DEARBORN — Many local residents fear that a day may soon come where in a Trump world, government officials will “round up all the Muslims” as a preventive measure to stop terrorism. 

But On ABC’s new scripted series “Designated Survivor”, that day is already here.

During the second episode of the Kiefer Sutherland-led drama, Dearborn was branded as a hub for “radical Islam.”

In a plot that expanded over a two-episode arc, the governor of Michigan orders a crackdown on Muslim residents, especially those residing in Dearborn.

Sutherland plays President Tom Kirkman, who condemns the governor’s unconstitutional actions.

“I have the largest Muslim population in the country here,” the governor tells the president over the phone.

 “That doesn’t mean they are doing anything wrong or that they’ve been radicalized,” Kirkman snaps back.

Kirkman, previously secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, became president through the line of succession after an attack on the Capitol during the State of the Union. The governor, whom Kirkman subsequently had arrested on charges of treason, had Dearborn Muslims rounded up before anyone knew who was responsible for the attack.

A subplot implies evidence may have been planted to point the finger at a particular group and an FBI agent investigates why a senator who survived wasn’t in his seat at the time of the attack.

The series also depicted the Dearborn Police Department in negative terms— as an aggressive force that brutalizes its citizens.

Some might argue that depiction might not be that far off— as the department continues to shrug off two incidents where officers shot and killed unarmed African Americans late last year and early this year.

The department is still in the center of two ongoing investigations, as well as a lawsuit and an interception from the Department of Justice, following those shootings.

But that reality is nowhere matched with the fictional depicted of the city in the series.

The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani was the first to speak out about the dangerous precedent the series could potentially set, in an interview with ABC’s local affiliate, WXYZ, earlier this month.

Westland Mayor Bill Wild followed that up with an op-ed published in the Detroit Free Press titled “Designated Survivor gets Dearborn all wrong.”

“I realize this is just a TV show and dramatic license is taken to heighten the drama and garner viewers and therefore not meant to be taken as factual,” Wild wrote. “However, it is using controversial topics and widely held stereotypes to reinforce the drama depicted in the show. This only reinforces these beliefs and does nothing to dampen the tensions that exist in this county over these issues.”

But other than Siblani’s and Wild’s condemnation of the show, no other community leaders or civil rights groups denounced the Dearborn-related plot line.

In an interview with The AANews, Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly said that the city wasn’t warned about the plotline.

The mayor wrote a letter to Kinberg Genre, the production companies of the series, but is deliberating on taking any further action.

“They are not talking about our city, they are talking about a fictional one,” O’Reilly said. “They just don’t get it. It’s terrible for us. The people who live in the area around us, they know none of that is true. I don’t think we have any great danger that people around us think something is going on. But there are people out there that don’t realize this is purely entertainment.”

O’Reilly said in previous years when the Muslim community was misconstrued in Dearborn, the mayor’s office was flooded with outcries from community members to address the issue.

Recent examples include Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones protesting against an imaginary Sharia Law and a report that the city had the second largest number of residents on a “terror watch list” across the country.

But O’Reilly noted that this time around, he didn’t hear a peep from the community.

“So now, the issue becomes do we just make it worse by bringing traction to it?” O’Reilly said. “I don’t want to turn it into a national debate unless it requires it. We can do it to make ourselves feel good. But does it change anything? We can’t sue them because they aren’t libeling us.”

O’Reilly said he wished the producers would’ve used a fictional name for a city with a high concentration of Muslims, rather than Dearborn, but acknowledged that the episodes have already aired and there’s no turning back.

He added that an over-the-top plotline where almost every public official in Washington D.C. gets wiped out clearly indicates, “The show is not factual or intending to be factual.”

In a statement to The AANews, City Council President Susan Dabaja also condemned the Dearborn sub-plot on the program.

“‘Designated Survivor’ does not represent our community,” said Dabaja. “This is a misleading and unfair depiction of Dearborn. Given our current political climate, television producers and networks should be more responsible and reconsider what they label as entertainment.”

The series appears to be a huge hit for TV audiences and an even bigger hit on DVR. ABC has noted that “Designated Survivor” is the highest rated in on-demand viewing, beating popular and well established shows such as “Empire”, “The Voice” and “The Big Bang Theory.”

Just one week after its series premiere, ABC ordered a full season of the drama. “Designated Survivor” airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.