Nate Watson: When sensation eclipses injustice

This past week saw two unsettling videos come out within 24 hours of each other. In the first, RumeysaOzturk, a Tufts University graduate student and visa-holder, is dragged off the street by masked, plainclothes ICE agents. Like Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident also targeted for anti-Zionist activism, she is held in detention without facing formal charges.

In the second, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem stands before an overcrowded prison cell in El Salvador, threatening future asylum seekers with indefinite detention at the facility where the Trump administration, in defiance of a court order, deported 238 Venezuelan immigrants. While none face formal charges, many of the accusations appear unfounded — Jerce Reyes Barrios and Neri Jose Alvarado Borges were deported for their Real Madrid and autism-awareness tattoos being misidentified as gang-related, while Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported “accidentally.”

Citizen or immigrant, guilty or innocent, all are entitled to due process in this country. Holding these individuals without charge not only violates the law, but erodes one of the few principles still distinguishing us from a full-blown dictatorship. Had these abductions occurred during Trump’s first term, they would have dominated the news cycle, perhaps with their own recognizable scandal name (like “kids in cages,” 2018).

However, this week’s headlines, along with press releases on Democratic Congress members’ websites, were dominated by “Signalgate.” Though tempting to relish in the administration’s incompetence, it normalizes something far more sinister. Do not let their stupidity overshadow their cruelty, nor their incompetence obscure the damage they’re doing.

Nate Watson

Northampton