01/23/26

Good morning! It’s Friday, January 23rd.

National Pie Day.

On a Friday!

…hooray!

And now, the news.

ICE Facility Death Ruled a Homicide

-via ABC News

like the brazen giant of Greek fame, // With conquering limbs astride from land to land; // Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand // A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame // Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name // Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand // Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command // The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. // "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she // With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, // Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, // The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. // Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, // I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

That is the sonnet is called “The New Colossus” and, as you likely know, a piece of it is on The Statue of Liberty. “"Give me your tired, your poor, // Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, // The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. // Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, // I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

In that sonnet, the giant of Greek fame the author is referring to is the Colossus of Rhodes. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it was built to commemorate a military victory.

In this sonnet, the author Emma Lazarus (a lady, if you can believe it!) is saying that we’re not meant to conquer by military defeat of other nations, (Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!), but instead stand on the shores to guide people to us, to safe harbor, with the light of a statue of liberty.

A mighty woman with a torch, and her name - mother of exiles. The mother, welcomerer, the protector and nurturer of any and all who have been forced to leave behind their old lives, their old countries. Come here to us. We will welcome you. I lift my lamp beside the golden door to better light your pather so that you will better be able to find your way to us.

That is who we are supposed to be. That is the myth that we tell ourselves.

It’s been a really heavy week of news, so I don’t want to do a normal episode.

Instead, I want to tell you about a little boy named Liam.

Liam is 5.

Liam is in pre-school.

On Tuesday, as he was coming home from school with his dad, ICE agents surrounded the car and tried to detain his dad. The dad ran from ICE agents and before you say anything about that I want you to think about what you would do. These thugs, these brownshirts, are just snatching people left and right based on a paperbag test essentially. And they are violent. And they are scary.

And they were at home. And the dad knew that someone else was home too. I can’t be in that man’s head, I’m just saying - I’m not judging him for his actions.

ICE then grabbed Liam and made him knock on his own home to see if anyone else was there. They claim it was to see if anyone would take care of Liam. That’s a lie and I’ll tell you why in a second. What it was, instead, was ICE using a five year old, grabbing Liam by his Spiderman backpack, Liam in his little blue rabbit snowcap to keep his preschool ears warm… using Liam to coerse others in the home out. Liam’s brown - surely there are more brown people in the home that they can grab too.

How do we know it’s a lie.

A witness who works at the school said there were people there telling those ICE officials that Liam’s mom can take Liam. Someone pointed out that the school was there, and those officials could take Liam.

Instead, they kidnapped this five year old boy.

ICE kidnapped Liam.

“Oh but it’s because they didn’t come here the right way. You gotta come here the right way. The right way. The right way.”

They did.

They came in through an official port of entry. They used the CBP One app, the one that stupid Kristi Noem (who shot her own puppy! Which is neither here nor there but just a reminder) keeps telling people to use, to file for asylum, and they had no deportation orders at the time of this.

They were just brown.

That’s it.

So don’t even try. They kidnapped Liam and frankly, adultnapped the dad.

Nevermind the fact that being here without citizenship is the same amount of a crime as jaywalking, so I’m not saying that even if he was here undocumented, it would matter. I’m just saying, all these morons say is that just come here the right way… they did!

They just, you know… were brown while doing it.

This happened in Minnesota.

They are being held in a South Texas family detention center.

ICE says they old took Liam because no one else could. But witnesses say so many people were there volunteering to help.

Instead they took him out of state. Minnesota to Texas.

The place they are being held is 486 miles from an ICE center in El Paso, Texas.

Why am I talking about El Paso?

Because on January 3rd,  a 55-year-old man named Geraldo Lunas Campos, an immigrant from Cuba, died in that ICE facility.

And on Thursday, that death was ruled a homicide.

"Asphyxia due to neck and torso compression."

He is the third person to die in that facility.

This is the statement from DHS: "Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm. He was subsequently placed in segregation. While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance."

Let me parse some language here…

“Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm.”

If he’d been in any way violent, they would have said it. He perhaps mouthed off, he perhaps showed some noncompliance when it came to getting back into his dorm, but that language says nothing about being a physical threat in any way.

“He was subsequently placed in segregation.”

He was moved into isolation, a process that usually requires multiple officers.

"Asphyxia due to neck and torso compression”

External force was applied to his body, specifically his neck, chest, or upper body, during which time his lungs were restricted, and he could not breathe sufficiently, leading to oxygen deprivation and, ultimately, death.

Given all of that, a pretty clear picture gets painted of a man who was not violent, but perhaps aggravated a guard. That guard went to put him back in his dorm, and he refused. At that point, multiple guards probably threw him to the ground. That’s where the physical trauma occurred. He was in medical distress, literally dying, when they threw him in segregation. At some point after that, someone called for medical help.

Again, this is the third homicide at this facility.

“America was never America to me.”

Emma Lazarus’ The New Colossus called America the Colossus. And she told the world who we were, who we were promising to be.

And in 1935 Langston Hughes answered her with “Let America Be America.” He tells her: we came here, and this is what happened:

“I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, // I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. // I am the red man driven from the land, // I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek — // And finding only the same old stupid plan // Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.”

I came here because you told me to, you promised me this beautiful country, you, the mother of exiles, would welcome me. That you wanted me. And this is what it’s really like.

“The land that never has been yet — // And yet must be — the land where every man is free.”

It’s a reminder. “And yet must be”

Make America Great Again is the dumbest slogun possible (which makes sense because he is the dumbest president we’ve ever had). But it’s also incredibly flawed.

Because it acts as if America has hit its peak. America has had great moments, for sure but to say “again” sort of implies there is a moment of greatness to which we should return, not seek.

But America has not reached its fullest potential.

Patriotism looks different for everyone and for me it is constantly requiring the best from this country that I do, god help, love deeply. And so every day I wake up, heartbroken by it, and demand better of it.

Our best days are ahead us of. They must be. Because they aren’t behind us. Because an America that doesn’t include everyone is not the best version of it.

And so we haven’t seen the best version of this country yet.

Still… still the New Colossus stands. With her light on. Dimmed, yes. Flickering, certainly. On? Undeniably.

Because there is a five-year-old boy in a blue rabbit snowcap and a Spiderman backpack that the government kidnapped.

And I understand how you feel. But if we give up now, the kidnappers win. And Liam loses.

“I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

I’m proud of you.