Don't be evil
Immigration policies are one thing, but the real effect is terrifying
In 2004, Sergey Brin and Larry Page famously included the words “don’t be evil” in their Google IPO prospectus, only to quietly remove them from the preface of the company’s code of conduct in 2018. It’s not like the founders stopped being interested in avoiding being evil, it’s just that other things took a higher priority. Google has indeed become a corporate giant, that makes its money selling your brain cells one at a time to ravenous advertisers who are more than glad to pour billions into Google’s (and other firms’) pockets in exchange for a better place in the global algorithm. It’s all fair play as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai appeared front-and-center seated right behind the first family, alongside Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos at the inauguration of President Donald Trump (47).
It’s not that hard to not be evil. Really, how hard is it to not run over a squirrel, or to not force that old lady off the interstate on an exit she didn’t intend to take? How hard is it not to cuss out the cashier when Wendy’s put ketchup on your burger after you said “no ketchup” three times? How hard is it to not ruin someone’s life because you run the largest organization in the world, and you don’t actually have to ruin lives?
See what I did there, segueing into the executive branch of the United States, run like Don Corleone would run it. This is really a hard topic, with no levity at all. In fact it’s heartbreaking. There’s plenty of cruelty and idiocy for people who are public, famous and outspoken. Ask David French or Erick Erickson about death threats, not only aimed at themselves but also at their families. Heck, ask Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene about it, now that she’s on the outs with the MAGA crowd. Ask the two Atlanta women who won a giant lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani because he kept accusing them of throwing away ballots in 2020, when they did no such thing—they both have endured threats against their lives and families.
But those actions are private individuals doing awful things, even if they were egged on by despicable lies made by public people out to stir up crowds for themselves. There’s worse evils when the government itself goes putrid, and quietly disposes of certain words and concepts in the preamble of the Constitution.
Our government exists to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Many of the delegates who wrote those lines were immigrants. Most of them (if not all) had been subjects of the King of England before this country won independence. We won independence with lots of help from the French. And a large number of Hessians, Prussians who fought for the crown, liked it so much here that they came back with their families. They were welcome and became Americans. That ethos of welcome was so strong that it has endured for 250 years, though we’ve certainly had times where we weren’t so welcoming. I’m not here to re-litigate the past, when Chinese immigration was barred, or when Jews were turned away, some to perish in the Nazi ovens.
But it’s not hard to not be evil, and we’re failing at it hard.
Today, 4,500 unlucky Ethiopians living in the U.S. will learn whether they have a job Monday. In a scene worthy of Faust, if the government does nothing, that means they can’t work because their Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) expire on December 12. If they go to work Monday, their employers are subject to penalties and fines, and it also violates the terms of their visa, so ICE can pick them up at any time and deport them.
The vast majority of these people are not criminals. They are not illegal aliens. They came here to get an education, or to learn a trade, or to build a family. (To secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity.) They were brought here on the Temporary Protected Status program, or TPS. In 2024, TPS visas issued to Ethiopians automatically renewed for about 18 months when they expired. But this time, the Trump administration put an end to automatic renewals. This was done by a regulatory change made by DHS, with almost no notice, on October 30.
Since this summer, over a half million immigrants who were here legally on category “A12” TPS visas have had their authorizations abruptly terminated, most with only a 60-day grace period to get their lives in order, find a different visa category to remain in the U.S., or go home. Think about that. One day you’re here, working and getting a paycheck, legally, and the next day, you’ve got a 60-day counter ticking over your life, as you scramble to find a way to remain.
President Trump called many of these immigrants, from Somalia, Haiti, Burma, South Sudan, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Syria, Cameroon, Afghanistan, and Nepal, “garbage,” among other names. Sure, there’s some bad actors who came in under the Obama and Biden administrations when the borders were wide open, and anyone could get here and claim refugee status. But TPS visas are not the same thing as refugee status. As a matter of fact, some immigrants whose TPS status was terminated have gone on to claim refugee status, but that has its own perils. Once someone makes the refugee claim, it can’t be undone, which means if the claim is denied, they get deported, period.
Really, the TPS program is simply the easiest way for immigrants who came in on F1 student visas, to continue their lives in America, until they qualify for permanent resident status or citizenship. It was a path of least resistance, but certainly not the only path: there are H1B visas and other categories. But the Trump administration is cutting all paths, and not just for illegal immigrants. It’s being done to all immigrants, and with a cruelty that seems crafted to avoid any effort to not be evil.
One murderous attack on National Guard members in Washington, D.C., made by a mentally sick Afghan immigrant, led to the administration pausing all green cards and citizenship applications from 19 nations. It’s insulting, painting the actions of one person across a wide swath of people based on their ethnic backgrounds. (Say, deny guns to all moderately wealthy white men over 50 because one massacred a Las Vegas music festival.) Some immigrants who had completed the lengthy process to become U.S. citizens were abruptly “plucked out of line” at their swearing-in ceremony in Boston. People who were willing to swear allegiance to the United States, and probably know more about our government and history than the average high schooler, were prevented from completing the process because they are declared undesirables by our government.
I’m sorry, but that’s disgusting. You might not think it’s a bad idea to do this, but I assure you, in 20 years we will all regret it. We’re cutting off our own nation at the roots.
Not only are the 4,500-odd Ethiopians with A12 TPS visas being singled out for today’s dump truck full of pain, they are also being dragged along in the worst way possible. On the very day their work authorizations expire, DHS has still not published the requisite notice in the Federal Register terminating the TPS program for Ethiopians. This means that immigrants who have applied for extensions, and paid $500 to USCIS for the privilege, may still remain in the country under their existing TPS visa. But their Employment Authorization Document is no longer valid after today. They can stay here, but not work, which means they can’t really live here unless they have relatives or are made of money.
If they leave the country, they can’t come back using their visa. If they want to transition to an H1B visa with their employer, they have to stay, unpaid, until March when the H1B lottery is drawn. If—if—they get a slot, their employers can pay around $5,000 to sponsor them. But they can’t actually go back to work until October, so they have to stay nearly a year with no income in order to work under a different visa category. If they leave the U.S. to return to their home country in order to work, then the H1B fee increases (under a Trump USCIS regulation change) to $100,000, in order to bring them back into the U.S. It’s just impossible for most immigrants and employers.
They can also stay here under a tourist visa and not work, and wait until June, when the Green Card lottery happens. But 2026 appears to be the last year the government will have a Green Card lottery; USCIS abruptly stopped processing new applications. Essentially, the message to legal immigrants is: go home and sorry—not sorry!—we ruined your life on the way out.
Some immigrants who work for companies that track document reauthorization, companies with federal contracts or other obligations that require strict compliance, found out earlier that they are facing a problem. Others, who work for small companies or employers who might initially check work authorization using the E-Verify system, but don’t do the followup checking, will suddenly find themselves as illegal aliens, and might not even know it. Some are incorrectly assuming that the EAD extension is still in effect, or that automatic renewals are still happening because they paid $500 for the application to USCIS.
Some simply won’t tell their employers that they are now illegal to work. And if there’s enough immigrants in one workplace, ICE can come in and deport them all in one swoop. They’ll call it a “raid” like this is a nest of criminals and illegals working under the table. But in reality, it’s regular people who have been here legally for years who suddenly have their lives ruined almost overnight for no other reason than the president thinks they are “garbage.”
This is evil.
It’s evil to give people who have done all the hard work to live and remain in the U.S. legally for years, 60 days to get out. It’s evil to have their ability to work and earn a living yanked away from them. It’s evil to turn them in to criminals by their presence and the fact they are earning a living, then come in and deport them without due process.
It’s evil to give people Faustian bargains and devil’s choices of how they'd rather have their lives destroyed, with little chance of returning to live the “American dream.”
It’s evil to give ICE daily deportation goals, that have to be filled by casting the widest net possible, along with policies that ensure the widest net will be filled. It’s evil to hire 18,000 Deportation Officers and give them a scant 13-week training program, then turn them loose on the thousand-page regulatory maze of our immigration laws, resulting in abuse and abrogation of rights that even actual criminals are presumed to have, being innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of their peers.
It’s evil to turn workplaces into witch hunts, places where “your papers, please!” is a necessary step to avoid catastrophic loss of business.
I’m all for stricter border control. I’m for rooting out the actual criminals and those who came to America to exploit our loose enforcement. I’m not for emptying our land of those who came here to become Americans. I’m not for doing evil things to those people.
It’s not even a political issue. Republicans might learn the hard way that Americans won’t tolerate a party that won’t stand up to evil. But in the meantime, we the people don’t have to allow evil to continue.
I would be happy if the government started today, by not terminating the Ethiopian TPS program, and not doing nothing and leaving those people in limbo without the ability to support themselves. The administration could, today, choose to not be evil, and to extend the TPS program for Ethopians, allowing them to work and remain in the country legally.
It’s not hard to not be evil. It just takes one act of decency. Can the Trump administration be decent, just this one time, if making it a habit is too hard? Do the decent thing. Don’t be evil.
Editor note: I promised I’d write about China, and I will. But I’m just sick over this issue with TPS visas, because I’ve seen how it’s destroying lives and crushing dreams. We will get to China soon enough.
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The only thing Trump knows how to be is evil. It’s heartbreaking what he is doing to people. Very informative article, thank you! I’ve learned a lot from reading your column.