“Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.”
—Joseph Goebbels
La Migra we call border patrol agents
who harass day laborers
as they queue up for jobs
outside our local Home Depot.
What was once a banal nature cliché
is now a potential death sentence.
Immigration officials carry out
cruel federal policy like good little Nazis.
Enraged, I carry a picket sign,
march and chant with
ACLU and MALDEF members,
parade along wire cages
where deportees are held
at the edge of Salinas.
School attendance drops.
Children are afraid of being separated
from mothers and fathers,
the only culture and community
they’ve ever known.
Hate-mongers scapegoat, demonize,
use faux news to rouse
their raving base, build support for
crimes against humanity,
deny the label of racist.
I am not a silent poet 