Many atrocities could have been avoided if people were more careful about how far they allowed their humanity to slide. It’s a gradual process and it happens so softly. But this isn’t about avoiding genocide – it’s about avoiding the destruction of our own goodness. Donald Trump has been sowing the seeds of moral decomposition for many years now.

In 2014 he warned attendees of a conservative conference, “You better be smart. They’re taking your jobs. You better be careful.”

During his campaign announcement back in 2015 he said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Drugs, crime, and rape are what these people bring is, I believe, the message.

His abuse of the immigration issue for his own gain has only increased over the years. He claimed that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and more recently, that immigrants are conquering entire towns and that our country is known around the world as occupied. In the presidential debate he shouted, “They’re eating the dogs!”

Regrettably, studies have demonstrated that this sort of rhetoric has a very real impact on how people relate to what they perceive to be outsiders. But we don’t need psychological studies to tell us this – there are too many historical examples of rhetoric like this being used to manipulate regular people into rationalizing dehumanizing attitudes and practices toward fellow humans, particularly immigrants.

Of course, the bulk of the consequences for these types of attitude shifts are suffered by the target groups, but we should not ignore the consequences that it has on the manipulated. Most importantly, because it turns us into bad people and it causes our hearts to grow callous toward the suffering of others – people who tell funny stories at family gatherings, feel pride in the accomplishments of their children, enjoy colorful sunsets, and like playing with, not grilling, puppies.

For many decades since the Supreme Court’s 1982 Plyler v Doe decision, it has been taken for granted as obvious that we should not deny a free K-12 public education to children living illegally in the US. But as far-right rhetoric has increased, so have the voices who would wish to overturn Plyler v Doe. There is a growing movement for states to introduce tuition requirements for undocumented children with the explicit purpose of bringing the issue to our conservative Supreme Court. As compassionate people, this should sound like several steps too far – they’re just kids. When innocent children are involved, our response to concerns about resources should be to increase the resources, not kick the children to the curb.

It’s entirely legitimate to criticize particular border policies such as how many immigrants are allowed into the country. It’s a more sinister step to think of them as undeserving of basic human decency. As we’ve seen in our species’ short history, that’s a quick way to justify repugnant behaviors toward the target population.

I’m sure many people wouldn’t think of themselves or Trump as dehumanizing immigrants in their criticisms. But what else could it be when some think that they don’t deserve any resources at all or when some agree with the sentiment behind calling them criminals and animals.

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Earlier this month, Trump said, “How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States. You know now a murder, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”

In 1986 Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act which made it illegal for hospitals to refuse treatment for emergencies because of legal status or ability to pay. Perhaps this most recent wave of anti-immigrant sentiment will soon extend to complaining about immigrants being given emergency care even though they’re not US citizens and they have no health insurance.

Some may be OK with the dystopian image of illegal immigrant mothers giving birth on hospital steps or illegal immigrant fathers dying very quietly at home. They are immigrants after all – not real Americans, the thinking goes, and our hard-earned tax dollars should be spent on our own.

Be careful about how far you let your humanity slide.

Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group.