Opinion: This election is our chance to end governance by cruelty

As a physician, I was trained to triage: to look out for those in greatest need and take care of them first.

I entered public service because I believe government should be guided by the same principle.

But over the past two years, I’ve watched in horror as Trump and his MAGA enablers in Congress abandoned that fundamental responsibility. They’ve poured billions of dollars into a callous deportation machine while simultaneously gutting healthcare and food assistance for people already struggling to survive.

This is causing real pain in our community, including among people I represent as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

Across America and right here in Southern Arizona, children have watched masked ICE agents take their parents away. Families have been separated, often without any opportunity to make plans for the children left behind. Kids and babies have been denied legal representation in immigration court. Even American citizens have been trapped in immigration operations.

These are not isolated instances, and the numbers prove it.

According to estimates from the Brookings Institution, more than 205,000 children — including 145,000 kids who are U.S. citizens — have had one parent detained in Trump’s immigration blitz. And more than 35,000 children — 22,000 of whom are citizens — have had both parents detained.

Recent reporting from ProPublica has shown that 506 U.S. citizens have been detained by immigration agents, including at least 70 children and teenagers. Roughly a dozen citizens have been deported, most of whom are children.

Federal immigration agents have shot at least 25 people. They’ve killed six, including three U.S. citizens.

Americans are being subjected to fear and trauma by the very government that is supposed to protect us.

The Trump administration has disregarded constitutionally mandated protections, due process and basic human decency. In doing so, it’s destroying people’s lives.

But Republicans in Congress, including Southern Arizona’s Juan Ciscomani, have poured a staggering $240 billion into immigration enforcement. At the same time, they’ve massively cut support for the most vulnerable in our communities.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in 2025, will reduce Medicaid spending by approximately $1.2 trillion and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending by $211 billion from 2026 through 2035.

Those cuts are making life harder for people who are already struggling under the skyrocketing cost of living in America in 2026.

Medicaid ensures children can see a doctor when they’re sick. It means seniors can receive lifesaving care. It guarantees that working parents can get treatment before a treatable medical condition becomes an emergency.

And SNAP puts food on the table. It means kids go to school to focus on learning rather than their grumbling stomachs.

Here in Pima County, these programs are lifelines for families who are already doing everything they can to make ends meet. But those lifelines are being severed.

As of May, SNAP enrollment in Arizona was down by more than 457,000 people , including nearly 196,000 children.

This is the opposite of triage. It’s governance by cruelty.

And even more grotesque, as it cut support for those who most need it, the administration has slashed taxes for the wealthiest and handed lucrative contracts to billionaires in moves that will only widen the wealth disparity in our country.

Every one of us deserves a government that first and foremost serves the people and takes care of those in greatest need.

The Trump administration and its Congressional allies’ priorities and approach to governance demand urgent reconsideration. I hope, like me, you’ll keep the tragic consequences of the Trump policies in mind when you vote in the Nov. 3 election.