It's happening here
How a single conversation with an Iraqi sheik in 2003 foretold what I would see in my own country two decades later
Men in masks
I saw this picture on Thursday. The author of the post, Madison Swart, has been covering immigration courts for years.
She walked out of her immigration hearing smiling — clutching her papers, standing tall, hopeful. She had no idea the man approaching her in the hallway was ICE. No idea she was about to be detained.I’ve documented a lot over the years, but this one broke me. She was so happy. So proud. And in seconds, that hope was crushed.This is what’s happening inside New York’s immigration courts. Right now. Every day.
I want you to look at her face. She is doing it right. She appeared at Immigration Court. She has all of her papers. She has been pursuing the dream so many of our ancestors came to America to pursue.
She is following the rules and these cowardly monsters in masks scooped her up and checked another body off their quota for the day.
Is she a criminal? No.
Did she break the rules? No.
She is a number and a Latina face. She will be counted on a spreadsheet and the twisted souls running ICE and the Department of “Homeland Security” will tell lies on Fox News that she was a criminal and people like me who defend her hate America.
I love America. My father’s ancestors came here in 1640 to flee religious persecution in England. My mother’s ancestors came her in the early 1900’s from Italy through Ellis Island.
Someone in my patriarchal line served in damn near every single American war from the French and Indian War to my three tours in Iraq.
They all loved America.
I bet that young woman with the smile on her face does too.
Now she was grabbed by this anonymous thug and disappeared.
A mud brick house in Ninewa Province
In August of 2003 I found myself spending three or four days a week touring villages outside our bast at Q-West in southern Ninewa Province some 40 or so miles south of Mosul. In addition to my role as Operations Officer for 6-101st Aviation I was the Civil Affairs Officer for a wide swath of farmland surrounding our base.
My main partner was a local sheik, Dr. Mohammed. We spent countless hours together visiting in his home and meeting leaders of others. Building goodwill and helping them recover from the war. My team built schools, a clinic, roads, and delivered water to their villages.
I ate a lot of sheep.
We talked constantly about our countries, life, family, and our hopes for the future. In August we started having bombs explode on the main highway that ran through our sector from Baghdad to Mosul. Often they were planted in broad daylight.
One day I asked Dr. Mohammed how it was possible for the insurgents to dig holes and plant bombs in broad daylight and no one on the highway saw it and reported it to the nearest American or Iraqi unit. How they could just drive by and not say anything.
He said something profound that sticks with me today.
“Major Wellman, you must understand that for 35 years in Iraq under Saddam you learned to not see things. You didn’t see when the men pulled up in black SUV’s and took the family next door away. You didn’t see when they raided the next village.”
“You survived by not seeing things.”
Do you see?
We face an existential crisis as a nation. Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan have unleashed an evil flood of masked agents armed with guns, quotas, and absolute impunity to do whatever they want to whomever they pick to target.
They have convinced millions of Americans that these are criminals. They are taking our jobs. They are getting government benefits. That you are struggling because these brown skinned people seeking a better life are taking what should be yours.
It’s all lies and now millions of Americans refuse to see what is right in front of their eyes. A police state of masked men who do whatever they want and if you get in their way you will get disappeared too.
So, I ask you. Do you see…or are you going to be a coward?
I see it. I know what happens. People like to say “but, Fred, look what happened to Saddam.”
Yes, 35 years after he took over. After he started wars with all of his neighbors, after he slaughtered millions, gassed the Kurds, committed a genocide, and led the world to war not once but twice…he got strung up.
I’d like to skip all of that and stop it now.
Don’t hide your eyes. Don’t look away.
Fight before it’s too damn late. Run for office. Volunteer. Donate to the ACLU and other organizations. Write. Call. Protest. Scream.
Don’t let these bastards win.
Mohammed was murdered in the clinic I built for him by ISIS terrorists in 2011.
I know how this ends. I am still coming to terms with it all.
Let’s not do this here.
Thank you, Fred, for this important post. As an immigrant (at age four) and a naturalized US citizen, my heart aches for the hopeful young woman who was illegally kidnapped by ICE. Dammit, that makes me mad. I pray for her safety, and for all the other victims of Dump’s Gestapo. My condolences on the loss of your friend, Mohammed. Thank you for sharing his story. We live in terrible times. Please know that I am grateful for you. 🫶🏼
Thank you Fred Wellman for your continued service. You are truly an American hero.