It’s worse than you think, and silence is not the solution.

I’m zooming out of Chadds Ford today to reflect on my hometown and how that reality can become ours if we choose to accept it. We have a choice to use our voices to demand compassion and kindness. Now’s the time, friends. If not us, then who?

You might not know that I’m from Minnesota. Unless you have my cell number, in which case you know I’ve held on to my hometown area code for more than two decades.

You know who does know I’m from Minnesota? United States Customs and Border Protection. I know because a screen with the US CBP logo at the top popped up on my phone around 4:00 pm last Thursday (January 15), prompting me to enter my cell phone password.

Weird? Yes. Hard pass? Also yes. All while Verizon, my service provider, was having a litany of unexplained outages? 👀

Anyway… I grew up in the Twin Cities, and many family members and friends still live there. In an effort to avoid potential media sensationalism or partisan messaging about what’s currently happening in my former hometown, my family and I have reached out directly to friends and former neighbors to ask whether ICE and CBP activity is as bad as the media portrays it.

The consensus: It’s worse than what we’re seeing.

Let that sink in. Our government is harassing, attacking, kidnapping, detaining, and killing its own people, and our President is encouraging it. And using our tax dollars to pay for it.

Here are some things my friends and neighbors, regular people leading boring lives like us, have told me about what’s happening in Minnesota. These are from direct text messages, not social media broadcasts or hearsay. Real people.

• Their children’s local sports teams are cancelling tournaments because players’ families are afraid to attend games (14 teams forfeited in a recent tournament).
• One mother was pulled over (for no apparent reason) while driving her child to practice.
• Their schools are offering virtual options because children don’t feel safe attending in person. This includes suburban schools, many miles outside the city, not just urban centers (schools not that different from Unionville, Garnet Valley, or West Chester).
• My former neighbors are driving immigrants to and from work and grocery shopping for them because the immigrants (including those here legally) don’t feel safe being out in public on their own.
• My mom’s friend is delivering up to 40 meals a day to people who feel unsafe leaving their homes.
• Whistles are being blown regularly in their neighborhoods to warn each other about ICE activity in the area.
• They’re watching ICE activity at the Spanish immersion daycare across the street from their house (a space for children💔) and seeing neighbors patrol the area around the daycare as peaceful observers, hopefully to deter more aggressive ICE activity.
• Friends, with their children, are watching neighbors being detained in grocery store parking lots. One friend walked through ICE operations in the ALDI parking lot to do her weekly grocery shopping. This white, male US citizen was detained by ICE after harmlessly observing them in the parking lot of the grocery store I grew up going to (in my “white picket fence suburb” about 10 miles outside downtown).
• Here’s a perspective from a friend of a friend who lives in Minneapolis, if you want to know what it feels like to live through a paramilitary operation in your own neighborhood.

Some additional notes from the media that felt relevant, raw, and honest:

• Check out this post for another first-person perspective from a woman living in Minneapolis. I don’t know this person, but everything she shares closely aligns with the text messages from friends and neighbors whom I have known for decades.
• An account from a local police chief about what his officers are experiencing in Minnesota. It’s grounded and nuanced but flush with moral clarity. And stunningly sad.
• Here’s another raw account from a woman in Minneapolis. You can hear in her voice the honesty and the fear that aren’t motivated by political messaging or partisan propaganda, but by a genuine desire to share with people what’s happening and a plea for help, conviction, and action led by moral clarity. Start from minute 19:30 in the podcast. Here are some of her words:
  • “People who aren’t here don’t know how bad it is. It is so bad. Somebody just got abducted two blocks from my house…. I’m in a quiet neighborhood. ICE has been everywhere this weekend. They are driving irrationally and unsafely. They are blowing through stop signs. They are pulling people off the streets. They are grabbing observers out of their cars. They are pointing guns at people’s faces and threatening them, saying things like “Didn’t you learn anything last week? Make a good choice, so you have a good day.” … It’s horrific and so scary…. Minnesotans are putting their bodies on the line and standing up for their neighbors… they just run toward danger. It’s horrifying and hopeful at the same time… They [ICE] are terrorizing the neighborhoods. They are everywhere… ICE vehicles, you watch them disobey traffic rules… They’re making our community less safe before they’re even starting to grab people… I just want people to know that it’s bad. If they’ve been wondering, watching, observing from the sides, this is not that time anymore… Those videos that you see on the internet are happening everywhere, in every neighborhood. They’re going door to door. They’re asking Minnesotans to tell on their neighborhood… You have a gun in your face, and they’re like “tell me where your neighbor is.“.. We are just frozen people up here against thousands of ICE agents with big guns and masks on their faces. I just want people to know that it’s as bad as you think it is. It’s as bad as you think it is.”

Friends, they are showing up at people’s front doors in masks and with guns and demanding that they tell on their neighbors. What world do we live in? What tyranny have we allowed? When is enough enough? When does current reality rhyme with history enough that we look back and act today as we are sure we would have acted then?

Let me be clear that neither my family nor any of these personal anecdotes above are from “crazy Radical Leftists” or even people you’d consider regular activists. These are everyday neighbors who show up to help others because the need is dire and they have empathy, decency, and compassion. We are each other’s best caretakers.

The daily encounters described above. Is this the world we want to live in? Is this how we want our government to interact with our communities? We can enforce all of the immigration laws without any of that.☝🏻

Take a look around, because I’m not really sure why Philadelphia hasn’t been targeted yet. Maybe they’re afraid of us; Philly has a certain gritty resistance that won’t be easy to tame. But is it only a matter of time? If Minnesota is any indication, “Philadelphia” means the suburbs, too, not just the brown neighborhoods in the city.

Tyranny in the streets is violence against all of us. Disregard of due process for one is due process for none, full stop. If it’s not required for all, who’s to say the “legal” people won’t be deemed “illegal” and detained regardless of their rights? (More on the importance of due process here.)

If we all look around and act like this is normal, it will become normal.

But we need to fix immigration in this country

You’re right! And there’s a world of possibilities to manage immigration in this country. Don’t for a second think that our current situation is the only alternative to wide-open borders, because that’s the farthest thing from the truth. A reckless, indiscriminate, poorly trained paramilitary operation (even if it’s only some of them and not all of them) hurts all of us more than it helps.

History is proof that there are better ways. President Obama removed¹ more undocumented people from the United States than any other president in history, as shown in the chart below from the Cato Institute. If you’re not familiar with the institution, it’s a deeply libertarian think tank. The numbers below summarize statistics from the United States Department of Homeland Security.

From 2008 to 2016, Obama removed more than 3 million people from this country without widespread protests. Many people outside immigration organizations didn’t even realize how many people were removed from the country during his presidency because the process was organized and civil. The methods of removal and the rhetoric around the processes are precisely what distinguishes then… from now.

Before 2025, removals and returns of undocumented people in the United States generally happened with due process and in an orderly manner. (I’m sure there are exceptions, but immigration mostly followed law and order, even if that order was not particularly merciful, like separating families.)

According to the Washington Monthly:

“In 2014, Obama issued an executive order that defined terrorists, criminal gang members, and convicted felons as the highest priority for deportation. In 2009, at the start of Obama’s presidency, 69 percent of deportees fell in this category. By 2016, it was 94 percent.” (source)

Under previous administrations, ICE operated with a figurative scalpel and targeted criminals. This administration gave ICE a tank full of sledgehammers.

Under the current administration, immigration enforcement is intentionally broad, aggressive, violent, reckless, and provocative. Everyday citizens aren’t angry that undocumented people in this country need to undergo a fair process to live here. We’re furious that the current “process” is inhumane, careless, and intentionally cruel. When an administration justifies breaking rules for some, it breaks them for all of us and sets a dangerous precedent.

As you can see from the anecdotes above, the indiscriminate cruelty impacts everyone. It harms entire communities. It releases law enforcement from transparency, accountability, and the rule of law. Then what’s left?

I’m livid, not because I think we should have open borders, but because the methods being used to “fix” the problem (that actually fix nothing at all) are bloody, vicious, vindictive, and abhorrent.

This isn’t our first rodeo

Reminder: Don’t settle for believing that “this couldn’t be me.” This isn’t the first time the United States government has established rogue policies for rounding up people who live here and have no criminal background (including citizens). It could get worse.

In 1942, under Executive Order 9066, our government forced over 100,000 people (including children) of Japanese descent, most of whom were American citizens, into prisons simply based on race. No criminal records. No due process. No justifiable reason for locking them up other than their Japanese blood.

Learn more about how our own government imprisoned its own innocent citizens for years in these two podcast series:

• Resilience: The Wartime Incarceration of Japanese Americans by Sharon McMahon from The Preamble. This publication consistently receives high marks from independent media bias reporting organizations. It’s a “just the facts, ma’am” type of reporting.
• Burn Order by Rachel Maddow. Maddow and MSNOW are well known for their left-leaning reporting. This podcast series has a clear intent to highlight similarities between the Japanese internment and today’s political environment. However, there are countless verifiable facts and information throughout the series that I believe are compelling and informative. Make of the series what you wish, but even if Maddow isn’t your favorite news journalist, I think there’s a lot to take away from the podcast series that reminds us what our own government is capable of doing against its own loyal citizens and residents. Consider it a reminder and warning that we must be diligent, active protectors of our Constitution if we want it to withstand the current pressures of our time.

Let’s not repeat this tragedy or anything like it.

We need an immigration solution; this is NOT it

We all see the world through our own bias. I work hard to be actively curious about others’ perspectives and to challenge my own assumptions. I do my best to give grace to people who disagree with me. I’m not perfect (not even close). But those who continue to support this indiscriminate and reckless overreach under the guise of immigration control have lost the plot. How is the current disaster better than an organized and methodical approach to get our immigration system back in order?

Even if you want our immigration system fixed (and most of us do), do you want to live in the world Minnesotans are describing right now? Is that the best solution? Don’t you think there’s a more humane alternative? Unless we demand otherwise, the plan is to welcome a poorly trained paramilitary operation to every playground and preschool near you.

I have crossed the Rubicon, and I’m f*cking angry. We won’t all reach our breaking point at the same time. Some of you passed it before me, and many will cross it behind me. But we all need to walk through the water and fight back against a federal government that believes it has unqualified immunity to kill US citizens and kidnap children off the streets.

No one should be above the law. That’s the literal foundation of our country. Rebellion against a tyrannical government is practically a birthright of citizens in this country, and it’s certainly the birthright of our country as an entity.

We could have had immigration reform

I know immigration enforcement is important to many of us for various reasons. Our immigration system has been broken for decades. Both major political parties have contributed to this. However, we would have had real progress toward a solution but for Trump (and Republican leaders in Washington, if we want to entertain a more generous narrative).

Republicans and Democrats spent months, in good faith, hashing out a real immigration solution at the end of 2023. It wasn’t perfect, but we could have had progress and a compromise. Both sides conceded ground in that drafted legislation (and that’s how government should work).

Trump and Republican leaders prevented that bipartisan immigration bill from passing in January 2024. Trump knew immigration chaos could be a winning campaign issue. He chose to rally voters around keeping the system broken instead of trying to fix it.

Republican leaders got greedy and thought they could achieve all of their goals without any compromise if they waited until Trump won the election. Their greed earned us federal law enforcement officers shooting a US citizen mother in the face and terrorizing communities.

Are we great yet?

I feel like a middle ground might have been a better option than (waves arms around and asks Minnesota friends how things are going) *this!!*. 😡

Trump bet that bamboozling voters into thinking he cared about an immigration solution, while banking on outrage over a broken system, would carry him to power. He was right; enough voters took the bait to win him the election. Lots of people voted for him to fix immigration despite him making it clear FIXING immigration was never his goal. It still isn’t.

Don’t believe me that building a better system isn’t actually the goal? Our federal government authorized $170 BILLION in taxpayer funds to clean up our immigration system. Fine. Then fix it.

Invest in more judges, legal advisors, and streamlined systems to process immigration cases with compassion and due process rather than wreck communities with reckless physical cruelty. If people seeking asylum don’t qualify, they will need to leave or find another legal way to remain in this country.

Instead, almost none of our tax dollars do anything to make the system function more effectively and humanely going forward. They’ve done nothing to leave the system better than they found it.

A portion of that $170 billion also funds development of surveillance tools like this one; it’s called ELITE and built by Palantir. Don’t doubt for a hot second that these authoritarian tools won’t be used to surveil all of us in the near future (if not already… remember that weird US CBP request on my phone?).

The current cruel method of “fixing” our very broken immigration system is a choice. Most of us agree the system needs a lot of TLC. You don’t have to support these methods, even if you think our immigration system needs a major overhaul.

The ends do not justify the means.

A photographer, Christopher Anderson, recently documented members of the White House administration with rather unflattering integrity. Anderson recounted a conversation he had with Stephen Miller:

“And at the end of the session, he comes up to me to say goodbye, and he says, “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people,” meaning kind to people in my pictures. And I looked at him, and I said, “Yeah, you know, you do too.””

I can’t stop thinking about this exchange. Cruelty is a choice. Compassion is a choice. And our federal administration has as much power as anyone about how to pursue immigration reform. They’re choosing cruelty, and doing so with conviction.

Our immigration “solution” doesn’t have to be this way. We have a choice to be kind. It’s time we rise up, speak out, and have conviction that this governmental overreach is unacceptable. In Minnesota (and elsewhere), our neighbors are hiding in the equivalent of Anne Frank’s attic while we bring them food to keep them safe.

This administration is choosing cruelty and recklessness at every turn. Maybe you voted for this, and it surprises you. Maybe you didn’t, and it still surprises you. No matter what you did or didn’t do in November 2024, it’s time to acknowledge that this is not how we want our country to operate.

I mean, seriously. Do you want masked ICE agents on your street, in the Wegmans parking lot, or waiting in the pickup line at Chadds Ford Elementary? Because that’s what’s happening in Minnesota right now. Might there be a better way?

This was predictable

If the current violence and chaos surprise you, they shouldn’t. This article from Tangle News, a non-partisan publication deeply committed to fact-based reporting and open dialogue, articulates why the death of Renee Nicole Good and the increasing aggression and violence from ICE were entirely predictable. As the author mentions, the unnecessarily aggressive and ruthless tactics employed by Trump (and Stephen Miller) to remove people from the United States predictably led to this result.

The article might be behind a paywall, so here’s a poignant excerpt:

“This is America. Distrusting government force is in our national DNA. Heavily armed, masked federal agents with unclear levels of police authority and training cannot reasonably expect to just traipse through our neighborhoods as if they were war zones, kicking down doors or descending from helicopters and snatching people off the streets en masse, and then think everyone will placidly accept it. That (thankfully) is not a circumstance of life we are built to accept.

Each tense interaction filmed and posted and dissected in the media makes it increasingly clear that these ICE agents are not prepared for these kinds of confrontations. Trump has put these officers in dangerous positions, demanding a kind of enforcement that is bold, aggressive and confrontational. Interacting in this manner with American citizens and noncitizens alike is not what these officers are trained to do.”

I encourage you to read the full article and subscribe if it’s in your budget. It takes a few minutes to read the article, but it’s well worth your time. The author articulates his argument well. And the regular, thoughtful coverage of national events from different perspectives is insightful.

Whether or not you voted for this

If you voted for this, I’m begging you to admit your mistake (even if it’s just to yourself). No tax break is worth running roughshod over our constitution, ignoring human decency, and disregarding the separation of powers.

The ends do not justify the means.

As the Tangle article above articulates well, this violence is a predictable result of the actions and rhetoric from our current federal administration, a rhetoric that has been loud and clear since before the election.

If you still think this administration is on the right track, I’m genuinely curious to know why. What would they have to do to make you believe that their course of action is unacceptable? Is anything beyond the pale?

Even if you have strong convictions about deporting humans who are in this country without full documentation, certainly (hopefully) we can all agree that ends do not always justify the means. When have we crossed the line?

If you didn’t vote for this, now is not the time for “I told you so.” Welcome back into the fold those who regret their choice. It’s water under the bridge who people voted for in November 2024. We can only move forward together.

Why does speaking out matter?

It’s time to speak out about the insanity, even if it feels uncomfortable, and even in cushy Chadds Ford. No town is too quaint and precious for Stephen Miller’s armed, masked federal agents to waltz up and snatch a few neighbors he doesn’t believe fit the look and feel of the “right” kind of American. They’ve made that clear in Minnesota, including the “white picket fence” suburb where I grew up.

I’m not saying everyone has to extol their deepest feelings on social media about every piece of news. But your neighbors need to know that the disapproval of our government they feel in their hearts isn’t isolated. Discussion of diverse ideas and discourse about our politics are cornerstones of democracy.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

I do not love the phrase “silence is violence,” but silence is the death of democracy. Even if we all hold different opinions internally, society will coalesce around and empower a single public narrative if we speak only “approved” messaging and remain silent about dissenting perspectives.²

We begin to think, “I guess I’m the only one who feels this way?” and become less likely to share different opinions or push back against bad ideas. Silencing dissent, whether through legal means or social consequences, is exactly how authoritarian rulers seize power. Don’t let that be our fate.

Let’s collectively refuse to be the neighbors watching Japanese Americans board trains to concentration camps less than a century ago in our own country. Speak up. Stand in the way. Stop the madness.

I encourage you to watch this recent speech from Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, and heed his call to be the store owner who takes their sign down and acknowledges that pretending the fiction is true is no longer serving us.

P.S. This speech might be a turning point for the global order. Take a listen, because I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re still talking about it 100 years from now. The rest of the world has understandably left the United States in its rearview mirror. I wouldn’t be surprised if Carney rose to become one of the leaders and architects of the new world order. He certainly has the resume and the demeanor for it. He might just be the man for the moment.

What can we do now?

In some ways, only time will fully resolve this horrific reality. Our country chose a narcissistic evil villain as its leader, and we must endure the consequences of that choice. Hopefully, we will learn from our mistakes. In November, we will have the choice to replace many members of Congress who can more actively hold the Executive Branch to account for its overreach. I hope you’re committed to that mission.

Until then, use your voices.

Call our U.S. Representatives and Senators to express your disdain and to let them know you expect them to push back against this tyranny.

Both of our Senators, John Fetterman and Dave McCormick, are fairly friendly to Trump and have shown little spine to hold him accountable for much of anything. In a recent communication to constituents who had contacted him, McCormick said about the activities in Minnesota:

“… inflammatory rhetoric and violent protests, led by paid activitists, have put law enforcement officers and others at risk. The statistics are troubling; assaults on ICE officers have increased by 1,347 percent, and reported death threats have risen by more than 8,000 percent compared to this time last year. Dehumanizing rhetoric distorts reality and creates a dangerous climate where violence becomes the inevitable next step.”

Let’s get a few things straight here, Dave.

Percentage increase information is useless without context, particularly when assaults and death threats targeting ICE in the past were almost nonexistent. McCormick, a man made filthy rich by astute numerical analysis skills, knows this well. I assume it’s precisely why his canned response doesn’t offer context, such as the total number of instances and the total number of agents year over year.

An 8,000 percent increase, say from 1 to 80, in the context of thousands of agents, isn’t that compelling, particularly given their aggressive behavior. But McCormick offers no useful context to support his rhetoric.

Moreover, protesters, by and large, are not paid. McCormick also knows this. Did he mention that many of those who are paid activists work for organizations teaching people how to protest peacefully, stay within legal guardrails, and de-escalate situations? They’re almost certainly making situations safer (not all, but a meaningful number of them).

Meanwhile, Fox News is calling the protesters “organized groups of wine moms.” Are tipsy moms scaring masked, armed ICE officers now? 🍷 I’m obviously being facetious.

Some of the worst rhetoric is coming from the Department of Homeland Security’s own social media accounts, and the blood of the worst violence is unequivocally on the hands of ICE.

You know what McCormick also could have said?

“… inflammatory rhetoric and violent raids, led by the Department of Homeland Security, have put law enforcement officers and others at risk. The statistics are troubling; assaults on unarmed citizens peacefully protesting and legally observing have increased by (fill in the blank with a skyrocketing percentage)³ percent. Dehumanizing rhetoric distorts reality and creates a dangerous climate where violence becomes the inevitable next step.”

His intentionally one-sided assessment of the problem “distorts reality,” contributes to frustration, and raises the temperature, exactly the thing he claims to avoid. Sometimes what you don’t say matters as much or more than what you do say.

Be angry, Dave! Like a compassionate, “I give a f*ck” angry, because that’s what people want. We should all be angry about the violence between Americans and our own government, no matter where you stand on the issue.

💭 I don’t know… Maybe he’s not angry because he feels insulated by his $100 million+ net worth. It’s trendy to buy a bunker these days.

Regardless of the solution, the situation is currently very broken and untenable. We want our political leaders to stand for something beyond “Don’t say mean things about our rogue ICE officers, and I’m watching the FBI investigation that explicitly wouldn’t cooperate with local law enforcement.”

Moreover, the government and its leaders should be held to the highest standard. I hope all citizens can act with integrity. But rhetoric from our institutions and politicians (and their social media accounts) ought to be held to a higher standard than that of everyday individuals.

When the abhorrent rhetoric comes from official government mouthpieces, it should be even more of a disgrace than when it comes from @joethe.hunter1495⁴ on Facebook or @callmeKaren78 on Instagram. Give me a break, Dave, that we’re calling out violent rhetoric from “paid protestors” as if it’s not being instigated and one-upped by our own f*cking government.

I don’t have much faith that either of our Senators will suddenly develop a moral compass that puts compassionate and constitutional governance above their political careers, but we can hope. They certainly won’t change their minds without serious cajoling from constituents. Sigh…

Our US Representative, Mary Gay Scanlon, is hosting a Town Hall this Saturday, January 24. Attend and let her know how you feel about ICE’s nationwide activities. Be clear about what options you’d like her to pursue to mitigate the harm caused by the aggressive enforcement tactics.

Tell our federal Congresspeople not to support the Department of Homeland Security spending bill as leverage to demand tougher rules governing officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other DHS agencies, if that’s compelling to you. Be sure they know if you believe that measures like allowing the government to shut down are acceptable negotiation tactics to temper ICE aggression and funding. They need to understand what sacrifices constituents consider worth making to rein in the terror.

Closer to home, talk to your neighbors. Get curious. Share your perspectives. Don’t fall into the groupthink trap and let fear of uncomfortable conversations or modest disagreement deter honest discussion.

📣 You have a voice. Use it.

As Christoper Anderson reminded Stephen Miller, we all have the power to use our discretion to be kind. Immigration policy doesn’t have to be cruel or bloody to make progress. Political leaders don’t have to be vindictive or ruthless to be effective.

The ends do not justify the means.

There’s a better way. Our government leaders and neighbors need to know that we demand they find a more humane and effective path toward immigration reform and take it.

Don’t agree with me? Send me an email or leave a comment below, and tell me why. Democracy is riding on our commitment to honest and informed discourse, so let’s discuss. Seriously.

To be frank, I’m not that interested in “Abolish ICE” or “our masked, armed federal agents are scared of an organized gang of wine moms who are the real problem.” Abolishing ICE is not realistic (or the right answer, in my opinion), and the mass aggression and violent rhetoric have roots in our government. ICE is instigating; people are responding. The answers are somewhere between these extremes.

Beyond that, how do we move forward? What are realistic solutions? How do we bring the community back together in a way that works? What does the future look like, and what can each of us do to manifest it into existence?

Silence is not the solution. 💔

1. There are varying definitions of removal, return, and other means by which people trying to enter the United States without proper authorization are forced to leave. Without diving too deep into the details, the fact that Obama sent so many people out of the country without social upheaval remains a relevant observation. See this article from USA Facts for definitions of repatriations (removals, returns, and expulsions) to help clarify the data and how measurements change over time. ↩︎
2. The book, What’s Our Problem? A Self-Help Book for Societies by Tim Urban offers a useful discussion and graphics on this idea if you’re interested in further reading. ↩︎
3. I don’t know this number, but it’s almost certainly as terrible as the statistics McCormick presented because, as in his argument, we’re starting from almost zero. Examples of harm are all over social media. We can have a conversation around directional reality without knowing the exact percentages. ↩︎
4. These usernames are made up. If they are real, it was not intentional. ↩︎