(Mirror.)

Despite repeated use of the bogus phrase “criminal aliens,” the current régime terror targets undocumented people very broadly. Undocumented border crossing remains a misdemeanor, not a criminal offense, and, though “alien” derives its power from a long science fiction tradition, it has gone out of circulation as a term to describe human beings since the 19th century.

Ask 18-year-old Venezuelan-American Carlos, apprehended on January 26 at his home in Texas without a warrant. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents alleged without evidence that Carlos appeared in a video featuring guns and drug use and took him away from his family.

But you can’t ask Carlos or the 1,100 people that were apprehended on the same day that he was. They are caught up in the gears of the deportation machine, including a network of private detention centers, deportation flights, and the expanded use of the disgraceful black site at Guantanamo Bay. And that is the point of the deportation terror: it separates families and communities, all under the false pretense that the United States is besieged by foreign born criminals.

The Immigrant Defense Project maintains Know Your Rights materials as well as an interactive map of deportation raids.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)