Editor:
President Trump commented recently that targeting California farming and hospitality workers for deportation left these industries “hurt badly” by the loss of reliable workers. He felt the workers had been mostly taken, because they don’t have “maybe what they’re supposed to have,” and he feared their replacements would be criminals.
To solve this, Trump noted there would be an order “pretty soon, I think” to help these industries. “We’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that,” he added.
I couldn’t believe Trump had decided to apply common sense to anything based on prior actions. For example: DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) indiscriminately cutting critical positions in agencies that then required refilling or Trump’s disastrous cabinet appointments. But not to worry, almost immediately common sense disappeared.
Trump’s prospective order was superseded as ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) instructed agents to continue with raids as usual at all worksite locations. From ICE: “These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation.”
Notice there is no specific mention of catching criminals because they’re not. As CNN reported, 75 percent of those captured from Oct. 1, 2024 through May 25, 2025, were only guilty of minor infractions, while less than 10 percent had a record of serious crimes such as murder and rape, which is supposed to be the rationale for the entire operation.
I think it’s clear from all this that the Trump administration has little need for common sense because it would merely impede its authoritarian goals.
Sherman Schapiro, Eureka
This article appears in The Man Who Unsolved a Murder.