Name it an accident, name it the plan. However don’t stoop to the reprehensible gaslighting of calling it a lie: It’s proven fact that federal brokers have detained and arrested dozens, if not a whole lot, of United States residents as a part of immigration sweeps, no matter what Kristi Noem would love us to imagine.
Throughout a congressional listening to Thursday, Noem, our secretary of Homeland Safety and self-appointed Cruelty Barbie, reiterated her oft-used and patently false line that solely the worst of the worst are being focused by immigration authorities. That comes after weeks of her division posting on-line, on its ever-more far-right social media accounts, that claims of Americans being rounded up and held incommunicado are “pretend information” or a “hoax.”
“Cease fear-mongering. ICE does NOT arrest or deport U.S. residents,” Homeland Safety not too long ago posted on the previous Twitter.
Tuesday, at a unique congressional listening to, a handful of residents — together with two Californians — advised their tales of being grabbed by faceless masked males and being whisked away to holding cells the place they had been denied entry to telephones, attorneys, medicines and a wide range of different authorized rights.
Their testimony accompanied the discharge of a congressional report by the Senate’s Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations through which 22 Americans, together with a dozen from the Golden State, advised their very own surprising, terrifying tales of manhandling and detentions by what can solely be described as secret police — armed brokers who wouldn’t determine themselves and sometimes appeared to lack fundamental coaching required for secure city policing.
These tales and the brave Individuals who’re stepping ahead to inform them are historical past within the making — a historical past I hope we remorse however not neglect.
Immigration enforcement, boosted by unprecedented quantities of funding, is about to ramp up much more. Noem and her brokers are reveling in impunity, trying to erase and rewrite actuality as they go — whereas our Supreme Court docket crushes precedent and customary sense to additional empower this presidency. Till the midterms, there may be little hope of any test on energy.
Beneath these circumstances, for these people to place their tales on the file is each an act of bravery and patriotism, as a result of they now know higher than most what it means to have the chaotic brutality of this administration targeted on them. It’s incumbent upon the remainder of us to listen to them, and protest peacefully not solely rights being trampled, however our authorities demanding we imagine lies.
“I’ve at all times mentioned that immigrants who’re given the nice privilege of turning into residents are additionally a few of the most patriotic folks on this nation. I do know you all love your nation. I really like our nation, and this isn’t the America that we imagine in or that we fought so onerous for. Each particular person, each U.S. citizen, has rights,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Lengthy Seashore) mentioned because the listening to started.
L.A. native Andrea Velez, whose detention was reported on by my colleagues when it occurred, was a type of placing herself on the road to testify.
Lower than 5 toes tall, Velez is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona who was working within the garment district in June when ICE started its raids. Her mother and teenage sister had simply dropped her off when masked males swarmed out of unmarked automobiles and commenced chasing brown folks. Velez didn’t know what was taking place, however when one man charged her, she held up her work bag in protection. The bag didn’t shield her. Neither did her telling the brokers she is a U.S. citizen.
“He handcuffed me with out checking my ID. They ignored me as I repeated it many times that I’m a U.S. citizen,” she advised committee members. “They didn’t care.”
Velez, nonetheless not sure who the person was who compelled her into an SUV, managed to open the door and run to an LAPD officer, begging for assist. However when the masked man observed she was unfastened, he “ran up screaming, ‘She’s mine’” the congressional report says.
The police officer despatched her again to the unmarked automotive, starting a 48-hour ordeal that ended along with her being charged with assault of a federal officer — costs finally dropped after her lawyer demanded physique digital camera footage and alleged witness statements. (The minority employees report was launched by Rep. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations.)
“I by no means imagined this could be occurring, right here, in America,” Velez advised lawmakers. “DHS likes … to model us as criminals, stripping us of our dignity. They need to paint us because the worst of the worst, however the reality is, we’re human beings with no felony file.”
This if-you’re-brown-you’re-going-down tactic is more likely to develop into extra frequent as a result of it’s now authorized.
In Noem vs. Vasquez Perdomo, a September courtroom determination, Supreme Court docket Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that it was affordable for officers to cease individuals who seemed international and had been engaged in actions related to undocumented folks — equivalent to soliciting work at a Dwelling Depot or attending a Spanish-language occasion, so long as authorities “promptly” let the particular person go in the event that they show citizenship. These at the moment are often called “Kavanaugh stops.”
Disregarding how racist and problematic that coverage is, “promptly” appears to be up for debate.
Javier Ramirez, born in San Bernardino, testified as “a proud American citizen who has by no means identified the burden of a felony file.”
He’s a father of three who was working at his automotive lot in June when he observed an odd SUV idling on his non-public property with a bunch of males inside. When he approached, they jumped out, armed with assault weapons, and grabbed him.
“This was a terrifying state of affairs,” Ramirez mentioned. However then it received worse.
One of many males yelled, “Get him. He’s Mexican!”
On video shot by a bystander, Javier will be heard shouting, “I’ve my passport!” in response to the congressional report, however the brokers didn’t care. When Ramirez requested why they had been holding him, an agent advised him, “We’re attempting to determine that out.”
Like Velez, Ramirez was put in detention. A extreme diabetic, he was denied medicine till he turned critically sick, he advised investigators. Although he requested for a lawyer, he was not allowed to contact one — however the interrogation continued.
After his launch, 5 days later, he needed to search additional medical therapy. He, too, was charged with assault of a federal agent, together with obstruction and resisting arrest. The bogus costs had been additionally later dropped.
“I mustn’t should reside in concern of being focused merely for the colour of my pores and skin or the opposite language I converse,” he advised the committee. “I share my story not only for myself, however for everybody who has been unjustly handled, for these whose voice has been silenced.”
You realize the poem, people. It begins when “they got here” for the susceptible. Fortunately, although folks equivalent to Ramirez and Velez could also be susceptible resulting from their pigmentation, they don’t seem to be meek and so they gained’t be silenced. Our democracy, our security as a nation of legal guidelines, relies on not simply listening to their tales, but additionally standing peacefully in opposition to such abuses of energy.
As a result of these abuses solely finish when the folks resolve they’ve had sufficient — not simply of the lawlessness, however of the lies that empower it.
