Call it an accident, call it a plan. But don't stoop to the reprehensible gaslighting of calling it a lie: It is a fact that federal agents have detained and arrested dozens, if not hundreds, of United States citizens as part of immigration sweeps, no matter what Kristi Noem would have us believe.
During a congressional hearing on Thursday, Noem, our Secretary of Homeland Security and self-proclaimed Brutal Barbie, repeated her oft-used and demonstrably false position that immigration authorities only target the worst of the worst. It comes after her department spent weeks posting online on its increasingly far-right social media accounts that claims that American citizens were being rounded up and held incommunicado were “fake news” or a “hoax.”
“Stop the fearmongering. ICE DOES NOT arrest or deport US citizens,” Department of Homeland Security. recently publishedd on former Twitter.
At another congressional hearing Tuesday, several citizens, including two Californians, told their stories of being grabbed by faceless masked men and taken to holding cells where they were denied access to phones, lawyers, medicine and a host of other legal rights.
Their testimony accompanied the release report of the Congressional Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in which 22 American citizens, including a dozen from the Golden State, told their own shocking and terrifying stories of abuse and detention by what can only be called the secret police – armed agents who did not identify themselves and often appeared to lack the basic training needed to safely police cities.
These stories, and the brave Americans who step forward to tell them, are history in the making, a history I hope we regret but not forget.
The immigration service, strengthened by unprecedented levels of funding, is set to become even stronger. Noem and her agents revel in impunity, attempting to erase and rewrite the reality in their path, while our Supreme Court destroys precedents and common sense to further expand the powers of this President. There is little hope of any curbs on power before the midterm elections.
In these circumstances, for these men to put their stories on record is both an act of bravery and patriotism, because they now know better than most what it means to have the chaotic brutality of this administration centered on them. The rest of us have a responsibility to hear them and peacefully protest not only that rights are being trampled upon, but that our government is asking us to believe lies.
“I have always said that immigrants, who have the great privilege of becoming citizens, are also some of the most patriotic people in this country. I know you all love your country. I love our country, and this is not the America we believe in or that we fought so hard for. Every person, every American citizen has rights,” the Rep. said. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said as the hearing began.
Los Angeles native Andrea Velez the arrest of which was reported by my colleagues when it happenedwas one of those who risked testifying.
Less than 5 feet tall, Velez is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona and was working in the garment district in June when ICE began its raids. Her mom and teenage sister had just dropped her off when masked men poured out of unmarked cars and began chasing brown people. Velez didn't know what was going on, but when one man accused her, she held up her work bag in defense. The bag didn't protect her. She also did not tell agents that she was a US citizen.
“He handcuffed me without checking my ID. They ignored me because I repeated over and over again that I was a US citizen,” she told committee members. “They didn't care.”
Velez, still confused about who the man was who forced her into the SUV, managed to open the door and run toward the LAPD officer, pleading for help. But when the masked man noticed that she was free, he “ran up shouting: “She’s mine!” congressional report speaks.
The police officer sent her back to the unmarked car, beginning a 48-hour ordeal that ended with her being charged with assault on a federal officer—charges that were eventually dropped after her lawyer demanded body camera footage and alleged witness statements. (The minority report was released by Rep. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.)
“I never imagined this would happen here in America,” Velez told lawmakers. “The Department of Homeland Security likes… to brand us as criminals, stripping us of our dignity. They want to paint us as the worst of the worst, but the truth is that we are people with no criminal record.”
This “if you're brown, you're going down” tactic is likely to become more common because it's now legal.
In the September decision Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that it was reasonable for the officers stop people who look foreign and engaged in activities related to undocumented people, such as finding work at a home improvement store or attending Spanish-language events, under the condition that authorities would “promptly” release the person if they proved citizenship. These are now known as “Kavanaugh stops.”
Despite how racist and problematic this policy is, the word “immediately” seems to be up for debate.
Javier Ramirez, who was born in San Bernardino, testified as “a proud American citizen who has never known the severity of a criminal record.”
He is the father of three children. In June, he was working in his parking lot when he noticed a strange SUV idling on his private property with a bunch of men inside. As he approached, they jumped out armed with assault weapons and grabbed him.
“It was a horrific situation,” Ramirez said. But then it got even worse.
One of the men shouted, “Pull him down. He's a Mexican!”
In the video taken by a bystander, Javier can be heard shouting, “I have a passport!” according to the congressional report, but the agents didn't care. When Ramirez asked why they were keeping him, the agent told him, “We're trying to figure it out.”
Like Velez, Ramirez was taken into custody. He told investigators he had severe diabetes and was denied treatment until he became seriously ill. Although he asked for a lawyer, he was not allowed to contact him, but the interrogation continued.
After his release, five days later, he had to seek medical help. He was also charged with assault on a federal agent and with hindering and resisting arrest. The false charges were later dropped.
“I should not have to live in fear of being persecuted simply because of the color of my skin or the different language I speak.” he told the committee. “I share my story not only for myself, but for everyone who has been treated unfairly, for those whose voices have been silenced.”
You know poemloved ones. It begins when “they came” for the vulnerable. Fortunately, while people like Ramirez and Velez may be vulnerable because of their pigmentation, they are not meek and will not be silenced. Our democracy, our safety as a nation of laws, depends not only on hearing their stories, but on standing up peacefully to such abuses of power.
Because these abuses end only when people decide that they have had enough – not only of the lawlessness, but also of the lies that reinforce it.
