We can no longer be silent to injustices

In November, after the tragic National Guardsmen shooting in Washington, D.C., President Trump immediately focused on the ethnicity of the perpetrator — Afghan.

He decided that the best course of action was to revoke the legal status of thousands of Afghans who came to the United States after the Taliban violently seized power in 2021. This action amounts to arbitrary collective punishment.

Trump’s mass deportation campaign is pervasive. In the Albany area last month, 10 Afghans were arrested. Four members of one family were detained outside of a mosque, causing irreversible emotional harm.

But community members are showing up to fight back against this senseless dehumanization.

On Jan. 3, protesters rallied in Townsend Square in Albany to voice our opposition to the Bakhtani detentions. Thanks to immigration advocacy groups, two of the Bakhtanis have been released.

The crackdown is accelerating, and innocent people are getting hurt. As I’m writing this, news organizations are covering the unjustifiable murder of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of an ICE agent.

I am a senior in high school. I urge members of the community to act; we cannot stay........

© The Leader Herald