2025 Life Logs, Day 136: It Happened
Date: Friday, May 16, 2025
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 69, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
So, ICE was spotted in Falmouth yesterday. I wrote about it last night saying we are living in scary times.
Today I went to my Beyond the White House Class, went to the clinic to get a one-day dose of doxycycline to combat the two Deer tick bites I got this week, and tonight went to Encore’s spring social, Margaritaville. We ate fabulous food and danced to the music of a band called Too Much Fun. The whole evening was just that. Too much fun.
When I got home, I looked at my phone and saw Heather had posted something on Facebook. She doesn’t post often, so I checked it out. And it took my breath away. It happened. Today in Falmouth ICE disappeared at least one person in West Falmouth around the corner from where a close friend of Heather’s lives. I won’t reveal names, but I am going to copy what the friend wrote on Facebook, and what another close friend wrote in reaction. I don’t think they will mind that I am ‘borrowing’ their words. I could rewrite the story, but it wouldn’t have the same impact. So, last night I was scared. Tonight, I am terrified and sad and angry. I am not scared or terrified for myself. I am scared and terrified for all immigrants in this country. And if it can happen to them, it can happen to all of us.
Copied from Facebook: Welcome to Hell: Day 116
Today, a man was snatched off the streets of my hometown and disappeared.
This morning, as a young business owner headed out to the first job of his day as a house painter, he was stopped by ICE. They demanded his passport. Then they drove his car to a house on Garrison Road in West Falmouth where he rented the basement. He let them into his home so he could look for it.
As I write this, I can see the street from my window. While I was guzzling coffee and rushing to an early meeting, just a few hundred yards away, someone was taken—without warning, without due process—and ripped from his life.
No sirens. No local police. Just six or seven unmarked cars filled with men wearing black.
I know the owner of the home. She went to Falmouth Academy. She danced at the local Conservatory. Today, she supports mothers of children with disabilities and helps caregivers avoid burnout. She said: “I want people to know this happened. He is not a criminal. And for the first time, I felt afraid. These guys were smug and entitled. They acted above the law. It was terrifying.”
She wants people to know her Brazilian tenant is kind, responsible, and hardworking. He pays taxes. He has a life here with his Serbian girlfriend. No criminal record.
She asked repeatedly to see badges or a warrant. They just smiled—smugly—and refused to show either and closed the car window on her. She said they never even took the passport.
ICE doesn’t care about Massachusetts’ sanctuary status. Under the regime’s latest directive, immigration enforcement has been “harmonized” across all fifty states.
Translation: states’ rights end where federal boots begin. No Miranda. No explanation. Just the execution of power.
He was taken. We don’t know where he is. His phone is offline. The fear is that he is being been moved out of state away from his network of support.
This is the quiet terror of the new normal. It’s not just Texas. It’s not just the border. It’s your neighborhood. Your block. Your neighbor’s tenant.
We must bear witness. We must record what we see. We must resist with all we have before it is too late. The U.S. Constitution, the law of our land, says that “every person” in this great land is entitled to due process. We need to hold the line. We need a hotline. We need lawyers. We need to act.
America has been, as The Boss said so eloquently “the beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years.”
Those who say “This could never happen here” can see that it already has.
A response to the post from a friend:
So, this is how it starts. The landlord is terrified, rightly so, their neighbors are scared and spread that fear to their neighbors and friends. People begin turning in their neighbors to protect themselves. And those that “harbored illegals”, or, otherwise phrased, rented to reliable tenants with an accent, also become targets and have terrible choices to make to protect their families.
What is the action, really? MA reps know the consequences and are doing what they can. What is meaningful? Walkouts? Sit ins? Going to DC en masse and not leaving until enough people join that we are un- ignorable? Hiding quietly?
