Call it an accident, call it the plan. But don\u2019t stoop to the reprehensible gaslighting of calling it a lie: It is fact that federal agents have detained and arrested dozens, if not hundreds, of United States citizens as part of immigration sweeps, regardless of what Kristi Noem would like us to believe. <\/p>\n
During a congressional hearing Thursday, Noem, our secretary of Homeland Security and self-appointed Cruelty Barbie, reiterated her oft-used and patently false line that only the worst of the worst are being targeted by immigration authorities. That comes after weeks of her department posting online, on its ever-more far-right social media accounts, that claims of American citizens being rounded up and held incommunicado are \u201cfake news\u201d or a \u201choax.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cStop fear-mongering. ICE does NOT arrest or deport U.S. citizens,\u201d Homeland Security recently poste<\/a>d on the former Twitter. <\/p>\n Tuesday, at a different congressional hearing, a handful of citizens \u2014 including two Californians \u2014 told their stories of being grabbed by faceless masked men and being whisked away to holding cells where they were denied access to phones, lawyers, medications and a variety of other legal rights. <\/p>\n Their testimony accompanied the release of a congressional report by the Senate\u2019s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations<\/a> in which 22 American citizens, including a dozen from the Golden State, told their own shocking, terrifying tales of manhandling and detentions by what can only be described as secret police \u2014 armed agents who wouldn\u2019t identify themselves and often seemed to lack basic training required for safe urban policing. <\/p>\n These stories and the courageous Americans who are stepping forward to tell them are history in the making \u2014 a history I hope we regret but not forget. <\/p>\n Immigration enforcement, boosted by unprecedented amounts of funding, is about to ramp up even more. Noem and her agents are reveling in impunity, attempting to erase and rewrite reality as they go \u2014 while our Supreme Court crushes precedent and common sense to further empower this presidency. Until the midterms, there is little hope of any check on power. <\/p>\n Under those circumstances, for these folks to put their stories on the 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 focused on them. It\u2019s incumbent upon the rest of us to hear them, and protest peacefully not only rights being trampled, but our government demanding we believe lies. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always said that immigrants who are given 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 that we believe in or that we fought so hard for. Every person, every U.S. citizen, has rights,\u201d Rep. Robert Garcia <\/a>(D-Long Beach) said as the hearing began. <\/p>\n L.A. native Andrea Velez, whose detention was reported on by my colleagues when it happened<\/a>, was one of those putting herself on the line to testify. <\/p>\n Less than 5 feet tall, Velez is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona who 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 swarmed out of unmarked cars and began chasing brown people. Velez didn\u2019t know what was happening, but when one man charged her, she held up her work bag in defense. The bag did not protect her. Neither did her telling the agents she is a U.S. citizen. <\/p>\n \u201cHe handcuffed me without checking my ID. They ignored me as I repeated it again and again that I am a U.S. citizen,\u201d she told committee members. \u201cThey did not care.\u201d <\/p>\n Velez, still unsure who the man was who forced her into an SUV, managed to open the door and run to an LAPD officer, begging for help. But when the masked man noticed she was loose, he \u201cran up screaming, \u2018She\u2019s mine\u2019\u201d the congressional report <\/a>says. <\/p>\n The police officer sent her back to the unmarked car, beginning a 48-hour ordeal that ended with her being charged with assault of a federal officer \u2014 charges eventually dropped after her lawyer demanded body camera footage and alleged witness statements. (The minority staff report was released by Rep. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.) <\/p>\n \u201cI never imagined this would be occurring, here, in America,\u201d Velez told lawmakers. \u201cDHS 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, we are human beings with no criminal record.\u201d<\/p>\n This if-you\u2019re-brown-you\u2019re-going-down tactic is likely to become more common because it is now legal. <\/p>\n In Noem vs. Vasquez Perdomo, a September court decision, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that it was reasonable for officers to stop people who looked foreign <\/a>and were engaged in activities associated with undocumented people \u2014 such as soliciting work at a Home Depot or attending a Spanish-language event, as long as authorities \u201cpromptly\u201d let the person go if they prove citizenship. These are now known as \u201cKavanaugh stops.\u201d <\/p>\n Disregarding how racist and problematic that policy is, \u201cpromptly\u201d seems to be up for debate. <\/p>\n Javier Ramirez, born in San Bernardino, testified as \u201ca proud American citizen who has never known the weight of a criminal record.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s a father of three who was working at his car lot in June when he noticed a strange SUV idling on his private property with a bunch of men inside. When he approached, they jumped out, armed with assault weapons, and grabbed him. <\/p>\n \u201cThis was a terrifying situation,\u201d Ramirez said. But then it got worse. <\/p>\n One of the men yelled, \u201cGet him. He\u2019s Mexican!\u201d <\/p>\n On video shot by a bystander, Javier can be heard shouting, \u201cI have my passport!\u201d according to the congressional report, but the agents didn\u2019t care. When Ramirez asked why they were holding him, an agent told him, \u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Velez, Ramirez was put in detention. A severe diabetic, he was denied medication until he became seriously ill, he told investigators. Though he asked for a lawyer, he was not allowed to contact one \u2014 but the interrogation continued. <\/p>\n After his release, five days later, he had to seek further medical treatment. He, too, was charged with assault of a federal agent, along with obstruction and resisting arrest. The bogus charges were also later dropped. <\/p>\n \u201cI should not have to live in fear of being targeted simply for the color of my skin or the other language I speak,\u201d he told the committee.<\/a> \u201cI share my story not just for myself, but for everyone who has been unjustly treated, for those whose voice has been silenced.\u201d <\/p>\n