Politics
Commentary: ‘It’s a Wonderful ICE?’ Trumpworld tries to hijack a holiday classic
For decades, American families have gathered to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve.
The 1946 Frank Capra movie, about a man who on one of the worst days of his life discovers how he has positively impacted his hometown of Bedford Falls, is beloved for extolling selflessness, community and the little guy taking on rapacious capitalists. Take those values, add in powerful acting and the promise of light in the darkest of hours, and it’s the only movie that makes me cry.
No less a figure of goodwill than Pope Leo XIV revealed last month that it’s one of his favorite movies. But as with anything holy in this nation, President Trump and his followers are trying to hijack the holiday classic.
Last weekend, the Department of Homeland Security posted two videos celebrating its mass deportation campaign. One, titled “It’s a Wonderful Flight,” re-creates the scene where George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart in one of his best performances) contemplates taking his own life by jumping off a snowy bridge. But the protagonist is a Latino man crying over the film’s despairing score that he’ll “do anything” to return to his wife and kids and “live again.”
Cut to the same man now mugging for the camera on a plane ride out of the United States. The scene ends with a plug for an app that allows undocumented immigrants to take up Homeland Security’s offer of a free self-deportation flight and a $1,000 bonus — $3,000 if they take the one-way trip during the holidays.
The other DHS clip is a montage of Yuletide cheer — Santa, elves, stockings, dancing — over a sped-up electro-trash remake of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” In one split-second image, Bedford Falls residents sing “Auld Lang Syne,” just after they’ve saved George Bailey from financial ruin and an arrest warrant.
“This Christmas,” the caption reads, “our hearts grow as our illegal population shrinks.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” has long served as a political Rorschach test. Conservatives once thought Capra’s masterpiece was so anti-American for its vilification of big-time bankers that they accused him of sneaking in pro-Communist propaganda. In fact, the director was a Republican who paused his career during World War II to make short documentaries for the Department of War. Progressives tend to loathe the film’s patriotism, its sappiness, its relegation of Black people to the background and its depiction of urban life as downright demonic.
Then came Trump’s rise to power. His similarity to the film’s villain, Mr. Potter — a wealthy, nasty slumlord who names everything he takes control of after himself — was easier to point out than spots on a cheetah. Left-leaning essayists quickly made the facile comparison, and a 2018 “Saturday Night Live” parody imagining a country without Trump as president so infuriated him that he threatened to sue.
But in recent years, Trumpworld has claimed that the film is actually a parable about their dear leader.
Trump is a modern day George Bailey, the argument goes, a secular saint walking away from sure riches to try to save the “rabble” that Mr. Potter — who in their minds somehow represents the liberal elite — sneers at. A speaker at the 2020 Republican National Convention explicitly made the comparison, and the recent Homeland Security videos warping “It’s a Wonderful Life” imply it too — except now, it’s unchecked immigration that threatens Bedford Falls.
The Trump administration’s take on “It’s a Wonderful Life” is that it reflects a simpler, better, whiter time. But that’s a conscious misinterpretation of this most American of movies, whose foundation is strengthened by immigrant dreams.
Director Frank Capra
(Handout)
In his 1971 autobiography “The Name Above the Title,” Capra revealed that his “dirty, hollowed-out immigrant family” left Sicily for Los Angeles in the 1900s to reunite with an older brother who “jumped the ship” to enter the U.S. years before. Young Frank grew up in the “sleazy Sicilian ghetto” of Lincoln Heights, finding kinship at Manual Arts High with the “riff-raff” of immigrant and working-class white kids “other schools discarded” and earning U.S. citizenship only after serving in the first World War. Hard times wouldn’t stop Capra and his peers from achieving success.
The director captured that sentiment in “It’s a Wonderful Life” through the character of Giuseppe Martini, an Italian immigrant who runs a bar. His heavily accented English is heard early in the film as one of many Bedford Falls residents praying for Bailey. In a flashback, Martini is seen leaving his shabby Potter-owned apartment with a goat and a troop of kids for a suburban tract home that Bailey developed and sold to him.
Today, Trumpworld would cast the Martinis as swarthy invaders destroying the American way of life. In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” they’re America itself.
When an angry husband punches Bailey at Martini’s bar for insulting his wife, the immigrant kicks out the man for assaulting his “best friend.” And when Bedford Falls gathers at the end of the film to raise funds and save Bailey, it’s Martini who arrives with the night’s profits from his business, as well as wine for everyone to celebrate.
Immigrants are so key to the good life in this country, the film argues, that in the alternate reality if George Bailey had never lived, Martini is nowhere to be heard.
Capra long stated that “It’s a Wonderful Life” was his favorite of his own movies, adding in his memoir that it was a love letter “for the Magdalenes stoned by hypocrites and the afflicted Lazaruses with only dogs to lick their sores.”
I’ve tried to catch at least the ending every Christmas Eve to warm my spirits, no matter how bad things may be. But after Homeland Security’s hijacking of Capra’s message, I made time to watch the entire film, which I’ve seen at least 10 times, before its customary airing on NBC.
I shook my head, feeling the deja vu, as Bailey’s father sighed, “In this town, there’s no place for any man unless they crawl to Potter.”
I cheered as Bailey told Potter years later, “You think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn’t.” I wondered why more people haven’t said that to Trump.
When Potter ridiculed Bailey as someone “trapped into frittering his life away playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic eaters,” I was reminded of the right-wingers who portray those of us who stand up to Trump’s cruelty as stupid and even treasonous.
And as the famous conclusion came, all I thought about was immigrants.
People giving Bailey whatever money they could spare reminded me of how regular folks have done a far better job standing up to Trump’s deportation Leviathan than the rich and mighty have.
As the film ends, with Bailey and his family looking on in awe at how many people came to help out, I remembered my own immigrant elders, who also forsook dreams and careers so their children could achieve their own — the only reward to a lifetime of silent sacrifice.
The tears flowed as always, this time prompted by a new takeaway that was always there — “Solo el pueblo salva el pueblo,” or “Only we can save ourselves,” a phrase adopted by pro-immigrant activists in Southern California this year as a mantra of comfort and resistance.
It’s the heart of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and the opposite of Trump’s push to make us all dependent on his mercy. He and his fellow Potters can’t do anything to change that truth.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
President Donald Trump said Friday that far-left Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are now trying to distance themselves from some of the radical positions they once championed, noting he believes she may be after a 2028 bid for the White House.
In an interview with Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams, Trump was asked about Ocasio-Cortez’s perceived shift away from her earlier calls to defund police departments and other soft-on-crime policies.
“If you really look at it, they’re all saying the same thing,” Trump said of progressive Democrats. “They’re all trying to disavow themselves from what they said about crime and, well, they’re saying, ‘We love sanctuary cities.’”
When asked directly whether he thinks AOC is positioning herself for a presidential bid, Trump said he thinks AOC will run.
The congresswoman has refused to rule out a run for president, but she hasn’t looked past November’s midterm elections.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SHRUGS OFF PAST ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ COMMENTS, JOKING ‘WOKE 1 WAS CRAZY’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump (Liesa Johannssen/Reuters; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
During an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, the congresswoman attempted to dismiss the extreme rhetoric of the so-called “Woke 1” era.
The term is used by some progressive politicians to describe the pandemic-era social justice activism and far-left political rhetoric in 2019 and 2020, when some called for the defunding of law enforcement agencies, the abolition of police and prisons, the elimination of cash bail, open borders and unchecked migration.
Trump said some Democrats are now trying to distance themselves from sanctuary cities, which generally don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
“I think you’re going to see sanctuary cities start to end, because sanctuary cities are a disaster. And somebody like her, she was big for sanctuary cities,” Trump said of Ocasio-Cortez. “They cause crime.
EXCLUSIVE: LEGAL GROUP TELLS NYPD COPS THEY CAN CONTACT ICE DIRECTLY DESPITE BLUE CITY’S SANCTUARY RULES
Democrats are worried that the “abolish ICE” slogan will age poorly as “defund the police,” The New York Times reported. (Getty)
“That’s when it all started. No cash bail,” he added. “Somebody kills somebody, and they just say, ‘All right, go ahead and come back in two weeks.’”
During AOC’s ABC interview, Jonathan Karl briefly pressed the congresswoman, a member of the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), on radical comments made by fellow socialist and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong in 2020 and 2021.
“I have a local city councilman that has this saying, ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’” Ocasio-Cortez said while grinning. “And I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has largely ended a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients who marry U.S. citizens.
President Trump tried, unsuccessfully, to end DACA during his first term. This week’s action reflects his administration’s ongoing focus on the Obama-era program that shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants, often referred to as Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. as children.
“It was inevitable that what Trump was going to do in office this time was to embark on a massive delegalization mission,” said Karen Tumlin, director of the Justice Action Center in Los Angeles. “That’s what this is.”
Tumlin was referring to a ruling by an administrative immigration court that was published Thursday.
The ruling concerns a travel provision afforded to recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program created in 2012. The provision allowed DACA recipients to travel in ways other people without legal status cannot.
DACA isn’t technically a form of legal status, though its recipients are granted work permits.
For immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, leaving the country or being deported triggers a penalty — many are banned from coming back into the U.S. for a decade.
Most people who qualify for legal residency, or a green card, have to serve that 10-year ban before they can apply for the green card, which can lead to citizenship.
But DACA recipients, under the travel provision called advance parole, could leave the U.S. for school, work or humanitarian reasons. When they returned through an airport or border, the stain of their original unlawful entry was erased.
With the penalty wiped away, a DACA recipient married to a U.S. citizen or who had another way to obtain legal residency could start that process for a green card without delay.
Thursday’s ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals does away with that benefit.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Zach Kahler said the decision confirms a “straightforward principle” that departing the U.S. has meaning.
“The immigration laws enacted by Congress impose consequences when someone who has accrued unlawful presence leaves the country and later seeks admission, including when that departure occurs under advance parole,” he said. “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will ensure that immigration filings are decided based on the laws, regulations, and binding legal precedent that govern each case.”
Immigration attorneys and other advocates quickly convened Thursday to determine how the ruling will affect immigrants.
Tumlin said some DACA recipients can still safely travel with advance parole, while for others — particularly those with deportation orders — it would be too risky to leave. She said DACA recipients should consult an immigration attorney before traveling.
“For over a decade, I could reassure my clients that traveling on Advance Parole was a safe option,” Shilpa Malik, an immigration lawyer in Florida, wrote Thursday on X. “What was once a vital protection is now gone.”
Under the ruling, having the travel document may no longer protect certain DACA recipients when they return from their trips abroad, because leaving could expose them to the years-long ban.
The decision also makes obtaining green cards more difficult. Tumlin said some DACA recipients could qualify for waivers that allow them to avoid the years-long reentry ban, but the waivers are granted under limited circumstances.
The latest federal data show there are 455,000 DACA recipients in the U.S. as of March, with about 126,000 in California.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, 45,447 DACA recipients were approved for advance parole as of Aug. 21, 2017.
About 76,000 DACA recipients had become legal residents as of July 31, 2019, most after marrying a U.S. citizen, according to the research service. It’s unclear how many DACA recipients have obtained advance parole or green cards since then.
Path2Papers, a project at Cornell Law School, analyzed 1,600 consults and estimated that around 60% of DACA recipients would be subject to the 10-year ban.
Republicans have viewed advance parole as an abuse of the immigration system.
The office of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) blasted the provision, saying in 2017 that “the Obama administration allowed thousands of DACA recipients to exploit an immigration law loophole to obtain green cards.”
Last year, Grassley introduced a bill to guarantee that it would no longer be used by immigrants seeking to adjust their legal status. This week’s ruling essentially accomplishes that goal.
The immigration appeals board’s decision applies to future travel. People who previously traveled and returned to the U.S. won’t be affected and could still adjust their immigration status.
Tumlin said Thursday’s decision is yet another effort to change the goalposts for DACA recipients by an administration that has resorted to ending the program “through death by a thousand cuts.”
The Department of Homeland Security has arrested hundreds of immigrants with DACA, and in a February letter to U.S. senators, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency had deported 86 DACA recipients between Jan. 1 and Nov. 19, 2025.
One of those was Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a Sacramento mother who was deported a day after her green card interview. A federal judge later ordered the agency to bring her back to the U.S.
Trump admin ends federal funding for youth trans treatments
The Trump administration ends federal funding for youth gender transition treatments as CMS Chief Dr. Mehmet Oz warns of serious long-term health risks. Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Ira Savetsky joins Ainsley Earhardt to applaud the move, citing a lack of clinical evidence for irreversible surgeries performed on thousands of minors.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Three detransitioners claim they were pressured by doctors and hospitals when they were young to pursue gender transition, including medical treatment in two cases while they were minors, according to a new HHS-commissioned report.
The stories of Clementine Breen, Soren Aldaco and Luke Healy were featured in the Department of Health and Human Services’ “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine” report released on Thursday. The HHS-commissioned report alleges financial incentives encouraged hospitals and doctors to provide gender transition treatments and identifies insurance billing practices that it says may be improper or warrant further investigation.
Breen was only 12 years old and struggling with a changing adolescent body and unresolved trauma from earlier sexual abuse when the then-minor learned about gender transition online. Breen alleges, according to the HHS report, that doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles told Breen’s parents the preteen was “100% trans” and at high risk of suicide without medical intervention.
According to the report, Breen began puberty blockers at 12, testosterone at 13 and underwent a double mastectomy at 14.
HHS OFFICIAL WARNS OF IRREVERSIBLE RISKS AS TRUMP ADMIN RESTRICTS FUNDING FOR YOUTH GENDER PROCEDURES
Three detransitioners claim they were pressured by doctors and hospitals as impressionable teenagers to undergo gender transition treatment. (iStock)
Breen’s mental health later deteriorated, and the teen stopped taking testosterone at 18 after therapy led Breen to conclude that the distress surrounding gender identity was connected to earlier trauma, according to the report. Breen reported experiencing pain and irregular menstrual cycles and requiring estrogen.
When Breen later sought breast reconstruction, doctors questioned the teen’s mental stability, and some stopped responding, according to the report.
“She did not face this same scrutiny when seeking a mastectomy at 14,” the report states. HHS also said Breen discovered letters in the medical record claiming a lifelong history of gender dysphoria.
Now studying theater at UCLA, Breen said in the report that the treatments and surgery continue to have physical consequences.
“How can a child consent to losing fertility or the ability to breastfeed if no one checks whether she even understand what that means?” Breen said.
Aldaco said gender-related distress emerged during adolescence and that online communities framed gender transition as the “appropriate response” to those feelings, according to the report.
After talking to a doctor, Aldaco was prescribed testosterone with several specialists treating the then-teen for gender dysphoria, and the report says Aldaco gave no indication that providers considered alternative treatment options outside what it calls a “sex rejection” model.
Aldaco began taking testosterone before receiving a double mastectomy to remove breast tissue. Aldaco then began suffering severe complications after surgery, causing pain the young person said “I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”
The stories of Clementine Breen, Soren Aldaco and Luke Healy were featured in the Department of Health and Human Services’ “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine” report. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Despite these negative developments, providers did not initiate a structured reassessment of her treatment plan,” the report says, adding that the support received after treatments was insufficient compared to the systems that pushed the life-altering decisions.
“Soren’s experience reflects the imbalance of care for cases like hers,” the report reads. “While her pathway into sex rejection medicalization involved coordinated referrals, approvals, and interventions across multiple providers, the pathway out involved no comparable system of support.”
Healy was just 10 years old when first learning of an online community where adults discussed transgender identities, according to the HHS report.
Within three years, Healy says he came to identify as a girl. After discussing the issue with his parents, Healy was taken to a counselor to talk about it.
“The only people who seriously asked what might have caused his distress were his parents,” the report reads. “Meanwhile, institutional figures … treated his new identity as settled and moved quickly to affirm it.”
“Luke’s parents refused to consent to puberty blockers or hormones while he was still a minor,” the report added. “Luke now describes their refusal as one of the bravest things they ever did.”
Still wanting to be a girl at 18, Healy began pursuing transitioning treatments.
Healy started with estrogen and began receiving consultations for surgical treatments before slowly starting to realize that the treatments were not easing psychological stress.
JD VANCE CALLS ON DOJ TO PROSECUTE ALLEGED FRAUD IN TEEN TRANSGENDER TREATMENT
Doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles told Clementine Breen’s parents pre-teen was “100% trans” and at high risk of suicide without medical intervention. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Each intervention led to pressure for further intervention,” the report reads. “In his view, the model was built around escalation rather than resolution.”
Healy eventually began to question the procedures doctors were recommending.
“One doctor quoted him approximately $200,000 for facial feminization surgery. Another, he says, spoke to him like a car salesman while encouraging tracheal shave,” the report said. “Luke came to realize he was being sold procedures, not psychological help.”
Rather than continuing the efforts to become a girl, Healy focused on battling the substance abuse problems developed during the process, quitting drinking and drugs.
“He recognized the same obsessive, destructive pattern in gender ideology that he had seen in addiction,” the report reads.
-
Idaho1 minute agoA federal judge blocks Idaho from prosecuting doctors for health-protecting abortions
-
Illinois7 minutes agoMan robbed in Chicago, bound and gagged, found on porch in Harvey, police say
-
Indiana13 minutes agoAlanna Smith Top Points vs. Indiana Fever
-
Iowa19 minutes agoQB competition, special teams overhaul among Iowa football’s open questions
-
Kansas25 minutes agoPrairie Village turns crimson and blue for KU Kickoff
-
Kentucky31 minutes agoExplore the Kentucky River Palisades, one of the best-kept secrets of the Bluegrass
-
Louisiana37 minutes agoLouisiana is losing film industry jobs at an alarming rate.
-
Maine43 minutes agoNew changes to federal student loan program affecting Maine students, colleges
