Chill

**UPDATE: please see the end of this post for evidence of my precience.

Since the newest White House administration, there have been shocking revelations every other day. And startling or dismaying revelations every few hours. I AM NOT exaggerating. But in the past two days I have seen things about my government that have given me chills of dread. The prickling fear of understanding what it’s like to watch one’s own country capitulate to a fascist leader.

We heard about the abduction and detainment of Mahmoud Khalil with shock. This student with a green card, married to a pregnant US citizen, was captured by ICE and currently remains behind bars for participating in student protests about Israeli government action in Palestine, which ICE calls support for Hamas terrorists. We heard that universities were issuing declarations to their students cautioning them not to upset the administration because they could/would not protect them. This is an example of what I mean by shocking, but not yet to the level of chilling.

When I then SAW a similar action filmed, that’s when it became chilling. The video above was captured by an angry bystander, challenging what he saw. You can hear his voice asking, “Is this a kidnapping?” He demands, “Why are you wearing masks?” One of the people looks up at him and says, “We are police.” To which the person videoing says, “How do I know you are police?”

Ms. Osturk had been walking alone on the sidewalk in Massachusetts, minding her own business. She is grabbed, her backpack is pulled off her, she jumps in fright and tries to resist, but is quickly surrounded by about eight people in sweatpants and hoodies and masks – no identification at all, and she is forcibly pushed into an unmarked SUV parked nearby. She has no chance. Her attorney, friends, and family had no idea where she was for the next 27 hours. Lets hope they fed her, because she had been on her way to break her Ramadan fast.

The next day, it comes out that a court issued an emergency ruling to the government not to take her out of the state. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirms that she was indeed taken out of the state and is currently being held in a detention center in Lousisiana, 2000 miles away, and that her legal student Visa has been revoked because she lied about her intent to enter the US. He accuses her of supporting terrorists because she was a co-author of an opinion piece last year, asking the college to divest from organizations that oppress Palestinians. In other words, Rubio’s claim is that her intent all along was to support Hamas while in the US, that’s the lie that he invented. He says that without a Visa, they will now deport her to Turkey.

Watching this video made me break into a cold sweat. Remember that poem, “First they came for…?”

We heard about the rounding up of so-called Venezuelan gang members with shock. The US abducted 238 people they said were members of a gang, that they identified by their tattoos. These tattoos have been identified by familiy members who spotted them on TV as including a ribbon for autism, a hummingbird, a palm tree, and one admiring Michael Jordan. One of the 238 is a 14-year old boy. None of them received due process of law, no proof was given, no specific charges. They are currently detained in a famous prison in El Salvador, called CECOT, despite judges imposing a ruling that the planes must turn around and return them to the US. Trump used a 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify his actions, stating that the US is at war. Furthermore, Trump was mad about that legal ruling, and has since taken action to try to get that judge impeached (as well as revoked the clearances of multiple other judges to prevent them from practicing – but that’s a different story). This is an example of what I call shocking, but not the level of chilling.

Then I saw a commercial by Kristi Noem, who had flown to El Salvador to participate in this production. She stands in front of a cell, three stories high and filled with shirtless men, who have had their heads shaved. There are 80 to a cell, they are not allowed to talk. Likely they are happy to be filmed, in case their families can identify them, because they are not in touch. This despicable creature who only recently horrified many by proudly telling the story in her biography of how she shot her own puppy for being what she called “untrainable,” is now proudly standing in front of human chattel. My blood went cold.

“This is what you could face,” she tells the camera. “This facility is a tool in our toolkit that we will use against you if you commit crimes against the American people.”

What are the crimes? Who knows. They were not charged, nor was any evidence submitted. There could be American citizens in the bunch- no one checked. What if Kristi Noem commits crimes against an American citizen – what would HER punishment be?

The creation of this production, and her unflinching pride in standing there, horrifies me. A SOCIAL MEDIA COMMERCIAL!!!!

A person of authority in my own government stands there in front of oppressed human beings who were illegally abducted and put into a cage with no warning. Humans of any kind – including illegal aliens if any of them meet this criteria – have the right in the United States to due process of law. They have the right to know the crime they are accused of and to see the evidence of it and have a chance to respond. These people had no such thing.

She wears a $50,000 Rolex 18-ct gold watch, and has the audacity to make threats to those who are watching her. She is disgusting. I am revolted and terrified. This is my government now.

Here’s one final thought: German, Canadian, Mexican, Welsh, French, Iraqi and American citizens have recently been detained and held and questioned at the US border for no apparent reason. One I heard of was in solitary confinement for a week. Others held for hours, for weeks, while their cell phones were scoured, while they were not allowed to speak to attorneys or family. I am currently planning an out of the country trip in one month and despite this, I am posting this blog post. It is my version of activism. I will take some precautions, like erasing things from my devices when I begin my travel, but I realize that my perspective and my big loud mouth puts me in danger right now. Though I am increasingly living in fear, I refuse to change my behavior due to that fear.

**UPDATE: 4-2-25. Just want to say that yesterday, when I heard on the news that a mistake had been made and one of the so-called Venuzuelan gang members turned out to be a legal resident of Maryland and father who has had protected status in the United States since 2019, I shouted into the Jeep: “I knew it!! I knew it.” Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador native, has sued Kristi Noem (YES!) via his attorney, which is the only reason we even heard about him. The lawsuit says, “But defendants found those legal procedures bothersome, so they merely ignored them and deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador anyway, ripping him away from his U.S.-citizen wife and his disabled U.S.-citizen child.”

The Trump Administration admits to the error, but says they will take no action to bring Mr. Garcia back to the US because he is now in custody in El Salvador.  This is the exact country that a US judge declared Mr. Garcia should not be compelled to return to, for safety reasons. Also, wait, wait, wait – does this mean that the US has zero influence on any of the prisoners in Kristi Noem’s commerical? The deal was to pay El Salvador to take them and …what? do anything with them? This is inconceivable.

Every. Single. Day. You guys. Every single day.