IS ICE A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION?

The question of who in the United States feels safest and for how long—and why—has become the dominant question governing life in this country

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Federal agents confront protesters at an ICE raid on a farm in Ventura County, California, in July.

"They don't need probable cause.... What they need to detain someone and question them is reasonable suspicion."-Tom Homan, U. S. "border czar" "The homegrowns are next."-45/47

WHAT IN THE WORLD COULD I, A U. S.-BORN, long-law-abiding citizen, have had to be fearful about, some might say. But there I was, returning from a book festival in Jamaica, winding through immigration, running through the list of possible scenarios: agents ushering me into a stark room and forcing me to unlock my devices to verify allegiance to an authoritarian; badgering me to kingdom come about my critiques of a regime; detaining me without charges or flying me to a foreign gulag infamous for vanishing humans. Those fears tempered a modicum when I saw that my immigration officer was also a Black man. He glanced at my passport and back at me-twice! “Sir, can you step to the side, please,” he said. And with those few words, he tuned my heart to triple-time reggae one-drop.

Why? Because as an informed Black man living in the reign of MAGA, I know that even U.S.-born, long-law-abiding-citizen me is not inoculated against the worst fates. ICE is sending a clear message that damn near every day there’s less to secure my or my people's safekeep.

How does this Black man feel living during the reign of ICE? Somewhere between rightfully fearful and reasonably terrified. But a more crucial question, if not the crucialest question, is how does it feel to be a white guy-an average joe-during this bold new era of white supremacy ICE is helping to foment?