Innocence Seized by Evil
Trump's Gestapo-like forces hit new lows in Minnesota and Texas; suburban Detroit mayor draws red line: 'Fuck that."
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I BRING YOU three disturbing stories about President Trump’s deportation army and his war on undocumented immigrants, documented immigrants, and U.S. citizens who look like immigrants.
Story #1
LOOK AT THIS PICTURE of innocence seized by evil.
That boy in the baby-blue, flappy-eared hat is 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, taken into custody by Trump’s immigration agents as he returned home from preschool on Thursday in Columbia Heights, Minn.
He’s one of at least four children arrested — some might say kidnapped — by ICE agents from the same suburban school district this month.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” said Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public Schools district in suburban Minneapolis. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
The Washington Post story reads like an account from 1930s Germany:
Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, whom the Department of Homeland Security identified as Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias in an emailed statement, were detained in their driveway Tuesday afternoon, just as they were returning from the child’s preschool, according to a news release from Columbia Heights Public Schools.
The father fled on foot when ICE officers approached him, DHS said. “For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” it added.
After detaining the father, ICE officers then asked Liam to knock on the door to see if any other people were inside the home, “using a 5-year-old as bait,” according to the school district.”
Another adult living in the home who was outside at the time, ‘begged the agents’ to leave the child with them, the school district said. ICE agents refused.
Liam’s middle-school-aged brother returned home 20 minutes later to find that his younger brother and father had been taken away.”
Liam and his father are now in San Antonio in the custody of Homeland Security authorities, the family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said in an email. They are not U.S. citizens but ‘have been following the legal process perfectly, from presenting themselves at the border to applying for asylum and waiting for the process to go through,’ he said.
Story #2
GERALDO LUNAS CAMPOS, a 55-year-old Cuban man detained at one of Trump’s immigration detention camps, died during an interaction with guards after being placed into solitary confinement, according to the government. On Wednesday, the El Paso medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.
“Based on the investigative and examination findings, it is my opinion that the cause of death is asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” ruled Adam C. Gonzalez, deputy medical examiner for El Paso County. Lunas Campos is one of at least three men to die in the last two months at Camp East Montana, the largest ICE detention center in the country.
The administration claims Lunas Campos tried to kill himself and died while guards tried to save him. Do you believe that? A fellow detainee, Santos Jesus Flores, said in a phone interview last week that he saw guards choking Lunas Campos and heard Lunas Campos repeatedly saying, “No puedo respirar” — Spanish for “I can’t breathe.”
The Trump administration has taken steps to deport Flores and one other detainee who provided an eyewitness account, both of whom have criminal convictions.
Silence the witnesses. This, too, feels like 1930s Germany.
Story #3
THE MAYOR OF Michigan’s fourth-largest city, a former Republican, accused Trump’s ICE deportation agents of “terrorizing” peaceful communities and pledged to defy “those monsters.”
Sterling Heights Mayor Michael Taylor, a political independent, gave a fierce, 22-minute speech centered on three individuals who were passengers in a vehicle that was stopped by Sterling Heights police on Jan. 9, the Detroit News reports. The three people didn’t have proper documentation to be in the U.S. and were held by local police until they were picked up by Border Patrol agents, Taylor said.
“I’ve been mayor for the last 11 years. I’ve been on the city council for 16 years,” Taylor said. “During that period of time, I haven’t taken a strong interest in what the police department does because my assumption is that we have a functioning society, we have a functioning federal government, we have a federal government made up of people who care about the rights of the people in this country.”
“I can say with complete certainty that is not the case anymore,” he said. “The current regime does not care about the Constitution. The current regime does not care about the laws.”
Citing ICE’s abuse of power and excessive force in communities across the country, Taylor said he was opposed to turning over anyone who is not a criminal and who is existing peacefully in Sterling Heights to "those monsters."
Asked whether he feared speaking out would make his Detroit suburb Trump’s next target, Taylor told The News, “Fuck that. That is not courage. That is not leadership. That’s not taking decisive action. That’s being a coward.”
Watch this space. Sterling Heights, Mich., may be the next city invaded by Trump’s army.
THIS FREE NEWSLETTER contains stories pulled from today’s “Morning Read-In,” a daily pre-dawn feature for paid subscribers. The MRI also included stories on:
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