"something different is happening now in the breadth and ferocity of efforts to change the makeup of this country"

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

‘The System Is Meant to Break You’: What ICE Is Doing to People Here Legally

Immigration and Border Patrol officers have long held extremely broad discretionary powers to welcome or reject noncitizens arriving in the United States. And this is far from the first wave of xenophobia to hit America. But something different is happening now in the breadth and ferocity of efforts to change the makeup of this country.


The stories we were told call into question both the constitutionality and the morality of how the Trump administration is directing immigration policy. That immorality, once unleashed, may ultimately be aimed at others in this country, regardless of immigration status. If a woman returning from vacation with her young children can be suddenly removed from her family and her life, how can we believe that any of us will remain safe?

There was a disquieting sameness to the horror that was described to us. Those we interviewed despaired at how the detention centers were kept purposefully, horrendously cold, forcing some of them to huddle up against strangers. They spoke of lights left on 24 hours a day and of interstate transfers that came without notice. They described food that was inadequately distributed and made them unwell. Of being forced to urinate and defecate in front of fellow detainees and guards. Of being humiliated and mocked by officers. All referred to a destabilizing lack of information, the dreadful understanding that they could be held for weeks or months without anyone informing them why they were being held at all.

----------

After five days, Ms. Rosa was taken to a Massachusetts ICE facility to shower, and then was transferred to a rat-infested women’s jail in Maine. There, she encountered women who had been imprisoned for months. After five more terrible days, she was driven back to the first ICE facility. Then she was released — but she did not walk out to her lawyer, nor her husband. She was left outside in the rain, with no phone and no money, disheveled and frantic. She walked to a nearby mall and begged a kindly passer-by to use a phone to call her family.

paywall free share:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/opinion/ice-immigration-green-card-detention.html?unlocked_article_code=1.208.WYgR.QldPYERDkEr2&smid=url-share