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I put out an ask for stories from our Bulwark community and *you guys delivered*. We want Huddled Masses to cover the stories that bring hope in these dark times or at least shine a light on bitter truths this administration would rather keep buried—and we are able to do so with the support of our Bulwark+ members. If you’re not already a member, please consider signing up. Your first 30 days are free, so you can kick the tires for a while.
Have an amazing Christmas—you may have heard we can finally say it again—and a lovely holiday season.
–Adrian
The Americans Who Stood Up for Immigrants This Year
Faced with the Trump-Miller firehose of cruelty, many people rose up to defend their neighbors, friends, and fellow worshipers.
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IT HAS BEEN HARD TO TAKE IN the flood of news stories this year about immigration. When you start paying attention to this issue, it’s easy to fall into a deep, dark vortex of pain and despair. That’s what the mass deportation regime is designed, in part, to do—to keep its targets anxious and its opponents demoralized. I feel it from covering these stories every day, and I can tell from the comments sections that many of you feel the same way.
But we haven’t seen only fear and terror this year.
At the heart of mass deportation is the idea that all of these people are criminals, the worst of the worst; you shouldn’t care what happens to them, and you should want them deported. Americans, however, from Pennsylvania to Portland, from Los Angeles to Montana, have responded: No. These are my neighbors. These are my friends. We go to church together. She carpools my kids to school. Our children play soccer together.
I put out a call for our readers to share stories of when folks fought back and stood up for immigrants this year. Here are a few selections from what they sent us.
Small town, big heart
When residents of Waldport, Oregon—about three hours southwest of Portland—heard this month that a local hotel owner was going to sign a contract to rent space to ICE, they mobilized. A December 10 city council meeting became a fight for the town’s soul.
The city council received almost 700 emails from residents opposing the deal, which is a lot in a city with a population of 2,200. With 120 residents filling a community center for the meeting, the city manager informed residents that the hotel owner had decided not to sign the contract to provide lodging for ICE agents. This local story moved me. It also struck Donovan from Oregon, our subscriber who sent it in; he said he “was moved to tears of admiration” from “salt-of-the-earth citizens” at the city council meeting.
It can feel daunting to try to oppose the force of the federal government—especially when that force shows up with combat fatigues, big guns, unmarked vans, and masked agents. But in this case, all it took to keep federal agents away was a few hundred citizens saying, Not in our town.¹
Stopping detentions
The mass deportation campaign is defined by two features that are, in a way, inseparable: the overt cruelty and the heedless illegality. One of the most frustrating kinds of stories to cover is about people who are here legally but are still being swept up in the federal dragnet just because they’re Latino. That’s what happened to Ruperto Vicens-Marquez, a chef from Monmouth County, New Jersey who owns two restaurants with his brother and has a valid work permit through 2029. Federal agents arrested him along with someone else they suspected of being in the country illegally.
But the community didn’t forget about him. They held rallies in his, including two in which a hundred people showed up to demand his release. These efforts were boosted by 45 letters of support to the court.
The community’s outpouring of support for Vicens-Marquez led Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) to join the fight to push for his release. And Atlantic Highlands Mayor Lori Hohenleitner spoke up in Vicens-Marquez’s defense, creating and promoting a GoFundMe that led community members to donate more than $100,000 for his family.
The judge who ordered Vincens-Marquez’s release after he spent a month in detention said the outpouring of support made it clear that the chef had very deep ties to the community, as HuffPost reported.
Hohenleitner and a former council member later made a trip to Newark to pay Vicens-Marquez’s bond, and after he finally reached home, the community held another rally to welcome him back.
“When a lot of people get together, at least in my case, things are possible,” Vicens-Marquez said. “Miracles happen.”
Taking care
I’ve written a lot about Chicago this year, but here’s a story I missed: Citizens are raising money to help Chicagoland families affected by ICE this holiday season. They call their effort Operation Midway Bliss, a play on “Midway Blitz,” the name DHS gave its recent enforcement operation in the city.² As of this writing, they’ve raised just short of $32,000.