This Is Not America

The nightmare that is ICE's escalating raids.

I went to a wake this weekend for the father of a good friend. The room was filled with quiet grief, as well as photos and moments documenting stories of a life well-lived. The room held the kind of love that lingers long after the last goodbye. This particular father, grandfather and husband was adopted when he was young and then met his birth family later in life and, to his surprise, was welcomed with open arms. The wake merged multiple families under one roof and in one room, together with the common goal of unity, remembrance and love.

Outside, the June air was thick with the scent of cut grass and the promise of summer. It felt, for a moment, like the America I knew, where families come together in sorrow and celebration, where the dream is still possible.

But when I returned to the news and goings-on around me, the world outside that room was unrecognizable. Across the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are ripping through communities, tearing families apart and shattering the very idea of the American dream. Stories of children taken on their way to school, parents arrested after court hearings and families hiding in fear have flooded social media.

This is not America, at least, not the America we know and love.

A Volleyball Practice, a Childhood Interrupted

On Saturday in Milford, Massachusetts, four high school students set off for volleyball practice. The car buzzed with the nervous energy of teenagers on the cusp of graduation. Suddenly, three unmarked vehicles pulled them over. ICE agents demanded documents, then took the 18-year-old driver into custody. This teen was also a member of the high school band and was scheduled to play at Milford High School’s graduation ceremony Sunday.

His friend, also undocumented but underage, watched helplessly as tears streamed down his face. “I didn’t see him run a red light, or I didn’t see him do anything that was necessarily illegal. We were just on our way,” he said. “It’s turning into a system that just kicks everybody out based on your status.”

The trauma rippled through the school, leaving students and teachers stunned and afraid.

This is not America.

A Family Shattered at the Courthouse

This Saturday, Eduardo Duarte and his wife, Luz Del Carmen Herrera, did everything by the book. Luz had her immigration court date; she showed up, followed the rules, and hoped for relief. Instead, after her case was dismissed — a moment that should have brought relief — ICE agents were waiting outside the courtroom. In front of her husband, Luz was detained and taken away, her six children left at home waiting for a mother who would not return that night.

Duarte, stunned and heartbroken with tears streaming down his face, could only watch as his wife was handcuffed shoved into a dark and tiny compartment in the back of white van as she screamed saying she was suffocating and having an anxiety attack. Videos circulated online show him pleading for answers, his voice breaking as he tries to explain what happened. She was doing it the legal way. She went to her court hearing like she was supposed to. But that’s the new reality: doing everything right is no longer enough to keep your family safe.

This is not America.

The Courtroom Trap: Legal Limbo and Fear

This is not just bad luck; it is a deliberate strategy. Immigration judges, at the request of ICE-employed attorneys representing the U.S. government, are dismissing the deportation cases of people who have been in the U.S. for less than two years and who show up to court without attorneys. Typically, a closed immigration court case would mean that the government is no longer trying to deport these individuals. But this legal limbo also puts these individuals into an expedited removal proceedings, bypassing judicial review and due process (something they are clearly not explaining to these people). Then, as they leave the courthouse, ICE agents arrest them.

They are targeting people who have followed the rules, shown up for hearings and sought legal relief. Attorneys say these coordinated actions are happening in courts from Los Angeles to Miami, Seattle to New York. The message is clear: no one is safe, not even those who play by the rules.

This is not America.

Raids at 7/11s, Home Depots and the Search for a Quota

Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, is pushing ICE agents to arrest 3,000 people a day — nearly triple the number targeted at the start of Trump’s term, which was 1,200 a day (and fell far short of that with an average of 660 people a day). Agents are encouraged to sweep up people at 7-Elevens, Home Depots and other everyday locations to meet this impossible quota. Social media is flooded with videos of workers being taken from job sites, parents separated from children, and families hiding in their homes, afraid to go outside. The goal is not to deport criminals, as they claimed (in fact, most reporting shows the majority of the people being deported have no criminal records — ProPublica reported that the Trump administration knew many of the Venezuelans it sent to CECOT had not been convicted of crimes); it is to instill fear and meet a number, no matter the human cost.

This is not America.

The Vision: A White, European-Based Nation?

This is not just about enforcement. As historian Heather Cox Richardson and others have warned, the goal is to reshape America. The Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies aim to create a nation that is whiter, more European, and less welcoming to immigrants from other parts of the world. This is a rejection of the melting pot that has always defined America’s strength and identity. It is a vision of exclusion, not inclusion — a vision that would erase the contributions of millions who have come here (in many cases, lawfully) seeking safety, opportunity and a better life. And the Supreme Court is aiding this along with its decision to allow the Trump administration to end immigration paroles for 500,000-plus people from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, which makes them undocumented and open to deportation.

This is not America.

Are People Being Informed? Why Isn’t This in the News?

Despite the scale and cruelty of these actions, these stories are not plastering the headlines. Fox News, instead, is fixated on trans issues, cherry-picked migrant crimes and former President Joe Biden’s every move. The real stories — of families torn apart, children traumatized and lives upended — are relegated to the margins. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, posts on Truth Social: “Let the deportations begin,” with no plan, no humanity and no understanding of the plight of the people whose lives he is destroying. There is no recognition that many of those targeted have jobs, families and deep roots here, that they are escaping hatred and violence in their own countries, and that they are vital to our communities and our economy.

This is not America.

A Wake, a Dream and a Nightmare

At the wake, I saw what America can be: a place where families come together, where love rises above hate, where we honor our loved ones, and where dreams are still alive. But outside, the nightmare is real. Families are being torn apart. Children are being traumatized. Communities are living in fear.

This is not America … at least, not the America we’ve known. But together, we must remember and together we must fight to make sure it never becomes America.