Inhumane Cruelty is being done in our names as due process is ignored
When the current regime is spent and the historians take over, will we be deemed complicit in a humanitarian horror that happened while we watched?
Several years ago I was doing research for a novel set in Yellowstone and happened onto a photo that crushed me. Child handcuffs. Manufactured by someone for use on children. Who knows what other circumstances required handcuffs for children, but apparently they were necessary to control the Native American children stolen from their families and forced into residential schools.
I am having the same reaction today as I read ProPublica’s article:
254 flights (as of 3/21) on a contracted charter airline. Each holding 100 chained passengers (handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons … in some cases “the wrap”, a cross between a straitjacket and a sleeping bag.) and a dozen private security guards.
Could this be possible? … 254 flights x 100 prisoners … 25,400 human beings lives traumatized … destroyed?
He said he would do this … I didn’t understand that it would be done with no due process.
Perplexity.ai states:
As of April 2025, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador is nearing its maximum capacity of 40,000 inmates, according to statements from prison director Belarmino García. While the exact number of prisoners currently held is not disclosed, CECOT had a population of 14,532 inmates as of June 2024. Since then, significant transfers have occurred, including thousands of gang members and over 278 deportees from the United States in March 2025, allegedly linked to gangs such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13.
Perplexity.ai states:
Under President Donald Trump in 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has significantly increased its activity. Key statistics include:
32,809 arrests were made in the first 50 days of Trump's administration, nearly matching the total number of at-large arrests for fiscal year 2024 (33,242).
In February 2025, ICE arrested approximately 23,000 people, a substantial increase compared to monthly averages under the Biden administration.
By early April 2025, the administration reported more than 100,000 immigration and border arrests during Trump's first 70 days in office.
These figures reflect a sharp rise in enforcement compared to previous years.
Terror and Trauma with no due process
Watch this video demonstration of applying “the wrap.” Imagine the terror of being alone, controlled by men speaking a language you don’t understand with your body restrained as is shown in this video for hours on a plane bound for somewhere … but you don’t know where.
Remember that almost none of these people had criminal records, their only “crime” was escaping death squads in a country of chaos and wanting a safer, better life for themselves and their families. Now, thousands of people … human beings … have been traumatized … deliberately traumatized by us.
And what if one of those flights goes down? “Nothing bothered flight attendants more than the fact that most of their passengers were in chains. What would happen if a flight had to be evacuated?” For various reasons, “Most of the flight attendants who spoke with ProPublica are now gone from GlobalX.”
Immigrants are not vermin. They weren’t “sent here” by their government from “insane asylums.” We’ve already been told the officials have made mistakes. We already know these people were not given due process so there’s no way to know if they were guilty of anything except being brown.
“He” says they are the “worst of the worst” without knowing anything about them … these are human beings with human rights and we are acting like a totalitarian dictatorship.
Our Government Is Us
This has gone beyond whether or not I receive my next Social Security check. My government has wrapped me into pure evil. My government is acting like a blood lust cartel in some uncivilized part of the world.
A question we often ask about the Holocaust and the German people … did they know? Did they do anything about the genocide happening around them? They didn’t have the internet, so it’s possible that they didn’t know.
But, we do. We have no deniability. We must stop this. What’s happening here is a crime against humanity.
Later … after writing the above, I needed to clear my head so I drove up the coast through the bright yellow mustard-covered hills to Solvang where I found myself in one of my favorite bookshops and a rather ordinary book with a puzzling title caught my eye.
El Salvador doesn’t roll off my tongue when I think of our recent history, however, perhaps it should since we seem to have had an active role in their inner workings for decades and several administrations. Our meddling in Central America helped create a humanitarian nightmare that is now showing up at our southern border.
I’m not sure what I can do about this mess … however, I am going to get more educated by reading Blitzer’s book. Anyone want to do a book club on it?
QUESTION: What most worries you about all of this?
Week 12: US in Crisis … your graphic reminder of where we’ve been in the past two weeks.
Two sample pages:
It is disgusting the way these people are being treated
It is too shameful & tragic to bear. Yes, we are all accountable, and ironically, we are creating a generation of enemies from those who once saw us as a haven.