America's Turning Point

A Letter From Iowan John Cain

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John Cain

Jamelle Boule, a New York Times columnist, has opined that Minneapolis may be Trump’s Gettysburg. He considers it a catastrophic defeat for Trump like the Gettysburg was for Lee which forced the South into a never ending cycle of retreats. The Battle for Vicksburg, which ended the day after Gettysburg (July 4, 1863), may have been of more significance than Gettysburg. It cut off the Mississippi Department, which split the Confederacy into two and resulted in Lincoln promoting Ulysses S. Grant from Major General of the Army of Tennessee to Commander of the Union Army.

Relying on the past to interpret the present is always risky. John Brown’s assault on Harpers Ferry did not result in the slave rebellion he had hoped for, but it did embolden the abolitionists which resulted in Lincoln’s election in 1860 which in turn led to South Carolina seceding from the Union before he even took office. In a similar way, the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol which was supported, instigated, and encouraged by President Trump, emboldened his supporters and led to his reelection in 2024. Trump has never conceded defeat in the 2020 election, and is attempting to rewrite the history of not only that day but all of America’s history so that slavery is once again minimized as the Lost Cause advocates have argued.

I am surprised that Trump has not proclaimed that the Civil War be renamed the Invasion of the North. Perhaps he is saving that for Juneteenth National Independence Day, if he chooses to recognize it as a federal holiday. “In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in federal agencies that has been interpreted by various agencies as eliminating in-agency observance planning for a number of cultural remembrance events, including Juneteenth, Black History Month, and several others.”¹

In December 2025, he declared that free entry to national parks on MLK Day and Juneteenth was ended, and replaced by free entry on Flag Day, which is also his birthday.

Confronted with cell phone evidence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement killing civilians, forcing an elderly man into the cold with little clothes on and detaining a child without cause and especially seeing Minneapolis residents protesting in freezing weather against the MAGA surge, Trump has toned down his rhetoric slightly but he has not retreated from his desire to deport all he can legally and then some. Whether the ICE agents take off their masks or wear body cameras does not change the over all policy to deport and harass as many people as possible.

Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War and got far more press than Vicksburg but the Battle of Vicksburg was the more strategic victory. Vital supply lines of the South were cut off and with William T. Sherman in command of the Western theater, the Atlanta Campaign was possible.

Stopping or delaying the MAGA deportations from city to city will only succeed for a time until the greater resources of the federal government wear down the resistance by criminal persecutions, immigration hearings, immigration raids in workplace, schools, churches and community centers, street impunity and immunity of ICE thugs, cut offs of federal funding, scholarships, contracts and slow-grind bureaucratic pressure, which next to gravity may be the greatest force in the universe. The refusal of sanctuary cities to cooperate with ICE delay deportations but the pressure will continue. The South simply did not have the manpower, financial backing, and resources of the North to engage in a prolonged war with the North.

Fortunately, we are not in an open civil war and have midterm elections coming up. If the Democrats gain majorities in the House and Senate, the imperial wings of the presidency may be clipped a bit. The restoration of a system of government with meaningful checks and balances may be impossible. The Supreme Court has confirmed presidential powers to fire and replace administrators and watchdogs that other presidents may have only dreamed of as impossible dreams.

The lockdown of the southern border and prevention of illegal immigration may allow for immigration reform to occur. It is needed more now than when Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was enacted.

“The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalized most undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the country prior to January 1, 1982. The act altered U.S. immigration law by making it illegal to knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and establishing financial and other penalties for companies that employed illegal immigrants.”²

It was a simpler time then and far less confrontational. IRAC was nicknamed Simpson-Mazzoli Act/Reagan Amnesty in honor of Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, and Rep. Romano Mazzoli, a Democrat, who had sponsored the act through their respective houses. In addition to creating a path to citizenship that did not require a person leaving the country, the legislation called for far more stringent immigration enforcement. More border enforcement was enacted but it did not keep pace with the number of people who have entered the country illegally. “The number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States reached an all-time high of 14 million in 2023 after two consecutive years of record growth according to a new Pew Research Center estimate. The increase of 3.5 million in two years is the biggest on record. Data from 2023 is the most recent available for developing a comprehensive and detailed estimate.”³

America’s population was 240,132,831 at the end of 1986 and 348,362,320 at the end of February 2026. So while the increase in undocumented aliens from 1986 is significant it is also not as proportionally a great and change as it might seem if only looking at the increase of undocumented people.

I was just starting out as lawyer in 1986 and a man from Samoa hired me to help him become a citizen. The paperwork was fairly straightforward forward and one day we went to the Seattle office. There was no guard at the door. We got lost and I walked into an office for directions. The man was kind, rose out of his chair smiling and pointed us the way. He had a crew cut and reminded me a bit of a high school football coach. He was wearing a white short-sleeve shirt that had many pens encased in a pocket protector. Later, I realized he was the director of immigration. As I said, it was a quieter, simpler time and undocumented people were not assumed to be predators on the American way of life. This is not to say that there were not illegal aliens who were criminals. During this time period, Tacoma had the highest murder rate in the country for a city its size, but it was never assumed on the Hilltop, where the murders manly occurred, everyone was a criminal or that the majority of criminals were undocumented gang members.

Those who would deport all undocumented aliens point to the gang members and violent crimes of a a few illegal aliens and overlook that the majority are simply hard-working individuals who have paid taxes some for years.

“While the Obama administration record is characterized by much higher removals than preceding administrations, it also shows less focus on increasing absolute numbers of overall deportations and a higher priority on targeting the removals of recently arrived unauthorized immigrants and criminals. The administration also placed a much lower priority on removing those who had established roots in U.S. communities and had no criminal records.”⁴

In contrast to the Obama policy of targeting new arrivals and criminals and not those who had been here for a while, Trump has favored broad sweeps uprooting families and causing fear in communities for both citizens and non-citizens.

Reform is needed that creates a path to citizenship for those who have been here and who are working or lawfully supported and who are not criminals. Stringent background checks with references and independent investigations should easily weed out those who are undesirable and unqualified to be American citizens. If a person has been receiving federal or state assistance they could be deemed ineligible.

For the Reagan amnesty act, five years was long enough to qualify for a path to citizenship. During his first administration, when a government shutdown was looming, Trump did propose a path to citizenship but it was tied to financing for his border wall, which the Democrats treated as a dealbreaker. His proposal was rather draconian and entailed application and a waiting period for citizenship for the Dreamers of 10 to 12 years. His proposal was rejected by Pelosi and others and a shutdown occurred. Trump often demands an arm and a leg but ends up settling for a pinkie or nothing meaningful at all just so he can put his name on it and claim victory.

I applaud the protesters of Minneapolis. I grew up in Iowa. I know what the midwest winters are like. These are no sunshine patriots. The song “Streets of Minneapolis” by Bruce Springsteen will be long remembered after the movie Melania is archived and never seen again.

The resistance and temporary retreat of MAGA is a victory. Those responsible for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti should be held accountable but if they will is very much in doubt. In January, Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, delivered a message to ICE agents: “To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties, and anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony.”

Earlier in the year the administration paid millions to the family of a woman killed while breaking into the Capitol. ICE agents may not now wear masks all the time, and sometimes body cameras, but enforcement policies of ICE have not changed.

Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the South. Whether Minneapolis is the high-water mark for those opposing ICE or the victory Bouie envisioned remains to be seen. The lasting victory, the strategic victory, will be in the passage of immigration reform. Ironically the clampdown at the border may make meaningful reform more acceptable to many.

Without reform the deportation sweeps will continue, and the needless destruction of the lives of people who have helped make this country great and shared in the dream of a better life will be destroyed. Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps not one of Trump’s favorite Americans, wrote in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” In the destruction of the dreams of immigrants, we are diminishing our own dreams, our dignity and our belief in justice.

John Cain
Tacoma, Washington

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Letters From Iowans is a part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. We encourage you, our subscribers, to share your perspective in this column. To make your voice heard, use this form to send us your essay:

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1. “Juneteenth,” Wikipedia

2. “Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986,” Wikipedia

3. Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad, “U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reached a Record 14 Million in 2023,” Pew Research Center, Aug. 21, 2025

4. Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Jessica Bolter, “The Obama Record on Deportations: Deporter in Chief or Not?”, Migration Policy Institute, Jan. 26, 2017