This Thanksgiving in Plymouth, the second floor of the Plymouth County Correctional Facility will house hundreds of incarcerated immigrants. recently snatched from their homes and workplaces in Maine and across New England by masked secret police. All of them, like the Mayflower Pilgrims, arrived in this country seeking asylum from violence and persecution. Most have been here for years, with a lawful immigration status of “asylum pending.” USCIS had previously issued them temporary Social Security numbers so that they can work and pay taxes. These people have committed no crimes and although they arrived at our shores for the same reason as those first pilgrims, rather than being welcomed at a bountiful table they have been taken from their homes and will spend this year’s holiday in prison, shackled, barely fed, left shivering under mylar blankets, terrorized, humiliated and pressured daily to agree to self deport.
How did we get here?
In the past decade much has been written about the impact of our country’s divided politics on the Thanksgiving table conversation. Throughout the USA sisters and brothers, daughters and sons, uncles and nieces have been squaring off in heated argument or refusing to speak to each other following passionate, earnest disagreements about life-or-death topics. Pro-life vs. Pro-choice. What are the appropriate actions for defense and protection against enemies and disease? Is kneeling for the national anthem legitimate protest or treasonous activity? What is a fair and reasonable process for accepting immigrants?
Sadly, we have seen these arguments create fissures among family and friend groups, sometimes irreconcilable, in other cases compromises or truces and a willingness to move forward while amicably “agreeing to disagree.” On the topic of immigration in particular, the argument against has been fueled by the false idea that immigrants are infiltrating our lawful citizenry with an unwanted criminal element. Donald Trump seized on this message in his desperate campaign to regain the Presidency, alleging that the immigration population was largely composed of terrorists, rapists and violent criminals.
Thanksgiving originated in the early 17th century when the Mayflower Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth. They were seeking asylum from persecution in their home countries. They were welcomed and feted by the Indigenous people who shared a bounty of food at a common table. Together all gave thanks in a spirit of harmony and acceptance, a uniquely American celebration of cultural blending and tolerance. In 1789, President George Washington formally established the Thanksgiving holiday by a sentimental lengthy proclamation with a call to “render our national government a blessing to all the People, and generally grant unto all Mankind… prosperity. “
Thanksgiving this year has taken on a very different tone. In 2025 this treasured holiday is under attack. Fairness and earnestness in public debate has ended. The party in power rules with an iron fist. The spirit of the holiday is being destroyed by an out-of-control authoritarian executive branch. The blessing to all people and the promise of prosperity is now offered only to the select and privileged few.
The atrocities in Plymouth are also taking place at hundreds of other facilities across the US right now. This needs to end immediately. The only way it will is from public pressure. Call your congressman, senator, tell your friends. This is not what our country is about. Act now, before our government of the people, for the people and by the people has perished from this earth.
– Timothy Donnellon