At 1 a.m. Sept. 30, ICE agents raided a five-story apartment building in Chicago.

Agents rappelled from helicopters onto the roof, kicked down doors, threw flash bang grenades and arrested 37 people. Four children were taken into custody who are U.S. citizens with undocumented parents. Other U.S. citizens were handcuffed and held for hours before being released.

This military-style assault is part of what our government calls “Operation Midway Blitz.” ICE Assistant Secretary Trish McLaughlin said the operation will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a video of the raid set to dramatic music.

I recently wrote to our U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro). I asked him about the scale of our deportation efforts, if we were just targeting violent criminals and freeloaders on our social support network, or were there any other distinctions. In his response, Bost explained that ICE is enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act that calls for the removal of all undocumented people.  He did say he shared my belief that all individuals should be treated in a humane manner and assured me he will continue to work to fix our broken immigration system.

I hope Mr. Bost would agree the apartment building raid in his home state does not meet his standard of treating all people in a humane manner.  I hope he uses his voice in Congress to speak for his home state.  What is significantly more disturbing is the scope implied by his email to me.

Estimates of the number of undocumented people in the U.S. range up to 14 million people.  Some are so-called “dreamers” – adults who were brought to the U.S. when they were small children.  Others have lived here for decades, married U.S. citizens, started families and have been paying taxes for years. Millions provide a significant labor base for our agricultural, food processing, construction, hospitality and landscaping industries.

What Mr. Bost didn’t explicitly say, but implied in his answer, is that our government’s goal is to deport 14 million people. In the Trump Administration, “criminal” includes simply not having documentation.  Add to that the number of documented people who will have their visas cancelled for exercising free speech, or skilled workers who will now be charged $100,000 to renew their work visa.  

I can’t think of another example in mankind’s history where this many people have been purposely and forcibly relocated.

In World War II, we forcibly removed 120,000 Japanese-American citizens from their homes, confiscated their belongings and imprisoned them in internment camps. We did not do the same for German heritage Americans because they looked just like the rest of us.  

In 1838-1839, we relocated 16,000 Cherokee Indians from the Southeast U.S. to a reservation in Oklahoma, 950 miles away. More than 4,000 died on the journey, which is known as the “Trail of Tears.”

Over a span of 300-plus years, about 400,000 Africans were shipped to the U.S. as slaves.

These are lasting stains on our nation and our heritage, yet they are just a drop in the bucket to our current intent. Does it not boggle your mind to think about deporting 14 million people? If you practice any faith, in your heart, can you reconcile this crusade with that faith? Is this what the sanctity of life means to you?

I believe in my heart that very few of us want this.  We voted to gain control of our southern border.  We wanted purposeful management of the unprecedented flood of people fleeing dire circumstances and seeing our country as a haven to live a safe and productive life. We wanted to practice charity without diminishing our own safety.

You might think we cannot handle any more people. We can. We have whole industries still looking for more workers. And we have most of our major cities looking to increase population, fill vacant properties and create more economically robust neighborhoods.

We don’t have to make a choice between securing our borders and stepping up to meet our moral responsibilities to be the haven for desperate people as we have for the past 200-plus years. We can do both.

This moment in history presents each of us a choice. We can have a voice and write to Rep. Bost and many others in our government. We can let them know we did not vote for the unparalleled cruelty of our current deportation program. We can insist they devise an immigration program NOW – one that ensures criminals do not enter our country but otherwise seamlessly integrates migrants into communities that want and need them.

Or we can be quiet and complicit with one of the cruelest and Godless programs a government has ever inflicted on people.