A university professor of Spanish descent in the days of ICE: A foreigner in his own country

"An insidious terminology has taken root in the United States: it distinguishes heritage Americans from the rest of us. It's a euphemism for white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and, increasingly, for evangelical nationalists as well. This language is being deployed systematically. In practice, the U.S. Supreme Court has legalized a machinery of control in which ethnicity even how someone speaks, dresses, or what they do for a living can be used as justification for federal officials,"

"On January 5, 2026, after working for 16 years at the University of Colorado, the Human Resources Department emailed me stating that I had not submitted documentation proving my legal U.S. residency or citizenship. The university insisted that I had not provided this documentation when I was hired. I was then required to physically present my proof of citizenship (my U.S. passport) to a university official for verification."

Terminology distinguishing "heritage Americans" functions as a euphemism for white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and evangelical nationalists and is being used to justify exclusionary measures. The U.S. Supreme Court has enabled legal mechanisms that allow ethnicity and cultural markers such as speech, dress, or occupation to justify stops and demands for proof of status by federal agents and quasi-military forces like ICE. ICE operations in Minnesota have produced raids, arrests, neighborhood fear, public protests, and lethal force that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Bureaucratic procedures are also being applied elsewhere to require original citizenship documents and to single out people with non-Anglo surnames.

Read at english.elpais.com