We fled Iran for America to live without fear. Then Trump raided California | Opinion
When I was 9 years old, my parents and I boarded a plane from Tehran to Los Angeles. By leaving Iran, my mother said we no longer had to be afraid of what we said in public. We didn’t have to police our every thought.
The lesson was that my parents didn’t let fear win. Now, more than a decade later, Americans need to learn that same lesson.
President Donald Trump’s ongoing assault on immigrants has been characterized by unlawful arrests, deportations without due process, and above all, fear.
As protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have spread throughout the Los Angeles area, tensions escalated when President Trump called in the National Guard without consulting California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Just the sight of immigration enforcement vehicles can strike fear into the heart of a community. Rumors of a raid by ICE agents that spread in Paramount, a predominantly Latino city, proved to be false. But the past five months have laid the kindling for this panic.
On April 10 of this year, Homeland Security agents entered two elementary schools in Los Angeles County. More recently, ICE arrested a fourth-grade student at Torrance Elementary School. In San Francisco, 15 people were arrested, among them a 3-year-old.
The protests in Los Angeles are a response to the fear-mongering and the steady encroachment of an administration that threatens the very heart of America: Our immigrants.
An assault on democracy
Trump has long used immigrants as scapegoats for America’s problems. The standoff between the citizens of Los Angeles and the National Guard (and now the Marines) is what the president has been waiting for — to paint immigrants as a threat to Americans.
He has overseen the forced separation of children from their families. He has threatened to deport international students and permanent residents, and to arrest anyone who dares criticize him, including Newsom.
But the real threat is the president’s continued assault on the U.S. Constitution as he carries out these arrests and deportations.
As the strength of our democracy is being tested, taking refuge in white privilege is easy for some.
You might think that the deportation of undocumented immigrants, legal American permanent residents, and naturalized citizens has nothing to do with you. But a threat to immigrants is ultimately a threat to American democracy.
In January, the president met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office. He had struck a deal earlier this year to deport 200 Venezuelan nationals from the U.S. to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. During the news conference, Trump floated the idea of deporting “homegrown criminals” — in other words, denaturalizing U.S. citizens.
If the buck doesn’t stop with naturalized American citizens, there’s no telling what Trump is willing to do.
There’s also the question of what the president considers a crime. The detention of university students Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk and Mohsen Mahdawi, all green card holders, for participating in Palestine protests is an undeniable indication that Trump is willing to deny the rights of free speech to people who oppose his politics.
When bedrock American rights are subject to the political whims of any president, we are all endangered.
Instead of enabling the president’s unlawful actions, as Trump and his associates continue to disappear citizens and police immigrant communities, Americans must protect our constitutional rights to assembly, free speech and due process.
The fall of democracy is when we let fear silence us from criticizing our government, or fear the sight of law enforcement. It is the moment we abandon hope in our institutions.
Getting lost in distraction is easy, as is assuming all protesters are violent, or perceiving symbols such as the Mexican flag as a threat. But in America, we all have the same right to live without fear.
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "We fled Iran for America to live without fear. Then Trump raided California | Opinion."
