global 4.6
July 3, 2026 · Newsletter
An immigrant laborer signed the Declaration of Independence... 250 years later we are arresting nuns.
Eight of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were born outside of the American colonies. Eighteen were born to parents not originally from the colonies, meaning nearly one-third of the entire Continental Congress that approved the Declaration were men who were either immigrants or the direct children of immigrants. [1] [2]
To say we are a nation of immigrants is not hyperbole, it’s fact.
But sadly today, as we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, the very immigrants who were the original backbone of our nation are under attack.
Since January 2025, the Trump Administration has approved a massive $239.5 billion to bolster immigration enforcement and mass deportations. [3]
To pay for these mass deportations, Trump — with the willing help of our opponent John Rutherford — punished millions of Americans with crippling cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace subsidies, Federal Student Aid, and Public Housing assistance. [4]
Hundreds of American citizens have been swept up in the Trump/Rutherford mass deportation campaign, like Leonardo Garcia Venegas who “has been detained by ICE three separate times despite repeatedly proving his citizenship. A U.S.-born citizen, he was followed home, tackled, shackled, and interrogated by armed and masked immigration agents. He has been forced time and again to prove that he belongs in his own country…”
“... A naturalized U.S. citizen in Minnesota dragged from his home into freezing temperatures in his underwear after ICE agents broke down his door… Pregnant U.S. citizen Cary López Alvarado violently detained by immigration agents days before giving birth… U.S. military veteran George Retesviolently detained during a California workplace raid despite repeatedly identifying himself as an American citizen…” and on and on. [5]
Two American citizens — Renée Good and Alex Pretti — were murdered by federal immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in January. [6]
But, for all of the we-are-only-going-after-the-worst-of-the-worst bluster from Trump and Rutherford and the likes of racist White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, nothing quite encapsulates their failed, un-American mass deportation campaign quite like the recent arrest of Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja:
“... Sister Letty, 56, is a member of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy who has worked as a registered nurse in the McAllen area for roughly a decade. She was on her way to Sunday Mass, in her habit, when agents stopped her near the church, cuffed her and took her rosary. She was held for hours — moved, she told fellow sisters, toward the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville — before being released Sunday night…” [7] [8]
Masked ICE agents arrested a nun and confiscated her rosary… and to pay for this, millions of Americans have lost healthcare coverage and children are going hungry.
This is American today… but it doesn’t have to be.
As we gather with family and friends this weekend, think about George Taylor:
“He was born in Northern Ireland, the son of a minister… he emigrated to the colonies as a 20-year-old indentured servant in 1736… he rose from a simple laborer, shoveling coal for his master, to become a clerk in the furnace office…” and he ultimately signed our Declaration of Independence!
Think about what we can do to put our country back on the path of morality and decency… where day laborers can help form a nation… where Leonardo and Cary and George can live their American dream without having to show their papers to masked federal agents… and Sister Letty gets her rosary back.
We are better than Trump and Rutherford and their racist mass deportation campaign.
Together we must prove it. Happy birthday America.
In solidarity — Rachel Grage
PS — On Monday evening, the U.S. men’s national soccer team takes on Belgium in the World Cup… one quarter of our star players were born overseas. Yet another example of how immigrants make us our nation stronger! [9]
The Declaration Resources Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education
A Nation of Immigrants from the Outset: The Signers Born Abroad, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Immigration Provisions, National Immigration Forum
On the First Anniversary of the OBBBA, Millions of Americans Have Been Left Behind, Center for American Progress
No One Is Off Limits Under Trump/Miller’s Mass Deportation Agenda, Not Even U.S. Citizens, America’s Voice
ICE chief admits Renée Good, Alex Pretti were not domestic terrorists, Global News
ICE Confiscated a Roman Catholic Nun’s Rosary — DHS Still Won’t Say Why, Migrant Insider
Catholic bishop seeks information on “wildly disturbing” ICE arrest of nun walking to South Texas church, Texas Tribune
Which USMNT players were born abroad? Gio Reyna among 7 in World Cup 2026, yahoo!sports