more to the United States than Donald Trump and the Republican Party do. In the same post election survey, 89 percent of AAPI voters, that is, Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, supported immigration changes including pathways to citizenship and family reunification, while 76 percent favored an enforcement approach emphasizing fairness, family unity, and due process. But before Americans cast their ballots, the Trump regime had already announced its intentions.

On October 1, the aforementioned Tom Homan appeared at the American First Policy Institute’s Hispanic Leadership Conference at Donald’s Doral Resort in Florida. He claimed that ICE had made nearly 200,000 interior arrests in four months and promised that mass deportations would intensify in 2027. Then, on November 3, as Americans headed to the polls, Homan appeared on Fox and Friends to discuss what he believed would happen if Democrats gained power and moved to restrict ICE. This is what he said:

The same party that is complicit in historic border crossings now wants to abolish ICE. The agency looking for these people and deporting them hasn’t changed a bit. So if they get back in power, you’d better believe we’re going to lose the border if they keep pushing. They’re going to push to abolish ICE. You’re going to see chaos like you’ve never seen before.

Oh, like we’ve never seen before? I wonder where he got that phrase. The message here is that they don’t care who won this election. They are not going to change their policies. In fact, they’re going to double down on them. We need no more evidence of this than the fact that Donald hired Stephen Miller, as I said earlier, to be his new chief of staff. He is now going to have even greater authority over ICE’s operations.

In 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center published an investigation of more than 900 emails Miller exchanged with Breitbart editors. Miller promoted the white nationalist website VDARE, recommended the racist novel The Camp of the Saints, and praised President Calvin Coolidge’s immigration policies. In an August 2015 email responding to a proposal to halt immigration, Miller wrote, “Like Coolidge did.” What Coolidge did was sign the Immigration Act of 1924, establishing discriminatory national origin quotas that favored Northern and Western Europeans.

Sound familiar? Although Donald would add white South Africans. In September 2015, Miller dismissed the very words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, saying, “This is a good chance to expose that ridiculous Statue of Liberty myth.” On August 2, 2017, CNN’s Jim Acosta challenged Miller about America’s promise to welcome immigrants as Miller defended legislation restricting legal immigration. At the very least, every single Democrat needs to refuse to engage with that man.

Miller has also advocated considering the suspension of habeas corpus to accelerate deportations. Although the Trump regime has not yet publicly pursued that proposal, it is certainly going after birthright citizenship. The regime is also rapidly expanding ICE. On November 5, Federal News Network reported that the agency had hired approximately 12,000 new personnel, more than doubling its workforce. Those first 12,000 were highly unqualified and in many cases racist, misogynistic, and compromised. Democrats are preparing to investigate recruitment, training, allegations of misconduct, detention conditions, and surveillance practices. Let’s hope they also get around to defunding that benighted organization and then dismantling it entirely. There are already questions about how ICE employees were hired.

In September, the Associated Press reported a whistleblower complaint alleging that ICE made final job offers before completing required background checks, including fingerprinting and identity verification. ICE disputed violating vetting requirements but acknowledged that some recruits began training before their investigations were complete.

Congress has already provided substantial funding for ICE expansion. Legislation enacted in July 2025 allocated approximately $150 billion to immigrant enforcement and border security, including roughly $75 billion for ICE alone. Of course, we can’t possibly afford SNAP benefits for hungry children. Democrats will now have an opportunity to investigate how that money is being spent and whether the agency is complying with the law.

On November 7, the Associated Press reported that some Democratic lawmakers were calling for a new immigration agenda, including pathways to citizenship for long term undocumented residents and expanded legal opportunities for workers. Senator elect James Talarico, Democrat of Texas, has advocated comprehensive immigration reform, while Representative Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico has proposed addressing labor shortages in childcare and elder care through immigration policy. But Democrats are going to face significant obstacles.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has promised that deportations will continue, and it remains to be seen what Democrats can do to slow them down, if not halt them. Immigration restriction organizations are urging the outgoing Republican Congress to enact additional border and asylum restrictions before January. Donald, of course, will retain the power to veto legislation passed by the incoming Democratic Congress. Even with 56 senators in the Senate, or I should say 55 plus one Fetterman, Democrats do not have the numbers to overcome those vetoes without the assistance of a handful of Republicans.

What Democrats will gain, however, is the power to compel testimony and documents as they investigate the conduct of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. There are already serious questions about how immigration officers have treated American citizens.

On September 18, CNN’s Dana Bash confronted Mullin with footage of ICE officers using force against two 17 year old American citizens in Alamo, Texas. According to the mother of one of the teenagers, they had been on their way to enlist in the Marines. This is how the exchange unfolded:

Dana Bash: Is that acceptable, that use of force?

Mullin: I haven’t seen what was happening on the ground. I haven’t reviewed the film. That’s the first time I’ve seen it.

Okay, you’ve seen it now. But remember, these are the same people who refuse to cooperate with state agencies to hold accountable the ICE agents who have murdered American citizens, who have detained children, and who have put people in concentration camps or disappeared them to other countries. We can expect no cooperation from these people, so Democrats need to start making their case now.