Harry Stoltz is a fourth-year pure mathematics major at UCR. Harry is looking forward to pursuing a PhD in mathematics. He is the Vice President of the Pacific Math Alliance chapter at UCR. You can contact him at his email: hstol001@ucr.edu.
(This piece was shortened to fit publishing requirements in the Highlander. Read the full letter at sites.google.com/view/ucletter.)
We, the undersigned, are concerned students, faculty and alumni in California’s University of California (UC) system. Our 10 campuses are home to 295,573 students, 25,000 faculty members and over 2 million alumni. We are committed to protecting our diverse community and are deeply concerned about the future of our country.
The state of California is uniquely positioned to act as a bulwark against the upcoming Trump administration. We continue to be the world’s fifth largest economy and our cultural impact is larger than that of most countries.
As such, we must use this opportunity to present an alternative to the Trump administration. Our next President has derided immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,” promotes misinformation about vaccines and after refusing to concede the 2020 election, led what scholars characterize as an attempted insurrection. We have a federal system in the United States — individual states have broad autonomy, and we need to embolden our leaders to use the power granted to them by our Constitution. It is encouraging to see that Gov. Newsom has already called a special session in the California state legislature to “safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.” It is critical to show our support.
Erosion of Democracy
Prior to the 2020 election, the Trump campaign promoted misinformation surrounding mail-in voting. In a Sept. 29 debate with then-candidate Joe Biden, Trump said, “This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen.” On the night of the election, President Trump took to television and claimed the election had been stolen from him. In fact, Trump has claimed fraud in every election for the last eight years: 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and now again in 2024.
Ahead of Jan. 6, the date when Congress certified the electoral votes, Trump’s administration organized false slates of electors and sent them to seven state capitols in key swing-states to create chaos. The Former President urged his own Vice President, Mike Pence, to reject the real electors sent to congress and to violate the Electoral Count Act. When it became clear that Pence would not comply, Former President Trump instigated 10,000 of his supporters to break into Capitol grounds, and 800 supporters to enter the building. The ensuing violence resulted in the deaths of six people and hundreds injured — including an officer who had his eye gouged out by a rioter. Ultimately, the Jan. 6 attacks delayed the certification of the vote by multiple hours and 147 Republican lawmakers in the house voted “no” on certification.
Instead of denouncing the rioters, Trump has embraced them. Last year, he recorded a rendition of the national anthem, “Justice for All,” with a group of rioters sentenced to prison time for their role in the insurrection. Trump has said he will pardon the rioters, and calls it “a day of love.” To put it bluntly, this is disqualifying behavior for a president.
Mass Deportations
Some of the most pernicious attacks by Donald Trump have been directed at the millions of undocumented immigrants who live in the United States. It is estimated that over 1.85 million reside in California, and at least 600 are enrolled in the UC system. In fact, the state of California hosts one in five of the nation’s undocumented students. In 2015, Trump famously launched his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals.” Since then, Trump has continued this rhetoric and now plans to enact a wide-ranging plan for mass deportation.
This plan should not be taken lightly — at Trump rallies, supporters wave signs with the slogan “Mass Deportation Now!” His running mate, JD Vance, has suggested that a second Trump administration would remove one million people per year. Needless to say, this would devastate one of our most vulnerable communities — one that already faces rising hate crimes.
Gov. Newsom needs to leverage his authority as governor to make clear that California will not stand for these attacks. We already have some of the most prominent sanctuary cities in the nation, which protect undocumented persons from raids and arrests conducted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Gov. Newsom needs to make clear that California would not comply with Trump’s plans to tear apart families and deport people who are responsible for generating $151 billion of our GDP (~5% of California’s economy).
Conclusion
California is uniquely situated to combat the incoming Trump administration. We, the undersigned, hope that this letter has sufficiently outlined some of the ways in which Californians will be affected. We believe that California needs to act as an alternative for the country. Trump’s dark and divisive actions as President, as a candidate and as a convicted felon, need to be contrasted with forward-looking and empathetic leadership.
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