Deaf, out of breath, and terrified, Javier Diaz tried grabbing his Real ID out of his wallet to show the migra. But they snatched his wallet and his phone before sending him away to an El Paso detention center where he couldn’t communicate with his family or lawyer for weeks.
Pomona gardener Jose Luis Zavala was eating lunch on a landscaping job in La Mirada when ICE agents pulled up in masks and threw him into an SUV. No warrant. No warning. Just gone. His family didn't even know where he was for a while.
Narciso Barranco, an undocumented father of three active-duty U.S. Marines, was detained while doing landscaping work near an IHOP in Santa Ana. Video footage from the incident shows agents in “U.S. Border Patrol Police” vests forcefully pinning Barranco to the ground and punching him.
Believe it or not, these are three stories that gave me a modicum of hope in a deluge of harrowing news that seems to chase me all day long, as I try my best to keep my head down, be a good working writer, eat tacos (only if they have decent tortillas), eat a stupid amount protein, and make my wife laugh more times than I make her cringe.