Hey everyone, I wanted to share the GoFundMe for Maribel and her family. They’re currently dealing with an eviction and this will help her and her mom and brother get on their feet as they deal with this difficult situation. I wanted to share it here since The Bulwark family keeps reminding us how they’re looking for ways to help people. I think it’s a really beautiful and honorable thing.
It is shameful how close to the edge these people are. I do have one suggestion, however. It is too late to keep saying "I just want to work". Wrong approach. That phrase encourages people who seem to believe that they are losing jobs because of people who do jobs that they won't! It is way past time, to add something like -- I have always admired this country, my mother took us here, where I come from there are too many guns and drugs, whatever, say something positive about being in the US that cannot be misconstrued.
I just made a small donation and thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. Every little bit helps. This organization is doing God's work. I am so ashamed that our country makes working people live in fear.
From Tallahassee: I’m deeply ashamed of my country. We are having ICE happen here, as well. Hold fast to your dreams!!! Together we can make it happen for you and other of our young Americans.
Just donated, Adrian. The Bulwark Family is mighty - hope we can kick up those totals!! Thank you for your reporting. Huddled Masses is a must read in our current crisis.
I’m in shock when driving by a park a few miles from me where every weekend it would be packed with people playing soccer and a bunch of vendors at the park. For about 2 months it was dead. Until last weekend I saw a few more people out. I will say though, that the amount of street vendors lined up on sidewalks the last few years was getting out of hand. Two taco stands on one side and 1 across the street from
Them. The city does need to regulate a bit more. I’m for people’s hustle, but with some regulation. Specially when someone who has a brick and mortar and they pay rent, business license, permit, overhead, etc and street vendors don’t need any of that. And yet they charge prices like an actual restaurant. This of course is a side bar complain because what ICE is doing is absolutely terrible. On the mental
Health component - people who are citizens are scared to go out as well. And I tell them to stop - fuck that! Don’t be afraid to still live your life. That’s what this regime wants. They want you to be fearful. Fuck them!!
“I want to live the American dream. . . . Just because I’m not a citizen doesn’t mean I don’t deserve a good life."
This quote right here is rhetorical dynamite in the hands of MAGA apologists. It encapsulates the whole Trumpian rationale in a single thought.
Their response would be: 1.) No one would want to deny you a good life--- only that you deserve it in your own country. 2.) If you want your share of the American Dream there are legal ways to go about doing so. 3.) The awful consequences you, and your families, are experiencing today is due to your choice to come here and stay illegally and previous administrations (since Reagan) failing to enforce immigration laws.
None of this addresses the cruelty being used to enforce the laws, the gestapo tactics, and terror this induces on real human beings in the real world. The "Juden Raus!" mentality and ferocious hate on display transcends any mere enforcement of the laws. The rendition of people to unstable countries with which they have no connection and no support was simply indefensible until the Supreme Court allowed it to continue.
I want to live the American Dream, too. But this is definitely not it!
I had exactly the same reaction when I read Maribel's quote. She's been put into an untenable situation by Republican refusals to deal with sane immigration reform, but as soon as the words "just because I'm not a citizen" are uttered, the game is lost, because it conveys, intentionally or not, that the speaker believes citizenship is just a social construct, immigration laws don't matter, and open borders is the preferable societal position. The backlash to that subliminal message was fierce against Harris in 2024 (she was blamed for Biden's early inability to change the southern border dynamic) and will remain fierce, and not just by MAGA apologists. In today's New York Times, Nick Kristof (hardly a MAGA apologist) has a column entitled "A Pro-Trump Community Reckons With Losing a Beloved Immigrant Neighbor" in which he discusses at length the recent deportation of an undocumented Mexican immigrant who has lived in Oregon's Yamhill County (Kristof's home county) for 31 years and owns a vineyard management company employing 10 people. Kristof notes in the piece that "the rule of thumb is that whenever the foreign-born share of a population surges to somewhere around 15 percent, there is discontent. In the United States, the foreign-born share has tripled since 1970 and is now around 15 percent. The top estimate, 15.8 percent, would constitute the highest level of immigrants in America since at least 1850." Trump's policies and gestapo-like tactics against illegal immigrants are heinous; but the reality is that there is an upper limit to tolerance of illegal immigration. Unfortunately, people like Maribel are now caught in the crossfire.
If the American Dream were real, Maribel would be its icon—standing beside a cart of toys, mangoes, and resilience, not wrapped in red tape or chased by ICE like a fugitive in her own neighborhood.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t immigration policy. It’s spiritual malpractice. Tearing families apart to "protect borders" is just nationalism dressed up in fear and baptized in cruelty. And it’s the vendors, the ones feeding us, clothing us, smiling through the grind, who get trampled first.
The truth? The soul of a country is not found in its flag—it’s found in how it treats the people with the least paperwork and the most courage.
Maribel doesn’t need our pity. She needs a damn path.
And if you’ve ever bought a taco from a street cart, tipped a fruit vendor, or just enjoyed a guava Mezcal in the sun—then you already owe them.
Do the holy thing: donate, drink, dance, and show up. Because blessed are the hustlers—they make America taste like home.
I’m so thankful Adrian for your tireless reporting on the human suffering and stories about our immigrant neighbors. If you have a chance , I’d also like to hear some of the bigger picture policies going back over decades, the complicity of employers in the tolerance, encouragement, of undocumented immigrants in order to hold down their costs and discourage collective bargaining for better conditions. I do t think it’s too early to look for policy solutions to create a more humane system.
Too bad the simplest and most morally defendable position of scrapping border controls completely, is not currently politically feasible. I think future generations will look back on the discrimination based on the location of a person’s birth to be as morally repugnant as slavery.
Above is a budget projection chart from the CBO and DHS. I was just reading the small print at the bottom and was somewhat shocked to discover that the estimated increase for 2029 is just into January (through 1/20/29, call it 3 weeks) and is a VERY OPEN-ENDED projection. It APPEARS that the funding is falling off sharply which gives the impression that the ICE funding surge is finally ending. But using a dead-reckoning approach, if we assume the amount of increased budget is about $4B (my estimate taken from the chart), the budget increase estimate for all of 2029 ranges from $4B to $65.3B [(52-3)($4B/3)] which is HUGELY PROVOCATIVE.
We are absolutely seeing the effects of this Republican economy in New Mexico. Restaurants that normally are packed on weekends are mostly empty. Some are closing, some are reducing hours, the rest are limping along. Before Trump, they were chronically understaffed because they couldn't find enough workers. Now they don't have enough customers, and they are firing workers. Some who are staying home are afraid of ICE, some have lost their jobs, and others are afraid they will lose their jobs.
Friends who attend a predominantly Hispanic church told us that ICE raided a park across from the church yesterday, and unidentifiable masked goons hauled people away. It's not just undocumented workers who have stopped going out in public. If you are not white enough, people who have green cards or are even citizens are afraid they will be scooped up by ICE and will be abused.
It would be a mistake to think a large majority of Americans are repulsed by this. I grew up in small communities in Iowa in the heart of MAGA America. The kind of communities where everybody goes to church and where they elect politicians who say people crossing the border are "poisoning the blood" of "real Americans." Republicans have so dehumanized immigrants that most of the people I grew up with support the mass deportations, because "they deserve what happens to them." A lot of them actually enjoy the performative cruelty. What is the line that Trump couldn't cross without citizens in MAGA America believing he has gone too far? For an uncomfortable majority of them, there is no line.
I read a story over the weekend about how the immigrant purge is affecting senior home health care, largely staffed by immigrants, either undocumented or previously legal by virtue of temporary protected status that's now been pulled. Perhaps once some of the poisoning-the-blood types will have a change of heart when they themselves have to quit their jobs to take care of elderly parents because there's nobody else to do so.
Although I suppose first they'll insist people whose Medicaid has been cut take jobs giving Mom a bath and changing Dad's diapers (never mind that they also can't afford a functioning car to get to the neighborhood where anyone financially secure enough to afford home health care lives).
The deportations are affecting many parts of the economy. Workers in construction, landscaping, and agriculture are predominantly immigrants. The language of choice at job sites around the country is Spanish. Many of them are citizens. Many of the rest have documentation and green cards; some do not. All of them improve our economy and make America better.
I'm not sure if this is part of the same initiative, but there is a movement to buy up all of a street vendor's goods - this is for flower and fruit vendors - so they can go home and be safe.
Hey everyone, I wanted to share the GoFundMe for Maribel and her family. They’re currently dealing with an eviction and this will help her and her mom and brother get on their feet as they deal with this difficult situation. I wanted to share it here since The Bulwark family keeps reminding us how they’re looking for ways to help people. I think it’s a really beautiful and honorable thing.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-maribel-and-her-family?attribution_id=sl:7c9e80fb-d0f6-4a65-99d6-5585f3710c52&lang=en_US&ts=1752942914&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_content=amp13_t1-amp14_t2&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&v=amp14_t2
It is shameful how close to the edge these people are. I do have one suggestion, however. It is too late to keep saying "I just want to work". Wrong approach. That phrase encourages people who seem to believe that they are losing jobs because of people who do jobs that they won't! It is way past time, to add something like -- I have always admired this country, my mother took us here, where I come from there are too many guns and drugs, whatever, say something positive about being in the US that cannot be misconstrued.
I just made a small donation and thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. Every little bit helps. This organization is doing God's work. I am so ashamed that our country makes working people live in fear.
From Tallahassee: I’m deeply ashamed of my country. We are having ICE happen here, as well. Hold fast to your dreams!!! Together we can make it happen for you and other of our young Americans.
Just donated, Adrian. The Bulwark Family is mighty - hope we can kick up those totals!! Thank you for your reporting. Huddled Masses is a must read in our current crisis.
I’m in shock when driving by a park a few miles from me where every weekend it would be packed with people playing soccer and a bunch of vendors at the park. For about 2 months it was dead. Until last weekend I saw a few more people out. I will say though, that the amount of street vendors lined up on sidewalks the last few years was getting out of hand. Two taco stands on one side and 1 across the street from
Them. The city does need to regulate a bit more. I’m for people’s hustle, but with some regulation. Specially when someone who has a brick and mortar and they pay rent, business license, permit, overhead, etc and street vendors don’t need any of that. And yet they charge prices like an actual restaurant. This of course is a side bar complain because what ICE is doing is absolutely terrible. On the mental
Health component - people who are citizens are scared to go out as well. And I tell them to stop - fuck that! Don’t be afraid to still live your life. That’s what this regime wants. They want you to be fearful. Fuck them!!
“I want to live the American dream. . . . Just because I’m not a citizen doesn’t mean I don’t deserve a good life."
This quote right here is rhetorical dynamite in the hands of MAGA apologists. It encapsulates the whole Trumpian rationale in a single thought.
Their response would be: 1.) No one would want to deny you a good life--- only that you deserve it in your own country. 2.) If you want your share of the American Dream there are legal ways to go about doing so. 3.) The awful consequences you, and your families, are experiencing today is due to your choice to come here and stay illegally and previous administrations (since Reagan) failing to enforce immigration laws.
None of this addresses the cruelty being used to enforce the laws, the gestapo tactics, and terror this induces on real human beings in the real world. The "Juden Raus!" mentality and ferocious hate on display transcends any mere enforcement of the laws. The rendition of people to unstable countries with which they have no connection and no support was simply indefensible until the Supreme Court allowed it to continue.
I want to live the American Dream, too. But this is definitely not it!
I had exactly the same reaction when I read Maribel's quote. She's been put into an untenable situation by Republican refusals to deal with sane immigration reform, but as soon as the words "just because I'm not a citizen" are uttered, the game is lost, because it conveys, intentionally or not, that the speaker believes citizenship is just a social construct, immigration laws don't matter, and open borders is the preferable societal position. The backlash to that subliminal message was fierce against Harris in 2024 (she was blamed for Biden's early inability to change the southern border dynamic) and will remain fierce, and not just by MAGA apologists. In today's New York Times, Nick Kristof (hardly a MAGA apologist) has a column entitled "A Pro-Trump Community Reckons With Losing a Beloved Immigrant Neighbor" in which he discusses at length the recent deportation of an undocumented Mexican immigrant who has lived in Oregon's Yamhill County (Kristof's home county) for 31 years and owns a vineyard management company employing 10 people. Kristof notes in the piece that "the rule of thumb is that whenever the foreign-born share of a population surges to somewhere around 15 percent, there is discontent. In the United States, the foreign-born share has tripled since 1970 and is now around 15 percent. The top estimate, 15.8 percent, would constitute the highest level of immigrants in America since at least 1850." Trump's policies and gestapo-like tactics against illegal immigrants are heinous; but the reality is that there is an upper limit to tolerance of illegal immigration. Unfortunately, people like Maribel are now caught in the crossfire.
I donated. Thanks for the link. Important To support the community that is fighting on the front line.
Thank you, Adrian, for bringing the human stories. You're deeply appreciated!
If the American Dream were real, Maribel would be its icon—standing beside a cart of toys, mangoes, and resilience, not wrapped in red tape or chased by ICE like a fugitive in her own neighborhood.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t immigration policy. It’s spiritual malpractice. Tearing families apart to "protect borders" is just nationalism dressed up in fear and baptized in cruelty. And it’s the vendors, the ones feeding us, clothing us, smiling through the grind, who get trampled first.
The truth? The soul of a country is not found in its flag—it’s found in how it treats the people with the least paperwork and the most courage.
Maribel doesn’t need our pity. She needs a damn path.
And if you’ve ever bought a taco from a street cart, tipped a fruit vendor, or just enjoyed a guava Mezcal in the sun—then you already owe them.
Do the holy thing: donate, drink, dance, and show up. Because blessed are the hustlers—they make America taste like home.
I’m so thankful Adrian for your tireless reporting on the human suffering and stories about our immigrant neighbors. If you have a chance , I’d also like to hear some of the bigger picture policies going back over decades, the complicity of employers in the tolerance, encouragement, of undocumented immigrants in order to hold down their costs and discourage collective bargaining for better conditions. I do t think it’s too early to look for policy solutions to create a more humane system.
Too bad the simplest and most morally defendable position of scrapping border controls completely, is not currently politically feasible. I think future generations will look back on the discrimination based on the location of a person’s birth to be as morally repugnant as slavery.
Where to buy online those beautiful blue/white t-shirts?
https://www.dropbox.com/t/5SwzT6hxy8cHTCH1
Above is a budget projection chart from the CBO and DHS. I was just reading the small print at the bottom and was somewhat shocked to discover that the estimated increase for 2029 is just into January (through 1/20/29, call it 3 weeks) and is a VERY OPEN-ENDED projection. It APPEARS that the funding is falling off sharply which gives the impression that the ICE funding surge is finally ending. But using a dead-reckoning approach, if we assume the amount of increased budget is about $4B (my estimate taken from the chart), the budget increase estimate for all of 2029 ranges from $4B to $65.3B [(52-3)($4B/3)] which is HUGELY PROVOCATIVE.
We are absolutely seeing the effects of this Republican economy in New Mexico. Restaurants that normally are packed on weekends are mostly empty. Some are closing, some are reducing hours, the rest are limping along. Before Trump, they were chronically understaffed because they couldn't find enough workers. Now they don't have enough customers, and they are firing workers. Some who are staying home are afraid of ICE, some have lost their jobs, and others are afraid they will lose their jobs.
Friends who attend a predominantly Hispanic church told us that ICE raided a park across from the church yesterday, and unidentifiable masked goons hauled people away. It's not just undocumented workers who have stopped going out in public. If you are not white enough, people who have green cards or are even citizens are afraid they will be scooped up by ICE and will be abused.
It would be a mistake to think a large majority of Americans are repulsed by this. I grew up in small communities in Iowa in the heart of MAGA America. The kind of communities where everybody goes to church and where they elect politicians who say people crossing the border are "poisoning the blood" of "real Americans." Republicans have so dehumanized immigrants that most of the people I grew up with support the mass deportations, because "they deserve what happens to them." A lot of them actually enjoy the performative cruelty. What is the line that Trump couldn't cross without citizens in MAGA America believing he has gone too far? For an uncomfortable majority of them, there is no line.
I read a story over the weekend about how the immigrant purge is affecting senior home health care, largely staffed by immigrants, either undocumented or previously legal by virtue of temporary protected status that's now been pulled. Perhaps once some of the poisoning-the-blood types will have a change of heart when they themselves have to quit their jobs to take care of elderly parents because there's nobody else to do so.
Although I suppose first they'll insist people whose Medicaid has been cut take jobs giving Mom a bath and changing Dad's diapers (never mind that they also can't afford a functioning car to get to the neighborhood where anyone financially secure enough to afford home health care lives).
The deportations are affecting many parts of the economy. Workers in construction, landscaping, and agriculture are predominantly immigrants. The language of choice at job sites around the country is Spanish. Many of them are citizens. Many of the rest have documentation and green cards; some do not. All of them improve our economy and make America better.
I'm not sure if this is part of the same initiative, but there is a movement to buy up all of a street vendor's goods - this is for flower and fruit vendors - so they can go home and be safe.
Thank you for giving ways to help - after reading too much news this helps save sanity (at least a bit)
Thanks for your hard work.