We live in times eerily reminiscent of the 1930s, when storm clouds gathered over Europe and "America First" was the rallying cry of isolationists.
There were rough beasts everywhere. In the US, golden boy Charles Lindbergh was an admirer of all things fascist, abetted by the influential Fr Charles Coughlin, a notorious anti-Semite who regularly gave the Nazi salute.
Their impact could be seen in the sainted FDR’s incarceration of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor because of security hysteria and simple racism.
A few generations later and the right is gaining all over Europe – and the US is back to the battle cry of America First.
That same type of hatred toward the Japanese is now being marshalled towards undocumented immigrants, including some 50,000 Irish.
"It is going to be bad. It is going to be much worse than any recent time," says former congressman Bruce Morrison, author of the Morrison visa programme and an expert on immigration issues.
Speaking to Irish Voice, Morrison has a warning for the Irish. "People thought that Donald Trump's immigration positions weren't about Irish people. They thought he was speaking about Mexicans. They're going to find out otherwise, that his actions affect everyone."
Minor offences – speeding tickets, jaywalking, anything that brings one to the attention of the authorities – can now be classified as deportable offences.
Such indiscretions were ignored by every president since Ronald Reagan in order to focus on criminal aliens.
But Trump's White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, has made it clear that the new executive orders are intended to "take the shackles off" law enforcement.
Extorting immigrants
The impact is already evident. In Queens, New York, bogus immigration officials are extorting money from poor immigrants, saying they won’t arrest them if they pay up.
Victims of domestic assault are not reporting cases after a woman in Texas was arrested when she tried to give witness to an assault on her. Her abusive boyfriend made the call.
Irish immigration centres say the undocumented no longer attend helpful seminars and events. Instead, they are burrowing deep, trying desperately to keep attention off themselves. It is a scared and panicked community.
The centres talk about undocumented married couples who are divorcing each other in order to marry someone else in order to obtain a green card.
Others are giving up on American life, taking kids out of schools to return home, deserting businesses they have built because future prospects are so uncertain.
Year after year for two decades, the Irish, like other ethnic groups, had waited and worked for immigration reform.
When it finally comes, it is a severe blow, one of harsh enforcement only. Dreams of a safe life in in the US, like generations before them, lie shattered.
Living in the shadows was just about bearable when there was hope of reform. Now they know they could be detained at any time.
The “America Firsters” had powerful clout in the 1930s. Unlike today, however, they never actually grabbed the reins of power.
But President Donald Trump is packing the White House with nativists such as Steve Bannon, who sees the world as a battle of white bwanas vs coloured infidels.
Undocumented immigrants are high on their bull’s eye. They don’t blink at spending $20 billion for a wall on the Mexican border and $5 billion for 10,000 new immigration and customs enforcement agents.
Republican fiscal discipline is apparently moot when it comes to deporting dark-skinned folks.
Trump has taken a leaf from the FDR internment notebook, banning Muslims from seven countries and introducing draconian new immigration measures. Many who voted for him thought he would moderate in power.
Instead, he has doubled down on bigotry, proudly flaunting his “America First” doctrine and surrounding himself with hardline acolytes. The inevitable consequence is an attack on those who are not American, or who don’t look like him.
Can-do caring?
The president is picking on the weakest and most vulnerable with a bullyboy swagger that has earned him a devoted following in the heartland – that mythical land of American patriotism and “can-do” caring.
The noble Trump voter in the heartland is a dangerous fallacy. Let’s face it: to vote for Donald Trump, you had to accept his lies, his fake university, his sexual pawing of women, his pledge to ban all Muslims, his racism towards Mexicans, his threats to silence the media.
It is a short step from that to accepting his wishes to drive all undocumented immigrants out of America.
Strange to say, there is a magnificent side to this repression. The US court system spoke loud and clear, making Trump’s first immigration edict unworkable.
And millions have taken to the streets over the past month to make clear that he is not their president.
Thousands are showing up at the open houses of Republican congress members, demanding answers similar to what the Tea Party demanded from the right during the Obama era.
Trump has assumed that a 46 per cent vote share gives him a sweeping mandate to enact his hateful policies. That remains to be seen.
The best do not lack conviction in opposing him, but there are at least three years and 11 months to go– and that is presuming he does not win a second term. Will their outrage last it out?
Make no mistake: This is a fight for the future of America.
Niall O'Dowd is the founder of Irish Voice newspaper, Irish America Magazine and Irish Central website based in New York. He is also the founder of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.