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asylum-seekers
What You Don't Know About a Mass Deportation—How It Feels
The truth is, few people know. And those who do know aren’t telling. Or can’t. Well, I know. And we should all be horrified.
Jan 12, 2025
Everyone's talking about mass deportations: how much they'll cost; how they'll tank the economy; how they'll tear communities apart, even if the Trump regime can’t realistically corral and expel the millions of people living and working and raising families without status in the US. Even if their promise was only ever meant to stoke terror and drive the MAGA base to the polls.
What's missing from discussions—what’s always missing from the immigration discussion—is the human impact: what such missions look, feel, sound, and smell like as well as the trauma endured by all involved, including the federal agents made to carry out such actions.
The truth is, few people know. And those who do know aren’t telling. Or can’t.
Well, I know. And we should all be horrified.
I interviewed over four dozen people deported en masse under Trump 1.0 by ICE Air and Department of Defense contractor, Omni Air International. I describe their revelations in my book, Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands, one of only two public accounts that details what happens to an estimated average of 11,500 individuals on roughly one hundred ICE Air flights every month.
As I am not someone who’s been forced to endure the horrors of an ICE Enforcement and Removals Operation expulsion campaign, I can only imagine the terror and humiliation my sources felt based on the testimonies they shared with me. I, therefore, must ask you to imagine, too…
If you've ever been on a long-distance, economy-class flight, you will know that the body fatigues from sitting in the same position for too long. The joints swell, both from inaction as well as from the cabin's lower-than-normal humidity, which sucks moisture from the tissues and cells, causing dehydration. Shoes become uncomfortably tight; hands lose their grip. Even a six-hour journey across the continental US can be taxing to the lower back, hips, knees.
Now imagine being forced to fly across half the US as well as the Atlantic Ocean with your ankles in manacles, your hands cuffed, and tied tightly to a waist chain. Or your body locked in a torturous “stress position” because ICE ERO agents immobilized you in The WRAP. Imagine the links of the waist chain planting themselves into your spine and back muscles. Imagine not being able to shift or adjust them because you are bound for sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, thirty-six, even forty-eight hours in the case of a botched Omni Air International flight to Somalia documented by Rebecca Sharpless in Shackled (2024).
Imagine sitting for sixteen hours to Douala, Cameroon, your ankles and hands swelling, causing the metal hardware to pierce your skin and eat into your nerves. Imagine your panic at a moment of turbulence when you realize that in the event of an emergency, you will not be able to place over your nose and mouth the oxygen mask that drops from above; you will not be able to open the hatch if the aircraft lands on water; you will not be able to grab a life buoy or to tread water in the event you must deplane in a hurry. You will not be able to hurry. You will be helpless.
Imagine being fed nothing but stale white bread and potato chips. Imagine having to bend over, like a dog, to eat the tasteless, salty fare because your chains are so tight, that you cannot bring your hands to your mouth to feed yourself. Imagine not wishing to eat like a dog and going without, for sixteen hours, maybe more.
Imagine your mouth and nose so parched, the natural, human act of breathing causes you pain. Imagine hours passing before anyone offers you water. Now imagine being physically unable to raise the plastic bottle up to your bone-dry lips and throat.
"To get a drink," recounts Oscar (not his real name), "you had to squeeze both your hands around the container to push the water out the top and try to catch a little on your tongue."
Imagine not being allowed to go to the bathroom without the escort of an armed guard. Imagine having to shuffle your way down the aircraft aisle in manacles and chains with a bladder full to bursting only to find, when you reach the cabin restroom, that the guard refuses to close the door. It is impossible, of course, to lower zipper and trousers with your hands enchained. Imagine missing and soiling yourself. Imagine your escort erupting in laughter, shaming you. Imagine returning to your seat, made to sit in your own urine and feces.
Imagine being a menstruating woman denied a fresh pad; or given one but unable to apply it to soiled panties with bound hands. Imagine even wanting to try with the toilet door left open, and a male guard peering in. Laughing. Imagine.
Imagine that no one has cleaned the toilets and being overpowered by the stench of human excrement. Imagine trying desperately to hold it, but finally giving into the call of nature and the stench being so bad your body takes over. You pee in your pants as you retch, adding to the unholy mess.
I'm told it wasn't just the raw essence of human waste that infused Omni Air International N207AX. There was the constant sobbing of passengers; the ceaseless yelling of guards dressed for war and toting guns; and the odor of nervous, panicked sweat. Again quoting Oscar: "It was torture. You could smell the trauma."
Oscar wasn't the only one to say so. The four-dozen-plus accounts I collected from those forced into this ICE Air torture chamber collectively describe a flying Abu Ghraib. “There are laws preventing even terrorists being treated this way,” states Oscar.
He and the others were not terrorists. They were asylum seekers, fleeing a dictator’s war in which they had become human targets.
In the waning months of the first Trump administration, Omni Air International’s Boeing 767 wide bodies took off multiple times from Alliance Field in Fort Worth, Texas, a hub for defense contractors and cargo operators like Amazon, which is also the majority shareholder in Omni’s parent company, Air Transport Services Group (ATSG). Omni Air charged US taxpayers an estimated $1 million per mission.
How many such flights will it take to exile millions? And how many crimes against humanity will be committed by the so-called “leader of the free world” in the process? You do the math.
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Protecting Children From Trump’s Immigration Dumpster Fire
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump wants to eliminate the right to asylum, including for the most vulnerable: children.
Dec 07, 2024
The right to seek asylum or refuge from danger is a fundamental human right. It’s protected by both international and U.S. law.
But U.S. President-elect Donald Trump wants to eliminate that right, including for the most vulnerable: children. These children are often forced to cross the border without their parents to try and claim asylum in the United States.
I spoke with Arlene Rodriguez, Esteffany Luna, and Esther Ramos, who provide legal and social services to unaccompanied migrant youth in Texas. They gave me a glimpse into the daunting obstacles faced by young asylum seekers.
We’ll need to band together and advocate for local and state governments to pass legislation defending immigrant communities—and for President Joe Biden to take steps to protect migrants before Trump takes office.
Nearly a third of new cases in immigration court are minors, I learned, with 1 out of 8 being 0-4 years old.
But these children are expected to navigate the same complex processes as adults. “They have to sign their own agreements and applications, present themselves in court, and answer the judges’ questions,” said Ramos. “They’re treated very adversarially—not much different from adults.”
“Sometimes they’re so young they don’t understand what they’re being asked to do, or what is being asked of them,” Luna added.
Asylum applicants have to undergo “credible fear” screenings to convince authorities that it’s unsafe for them to go home. In interviews, documents, and court appearances, children are required to repeatedly disclose trauma, which takes a toll. “For older kids who are more conscious of the bad things they’ve experienced, it’s difficult to deal with having someone else know about it,” Rodriguez told me.
Unaccompanied minors with legal representation are nearly 100 times more likely to be granted relief than those without. But unfortunately, there’s no right to an attorney in immigration court, and pro bono legal services are scarce. And the few hard-won protections minors do have are at risk of being undermined as Trump retakes office.
During his first term, President Trump tried to terminate the 1997 Flores agreement, which set standards for the care and release of children in federal immigration custody. He gutted asylum qualifications, removing domestic and gang violence as reasons to obtain protection. And most notoriously, his “zero-tolerance” policy forcibly separated over 5,000 children from their parents in immigration custody.
Under a policy called Title 42, many asylum applicants were turned away altogether, violating their due process. Under “Remain in Mexico,” applicants including children were forced to await asylum hearings in Mexico, exposing many to danger. And courts were hostile and caseloads were rushed through.
Ramos put it bluntly: “Immigration law has always been hard—attorneys call it a dumpster fire. Under the Trump administration, it was like trying to put out a dumpster fire with a liter of gasoline.”
For children seeking asylum, the mental and emotional toll of these legal procedures is compounded by language barriers, social marginalization, and fear of deportation.
These fears can also deter their sponsors, the relatives or volunteers who take them in while their case proceeds—and who are often undocumented themselves. It can even discourage them from accessing medical care, educational services, and food banks due to fears of arrest.
The three experts I spoke to all agreed our immigration system is outdated and inefficient—but said reform should make it more welcoming, not restrictive.
Until then, we’ll need to band together and advocate for local and state governments to pass legislation defending immigrant communities—and for President Joe Biden to take steps to protect migrants before Trump takes office. You can also help by donating to organizations that support immigrants.
Asylum is a matter of life or death for these kids. If we truly care about the safety and dignity of children, our immigration policies must reflect that commitment.
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Time and Again, Mass Deportations Have Failed—Trump’s Plans Will Be No Different
The real result from Trump’s deportation plans will be not mass removals of people, but massive time delays and wastes of both Americans’ time and money.
Nov 21, 2024
When a student in the 2000s, I was actively involved in immigrant raid response efforts that churches, labor unions, and community groups organized to mitigate the effects of then-President George W. Bush’s nationwide enforcement actions.
We took resources like clothes, food, and money to affected families in the states of Minnesota and Iowa, and conducted “Know Your Rights Trainings” for undocumented workers on what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents went to their homes.
Since then, we have learned two things.
First is that enforcement actions, that is, arresting, detaining, and deporting people en masse, fail to stem the flow of undocumented migrants coming into the U.S. The Bush-era deportation machine didn’t stop the flow of people coming north, the lack of opportunities due to the 2007-08 financial crisis did. Deportations during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term paralleled what Bush did, but failed to reach Obama-era levels in terms of numbers. Still, Covid-19—not mass arrests—caused the drop in border crossings, illegal and legal. Crossings picked up post-pandemic with political and economic disasters in Central America and Venezuela driving people north.
How will it look with soldiers in camouflage arresting middle-aged workers picking lettuce?
The second thing we learned is how to play defense.
More to the point—in addition to remembering how to prepare immigrant communities for raids, groups like those I was part of grew to include politicians and lawyers who over the years generated sanctuary ordinances around the country that proved effective the first time Trump was in power. Accordingly, the tools for Trump’s mass deportation plan are well-known and his fantasy of addressing our ongoing immigration crisis by amping up arrests will fail.
Before parsing details, let’s make one thing clear—Trump’s immigration policies are mostly about generating fear, with little by way of serious substance. Just listen to incoming “Border Czar,” former ICE director Tom Homan, who promised “shock and awe”—the phrase used to inaugurate the U.S. war of aggression on Iraq in 2003—to describe the incoming administration’s approach to immigration policy.
Bombast and terror aside, we can expect that Biden-era policies like humanitarian parole for asylees from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela will be revoked. Restrictions on ICE concerning arrest priorities will also be lifted, like Trump did when he was first president. The president-elect has already said that his “Remain in Mexico” policy will return, which, for anyone trying to enter the United States to seek asylum, means that they cannot reside within the country while awaiting a court date. Trump will also seek resources from Congress to build a nonsensical wall that people desperately trying to get into the United States will either scale, dig under, or run around. Resources will also be sought for hiring additional border patrol agents and ICE officers.
Of the many problems Trump’s deportation machine will face, let’s start with this last one—personnel. Put simply, people don’t want to do Trump’s bidding. Nothing has changed in this regard since 2017, when he ordered the hiring of 5,000 additional agents to patrol the border. In 2018, just 118 people answered the call.
There is also the price tag for arresting and deporting the nearly 12 million undocumented people in the U.S., with estimates placing the cost of mass deportation at over $315 billion, shrinking the economy in the process by between 4% and 7%. Unphased, Trump has said that mass deportations “have no price tag.”
Trump may learn to regret those words, as besides money, the government will have to expend considerable time.
The reason is that the U.S. is a federal system where states and cities can, and have, created sanctuary policies. These ordinances, which are popular with law enforcement, stipulate that local police do their day-to-day jobs of providing security without collaborating with federal immigration authorities to arrest and deport undocumented people. Practically for immigrant justice, sanctuary policies gum up the deportation machine, making the federal government do its job alone. Despite what ill-informed critics claim, instead of creating a climate of murder and mayhem, sanctuary jurisdictions allow local police to work with federal agents when a person commits a violent crime.
There is also the idea that the military will be called to detain undocumented migrants, as Trump has mentioned.
Here the fear campaign is on full display. I mean, it’s scary to think that soldiers would be turned on undocumented people who live all around the country. Yet, pausing to think this through, the military does not have any special information as to the whereabouts of migrants. So, are we to expect military vehicles driving up and down city streets, with soldiers pointing rifles at people they suspect of being in the country illegally? Will the army storm farms around the country and detain half of the essential workers without status who make the food system operate? How will it look with soldiers in camouflage arresting middle-aged workers picking lettuce?
Regardless of the extent that Trump pushes mass arrests, he will for sure whine and complain about sanctuary policies, threatening the politicians who uphold them like he did in his first term. And like his first term, many politicians will resist. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are already gearing up.
For those areas outside of sanctuary jurisdiction, arrests may increase. This happened during Trump’s first time in power, especially in places like Florida’s Miami Dade county that repealed its sanctuary policies.
Here, the problem is that immigration courts are woefully under-resourced, reporting a backlog of 3 million cases. Some believe that doubling the number of judges will help address these cases—but by 2032. Mass arrests will only further jam up the system. Meanwhile, immigration lawyers are skilled at defending their clients, taking the time to search for how people can change their status, for instance if people have suffered domestic abuse or witnessed a crime.
This will be the real result from Trump’s deportation plans—not mass removals of people, but massive time delays and wastes of both Americans’ time and money.
Still, what is most important in this discussion are our immigrant movement networks. Before and during Trump’s first term, this movement has built an underground railroad of sorts, connecting immigrants with churches, legal resources, and meals if needed. And more critical than things, this movement has for years provided that one thing that Trump and his lackeys are working so hard to wrest from migrant communities—hope. That is, hope that there will be a better day for migrants and their allies to press serious politicians about making real reforms instead of being terrorized and living in fear.
Until that day comes, we fight on.
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