The recent announcement about Trump ending DACA eerily reminded me of the time in 1980, when I was a door-to-door census worker in Huntington Beach, Calif. My job was to contact people who had not turned in their census form or who were required by law to answer more specific questions on a long form.
I tried for weeks to find one family at home without success. One day their neighbor told me that they had fled rather than fill out a form. They had survived the Holocaust and were terrified of turning over data to the government, lest it one day be used to find them and their relatives. I was 20 years old and found this explanation and their fear slightly ridiculous. Not in America, I mused.
Now ICE announced it will use data collected on Dreamers’ required government forms to find and deport them. Hitler has come to America, and he’s orange.
Terri Holland
Salt Lake City