James Gleick

“The federal agency tasked with helping military family members gain legal status now refers them for deportation.”

This madness, this cruelty, must be stopped. So many ruined lives.

https://apnews.com/article/ice-detains-marine-veteran-wife-clouatre-802305fe0a364ef86a7cb61805129ee1

ICE detains the wife of a US Marine veteran

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained the wife of a Marine Corps veteran in Louisiana during a routine immigration appointment in New Orleans. Paola Clouatre is the mother of a breastfeeding infant and one of tens of thousands of people detained and facing deportation as the Trump administration pushes for immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day. Immigration law experts say directives for strict immigrant enforcement have cast away practices of deference previously afforded to military families. Adrian Clouatre says Paola Clouatre accompanied her mother into the country from Mexico more than a decade ago seeking asylum and had been applying for legal status.

AP News
Jun 23 at 9:30pmWeb
Show thread🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)1d ago

@gleick """Adrian Clouatre, eyes welling with tears, said he and his wife had tried to “do the right thing” and that he felt ICE officers should have more discretion over arrests, though he understood they were trying to do their jobs."""

If you're *just* doing your job, and your job is evil, then you're willfully *just* doing evil.

"doing a job" should never be held higher than "doing a humanity".

Show thread🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)1d ago
@gleick also, alienating military personnel by deporting their spouses seems like a good way to get a bunch of well-armed and trained people really mad at you.
Show threadGlitzersachen1d ago

@alice @gleick

> "doing a job" should never be held higher than "doing a humanity".

That, basically, phrased in lay terms, was the core concept underlying the Nuremberg processes.

There is a reason, why I have recently started to wave them around a bit. "We made a law" or "I have orders" is post-1945 not a valid justification for a lot of things any more.

Show threadideogram17h ago
@glitzersachen
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr was just "doing a job" when he flew a plane that killed 90-160,000 people in Hiroshima.
@alice @gleick
Show threadGlitzersachen15h ago

@ideogram @alice @gleick

Not sure how relevant this is here...

Show threadargonaut20h ago
@alice @gleick "I just was doing my job" was the excuse used by tens of thousands of helpers of the German Nazi regime.
Show threadMiss Gayle1d ago

@gleick

Maybe this will finally convince the higher ups in the military that it's time for some serious regime change in the US.

Show threadRichard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴‍♂️📷 🗺️1d ago

@gleick

It's the cruelty stupid.

Show threadNicole Parsons1d ago

@gleick

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/07/13/the-history-of-far-right-populism-from-the-john-birch-society-to-qanon

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/03/nx-s1-5176529/john-birch-society-movement-conspiracy-politics

There are many who deluded themselves that campaign donations from rich billionaire bigots would have no impact on domestic policy. Hah!

https://www.desmog.com/2024/10/25/project-2025-trump-mapped-how-6-billionaire-family-fortunes-fund-climate-denial/

The John Birch Society founders now run immigration policy.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/a-view-from-the-fringe

https://majorityreportradio.com/tag/john-birch-society

They paid for it.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/big-oil-donations-trump

The history of far-right populism, from the John Birch Society to Trumpism

Decades before QAnon, far-right conspiracists were already pushing a conservative political agenda. We discuss the history of far-right populism – from the John Birch Society to Trumpism.

Show threadArbres1d ago

@gleick This was entirely preventable.
People just had to show up and vote straight ticket #Dem

They didn't.

And many people still aren't listening to reason.
There are too many very loud idiots who are listened to instead of experts.
People who don't know how things function and don't bother to learn will always be pounding sand.

Show threadan actual bus1d ago
@gleick Imagine serving in a war for your country, ostensibly to protect your loved ones, and then once you've served your country is the one who hurts your loved ones.
Show threadargonaut20h ago
@renardboy @gleick Serving Germany in the 1914-1918 war didn't protect jewish people from being deported or murdered by the Nazis later.
Show threadChristin White1d ago

@gleick A decade ago, Ice detained and deported a close friend of mine who also happened to be a Marine veteran who never bothered getting citizenship.

He had a felony behind him but had served his time and been in perfect compliance with the justice system's restrictions and oversight for 10+ years at that point.

They arrested him with no warning, he barely talked them into letting him put shoes on (with fresh Colorado winter snow on the ground).

Being white and having the privilege of being able to afford a decent immigration lawyer, they were able to get him deported after three months. Much better than the year or more that most other people locked up by Ice were getting at the time.

Cruelty is the policy and while the current administration has turned it up it's nothing new.

My friend and his wife (a natural US citizen) are happily living back in his home country, the UK, where their justice system said they considered his crime no longer relevant after his sentence and compliance record.

Show threadFalling forward 🌵1d ago

@gleick
> he felt ICE officers should have more discretion over arrests, though he understood they were trying to do their jobs.

Let's hope he made a decision to be diplomatic when talking to the reporter, and that isn't what he actually thinks.