The “Moral Monsters” Among Us
Immigrants are dying now. Will people of good conscience speak up?
“I’m terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country. These people have deluded themselves for so long, they really don’t think I’m human. I base this on their conduct, not on what they say. And this means that they have become, in themselves, moral monsters.”
–James Baldwin
LET’S GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY: When it comes to the recent deaths of immigrants being held in detention, it would be wrong to describe the situation as wholly unprecedented. Detainees died under Bush, Obama, and Biden. But detainee deaths have accelerated during President Donald Trump’s second term, with 17 already since his inauguration. During the Biden administration, there were 26 deaths in 48 months—roughly one death every two months. During Trump’s term, that rate has nearly quadrupled. And ICE, now one of the best-funded operations of the federal government, is planning to double detention space before the end of the year.
“It’s absolutely horrific,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the immigration subcommittee, told me before jumping into the numbers above. In July, ICE was awarded $45 billion to expand its operations—its budget is now significantly larger than that of the federal prison system. And now, Jayapal points out, a little-known LLC has been awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build a facility in Texas despite never having previously won a federal contract for more than $16 million. Meanwhile, another $2.25 million contract was given to a Republican donor who received a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton in 2000 after having pleaded guilty to mail fraud.
“Contracts are being distributed to Trump’s buddies and people with no experience running detention centers, many of these contracts are no-bid,” Rep. Jayapal said. “They’re incarcerating people and allowing them to die, not providing medical facilities. There are no standards. It’s horrific.”
Most ICE and border patrol agents will continue working during the government shutdown; their status as “essential” will shield them from the layoffs OMB director Russell Vought has requested in lieu of furloughs from most agencies and departments. But the nature of immigration officers’ “essential” work has significantly changed over the past eight months to become something far more brutal than procedural; in some cases, it has come to appear simply heartless. We have entered a period in which it is becoming important to ask: What happens when our leaders and the people who work for them see immigrants not as human beings but as scum? And what happens when that way of thinking about people starts also to be applied to others, like journalists and political opponents?
THE QUESTION OF DEHUMANIZATION isn’t theoretical. Consider the case of Hediberto Ramirez Perez. He was detained on September 4 and wrongfully deported to Guatemala despite having a U.S. work authorization card to work at a factory in upstate New York. Body-camera footage from the scene of the arrest, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, recorded the unguarded comments of a federal agent describing his time at the Ursula detention center in McAllen, Texas, where Perez would be sent.
The agent said he routinely denied detainees’ use of a telephone and requests for medical attention:
I would not let anybody out of their cells, so we did it in an orderly fashion, had them all lined up. It’s bathroom time, or it’s f— brush your teeth time, or it’s food time. Other than that, nope, your a— is staying in there. “But you can’t do that.” I absolutely can. “I need a phone call.” No you don’t. “I need to go to medical.” Nope, you look good to me.
“They’re animals anyway,” the agent said. “That’s what I would tell my kids all the time.”
Or consider the case of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. On September 12 in Chicago, he had just dropped off his 3-year-old son at day care when an unmarked car pulled in front of his own. Less than a minute later he was dead, killed by an ICE agent.
The Department of Homeland Security was quick to tell us a story of a terrible immigrant who resisted arrest, dragged an agent with his car, and threatened public safety, until he was put down by one of our brave immigration agents.
Well, there is more to the story, including some inconvenient video. As the Chicago Sun Times reported, the footage shows the agent was fully mobile after the shooting and said his own injuries were “nothing major.”
“DHS lied about what happened,” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said on X. “There needs to be a full, thorough investigation into what happened that morning. All camera footage must be released. And [DHS Secretary Kristi] Noem must come to the [House Homeland Security] committee and account for ICE’s unlawfulness and lies.”
Twelve days after the death of Villegas-Gonzalez, a gunman opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas killing one immigrant, Norlan Guzmán-Fuente, and injuring two others, one of whom, Miguel Ángel García-Hernández, died a few days later.
How did the agencies and Vice President JD Vance describe the situation? “The obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop,” Vance wrote, adding a prayer for everyone hurt and their families. FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that unspent casings had the words “Anti-ICE” on them, without mentioning that the people shot and killed were immigrants.
Immigrants have suffered particularly since Trump returned to the White House, but they are not the only group to have been openly abused. We’ve also seen protesters, Democrats, and journalists attacked, violently assaulted or shot at. It is worth wondering whether a tragedy involving one of these groups could come next.
In Chicago, CBS News reporter Asal Rezaei was driving with the window down when a pepper ball shot by an ICE agent hit the side of her truck, releasing chemical agents inside the cab of the vehicle, inflaming her skin and causing her to vomit. Needless to say, the shooting could have led to serious injury or worse.
On Tuesday, photographer Stephanie Keith posted a video of ICE agents violently throwing to the ground two photographers at the federal courthouse, causing one to be taken out on a gurney.
“ICE is operating as this rogue force, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jayapal told me. “Violence is being performed, encouraged, and perpetrated from the top by the White House. . . . they put out these videos celebrating this ethos, that kind of violence they celebrate of all of the masked ICE agents kidnapping people. You look at these videos and think you must be looking at some other country.”
“Carrasquillo, Is There Any Hope?”
I used to have a hilarious colleague, Nicolás Medina Mora, who would randomly say the line above to me. This was circa 2016, if you get my drift. I think of it now because Bulwark readers frequently write to us saying that they appreciate the importance of our reporting but they’re often left grasping for hope or looking for some way forward—signs that good people are still fighting back.
What was reinforced working on today’s newsletter is that the effect of such violence extends beyond its immediate targets, affecting the community at large and interfering with everyday life. But Americans are mobilizing to protect their neighbors and communities. In response to ICE operations conducted around schools, Lorella Praeli, the co-president of Community Change, created the Kids Belong in Classrooms campaign, led by a coalition that includes the two big teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. The goal is for Americans to step up to share best practices and create new tactics to shield their immigrant community members from ICE enforcement near schools. The idea was tested in Washington, D.C., when the National Guard came to town. Within twenty-four hours, a thousand people RSVPed to join the call. Last week, 1,700 people from around the country—including educators, community members, parents, and child-care providers—joined a second call.
“Having ICE enforcement presence outside and around school zones is having a chilling effect not just around immigrant communities, but also disrupting communities writ large,” Praeli told me.
In Dallas, Pastor George Mason has been leading vigils since May outside the Dallas ICE facility where the immigrants were shot and killed. A group of two dozen or more gather to pray and be a supportive presence for immigrants presenting themselves for check-ins. They also pray for the people working for ICE.
“We want ICE to know we’re there, we pray for them, for their safety, but also for their conscience,” he told me. “We’re all aware they have a job to do and they don’t necessarily control what they have to do, but they can control how they do it and how they treat people. We want to be a reminder to them of the humanity of these people.”
With the facility closed after the shooting, Mason’s flock hasn’t held a vigil there, but the pastor plans to return with his group every Monday to bear witness.
I asked him what he would say to people who are following the brutal actions of ICE and feeling increasing despair. He took a breath and a beat to answer.
“What I would say is that history is full of periods when we did not see light in the midst of the darkness. And just as we are surprised that this is taking place right now, we can be surprised by the light that comes, too,” he said. “I think that people can’t stop believing in what is good and right and pursuing it, and although there is no inevitability of an outcome that is rosy and hopeful, there won’t be that future if we don’t persist in pursuing it.”
You know what I see when I see that photo at the top of the newsletter? A bunch of cowards. A bunch of cowards who don’t want to own what they are doing. Take your masks off, cowards. If you’re going to do horrible things, you might as well let everyone you know know that you’re doing them, or get another job. There’s always another job. Maybe you could pick some fruit for a job instead of being a monster for a job.
Thank you Rev Mason for this:
“What I would say is that history is full of periods when we did not see light in the midst of the darkness. And just as we are surprised that this is taking place right now, we can be surprised by the light that comes, too. I
think that people can’t stop believing in what is good and right and pursuing it, and although there is no inevitability of an outcome that is rosy and hopeful, there won’t be that future if we don’t persist in pursuing it.”