Were you fortunate to have had a favorite uncle when you were younger? Someone who personified kindness? I was. My family and I had a positive memory of a certain Uncle Sam who welcomed our ancestors into the United States with open arms. But that Uncle Sam has disappeared. The new Uncle Sam is mean and spiteful; he refuses to allow entry into his country for those desperately in need of a safe haven. The altruistic Uncle Sam who invited people fleeing persecution into his home no longer exists. The new Uncle Sam signed an order banning people from 12 countries from entering the United States. He has called up thousands of National Guard troops to support rounding up migrants as well as Marines to deter protests. The kindhearted Uncle Sam my family remembered has radically changed. An unkind, mean spirited Uncle Sam now sits in the White House.

A White House Newsletter of March 4, 2025, showed how the current Uncle Sam views immigrants: “President Donald J. Trump has launched the largest criminal illegal immigrant deportation operation in American history…illegal immigrant killers, rapists, and drug dealers have been taken off the streets in droves as the heroes of law enforcement are once again empowered to do their jobs.” Uncle Sam’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, posted on X : “Friendly reminder: If you illegally invaded our country the only ‘process’ you are entitled to is deportation.”

The new Uncle Sam gives orders to grab people off the streets under his perception that they are a danger to the United States. He believes the United States is under attack. Instead of welcoming migrants with open arms, the new Uncle Sam issues an executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”

My grandparents, who entered the United States towards the close of the 20^th century, never had proper documents when they passed through Ellis Island. The Uncle Sam in power at that time welcomed them with no formal requirements. And that was true not just for members of my family. Between 1870 and 1920, over twenty-five million immigrants arrived in the United States. That was not considered an invasion. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 50 million immigrants (people residing in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth) have entered the United States since 1850, making up between 10 and 15% of the U.S. population.

Now we know that Uncle Sam has not always been welcoming. The story of the refusal of the U.S. to allow Jewish refugees on the liner MS St. Louis to land in the U.S. in 1939 is an eternal black mark. As is the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

What the new Uncle Sam is doing is similar to those black marks, if not worse. There are at least five aspects of the unkind Uncle Sam’s current behavior to highlight the change from the welcoming Uncle Sam:

+ Rounded up physically with no clear reason. Suspected “illegal aliens” have been violently rounded up by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In 2024, ICE arrested over 100,000 people. So far in 2025, it has arrested just as many. Many have been indiscriminately detained, such as those wrongfully apprehended because of misinterpreted tattoos. Those peacefully protesting the migrant raids have been dubbed as “violent, insurrectionist mobs,” with riots breaking out in Los Angeles and other cities following military intervention.

+ Denial of due process to determine valid asylum status. Many legitimate asylum cases are not being heard. Federal agents have started detaining immigrants in and around courthouses when they appear for asylum appointments. In addition, the unkind Uncle Sam movedto terminate Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Venezuelans who had benefitted from that status. The Supreme Court allowed the removal of these protections.

+ Denial of due process concerning deportation, Federal Judge James Boasberg ruled on the lack of procedure; “Perhaps the president lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act,” Boasberg wrote. “Perhaps, moreover, defendants are correct that plaintiffs are gang members. But — and this is the critical point — there is simply no way to know for sure, as the…plaintiffs never had any opportunity to challenge the government’s say-so.” Stephen Miller has said that the administration was considering suspending habeas corpus for detained migrants, arguing that illegal immigration is an invasion that meets the criteria for suspending habeas corpus.

+ Shipment to countries where their lives may be in danger. Those rounded up are being shipped to their country of origin or one where their situation might be worse. “As the Trump administration ships migrants to countries around the world, it is abandoning a longstanding U.S. policy of not sending people to places where they would be at risk of torture and other persecution,” Carol Rosenberg wrote in the New York Times. She added; “The principle emerged in international human rights law after World War II and is also embedded in U.S. domestic law. It is called ‘non-refoulement.’” The unkind Uncle Sam has tried to deport migrants to Libya and South Sudan, countries on the State Department’s ‘do not travel’ list. “What the U.S. is doing runs afoul of the bedrock prohibition in U.S. and international law of non-refoulement,” wrote Robert K. Goldman, the faculty director of the War Crimes Research Office at American University’s law school.

5) Militarization of domestic law enforcement. Unkind Uncle Sam is moving the U.S. closer to a police state. Robert Reich explained in The Guardian: “(1) declaring an emergency on the basis of a so-called ‘rebellion,’ ‘insurrection,’ or ‘invasion’; (2) using that ‘emergency’ to justify bringing in federal agents with a monopoly on the use of force (ICE, the FBI, DEA, and the national guard) against civilians inside the country.” Sending National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles is the first time a president has deployed the military within the United States without the approval of a state governor since 1965.

What has happened to Uncle Sam? The United States has had periodic moments of migrant fear. But surely among those risking their lives to cross into the U.S. there are those who have a genuine fear of persecution in their home countries. Certainly not all “illegal migrants” are “killers, rapists, and drug dealers.” Albert Einstein was a refugee, we should remember.

Is there no way to differentiate between those who have legitimate fears of persecution and those who don’t? The possibility of having completely open borders – as I have written – seems unrealistic today. But some form of humane entry for those genuinely persecuted needs to be found. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” the kind Uncle Sam welcomed my ancestors in New York harbor on a Statue of Liberty plaque. What has happened to that Uncle Sam?

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