This is the family of Kasper Eriksen. He was a Danish citizen who emigrated to the US and started a family in Mississippi.
Look at them! They’re perfect! Blonde and probably blue-eyed, coming from one of the “good” countries, and Kasper even made Xitter posts praising Trump. It’s not like he’s from one of the 12 countries that were just fully excluded from sending people to the US (curiously, those banned countries just happen to be full of brown people.)
And Kasper was a model alien, he was even close to achieving US citizenship!
Kasper has never been charged with or convicted of any crime. He has not been accused of being a member of MS-13 or Tren de Aragua. What led the government to rip Kasper out of the arms of his family was, to the best of his knowledge, a single document. Form I-751, appropriately clinical, a “Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence,” was just one of the endless documents he needed on his decade-plus journey to American citizenship.
Kasper and his wife, Savannah Hobart Eriksen, never submitted that form, which was due all the way back in 2015. She had suffered a stillbirth, losing their first child, and in the days of grief that followed, the deadline slipped right past them. But Kasper’s naturalization continued unimpeded. He corresponded with immigration officials numerous times over the next 10 years, and says agents never warned him that a critical document was missing. He paid taxes each year, reliably contributing a portion of his labor to the nation he already felt a part of.
Oh, right, he neglected to fill out one form, missed a deadline, and when he went in to an immigration center to dot that final ‘i’ and cross that last ‘t’, ICE put him in chains and shipped him off to a detention center in Louisiana, where…
He spends most of his day in a wide cell, housing upwards of 90 other detained immigrants at a time. He gets a couple of hours of yard time each day, a routine pleasure he says is critical to his sanity. Even so, Kasper has already lost about 25 pounds during his detention.
This shouldn’t be a plea for special treatment for a white man. The ICE administrators were apparently dismayed that they had to lock up someone who was “obviously” an acceptable member of society — I wonder if they ever feel the same way about detainees with a less Danish accent — but nobody should be treated this way.
Nathalia Rocha Dickson, an immigration attorney in Louisiana, told the Mississippi Free Press in a May 6 interview that violent, criminal narratives are increasingly employed to justify a crackdown on all immigrants, the majority of whom have done nothing wrong.
“The government is more interested in feeding into rhetoric—these ugly stories about immigration. We’re feeding a monster for an administration that is not really concerned about the rule of law,” she said.
Dickson has represented clients in detention and deportation for eight years now. What strikes her most about the new deportation regime is how arbitrarily it operates. “It’s totally random. This is the stupidity of it,” she said. “There’s no way for you to determine who’s gonna be picked up and who’s not. You may show up for a scheduled hearing and get picked up. You may be driving and get pulled over. It’s really, really crazy right now.”
The lesson here should be that ICE must be disbanded and immigration should be welcoming immigrants. They’re a rogue, criminal organization — America’s new SS.
By the way, there was a massive raid on a Minneapolis taqueria the other day, with police claiming it was drug-related. So why were ICE agents involved? Why were they dressed and armed like this, with masks covering their faces?
Officer Friendly on duty
I’m happy to report that the people of Minneapolis swarmed these thugs and no arrests were made. Seriously, when someone in a military-style uniform, masked and carrying a rifle is spotted, it is a citizen’s duty to make their job more difficult.
Is someone in the Trump administration a fan of Kafka? Getting detained over not filling a fucking form? For real?
Their latest one weird trick is when people come to court for asylum hearings, the government drops the case against them, which makes them at that moment no longer legally here, which they were when they entered the courtroom. Then ICE swoops in and arrests them for immediate deportation.
Armed, masked, no badge (or badge with number covered), no name-tape?
Shoot the fascist invaders on sight.
@2:It’s even worse: the “weird trick” is actually that ICE swoops in and grabs them in the hallway of the courthouse BEFORE their asylum hearing. Then the judge sees that they’re not present for their hearing, and automatically denies their asylum petition because they didn’t show up.
So then they’re no longer legally here, and can be immediately deported.
In the extreme unlikely event that the Dems ever get power again, we all know that this will never happen. Just like we saw with the aftermath of the George Floyd matter, anyone who talks about replacing the racist thugs we call “police” with more civilized approaches to law enforcement were loudly shouted down.
And, let’s face it, “liberals” aren’t really leftists.They’re capitalists who pretend to care. They want armed bullies to defend their wealth and property just as much as the fascists do. They just insist ICE goons wear “Have a nice day” buttons.
I wonder if any of these raids are occurring in states where concealed carry is legal?
Akira @5 – don’t be so hard on the Democrats! They just held a meeting! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/04/dnc-meeting-little-rock-arkansas?CMP=share_btn_url
I’ve just been re-reading The Master and Margerita and the description of 1930s Moscow in the text and notes seem relevant here. We know that Putin admires Stalin How does Donald Frederikovich* Trump feel about him.
* Probably not the correct form.
ICE has quotas so they are arresting whoever they can to meet their quotas.
Without any concern which non-citizens they are arresting and why.
That is going to be 1.1 million people a year, assuming the quotas are for 7 days a week.
They haven’t met their quotas yet.
“NBC June 4 “Immigration and Customs Enforcement made the most immigrant arrests in a single day in its history Tuesday, detaining more than 2,200 people,…”
It’s going to be a long ugly year with photos everyday of armed thugs being confronted by citizens carrying cell phone cameras.
PS I expect there will be blood in the streets before long.
One day, the armed ICE thugs are going to be surrounded by a crowd and start shooting them. No one knows who they are except they probably aren’t well trained or particularly well screened people.
There is a non zero chance that some of that blood in the streets might be…mine.
ICE doesn’t have the humanpower, training, money, or facilities to arrest the 22.4 noncitizen immigrants in the USA.
In fact, most of their arrests up until now have been handovers from the local police.
In some states, Oregon and Washington are two, it is state law that the local police can’t cooperate with ICE.
Needless to say this doesn’t go over well with the Trump regime.
Some police forces, notably those in the Red states have enthusiastically cooperated with ICE.
A lot of police forces on the West coast haven’t. Yet anyway.
Without local police cooperation, ICE can’t do much.
They can’t enter private places without a warrant.
I now carry a card, obtained at a demonstration, to hand to ICE, with a list of my rights. I’m sure they will be intimidated. I’m also sure I will probably get my head bashed in with a club for it.
@Akira MacKenzie
Depends on which democrat comes into power. If it is Pete or Gavin or some other scumbag, you are right but if it is someone like AOC or even someone with more of a backbone, changes can certainly can happen.
Leave Brittany, er, the Democrats alone! Pleeeeeeeeze!
The Schumercrat appeasers wrote a strong letter, a Very Strong Letter and Susan Collins is almost, quite nearly, just about “concerned.”
Ah, Kasper. Thoughts and prayers, buddy. Thoughts and prayers. 🖕🏼
Stalin, Hitler, Putin, Pol Pot etc. were amateurs compared to the tRUMP/noem/homan out-of-control, lawless military police state. Yesterday I saw one photo of one of these thugs at a ‘kidnap & deport’ party that was carrying a huge grenade launcher revolver!
I fear for what’s left of this country.
Then, reading PZ’s article more carefully, I see they aren’t perfect. They are stupid enough to not appreciate a much more civilized country like Denmark and come here to put their noses up tRUMP’s sphincter,
A lot of these warrior-cosplayers look like the “open carry” clowns who were “protesting” the fake stolen election. They’re looking for a legal way to beat people up 4 or 5 to one, while wearing a badge.
These creeps need mandatory psychological screening. Every one of them is an “officer involved shooting” waiting to happen.
Why are they dressed and armed like that? Its just in case some good ole boys with guns take exception to fascists goons kidnapping people off the streets and open fire on them. Actually its law-abiding citizens with mobile phone cameras that they are frightened of.
I’m not saying those agents look like tools of a fascist state but a fascist state would definitely look on approvingly.
There is no way to de-humanize a group of humans that won’t also bite your in-group back in the ass.
@9,
“ICE has quotas so they are arresting whoever they can to meet their quotas.”
Pretty sure the 3000 per day will go up now Musk is banging Stephen Miller’s wife.
@11,
“Depends on which democrat comes into power. ”
Once the big beautiful bill passes, there won’t be elections. But wouldn’t it be especially ironic if Elon Musk of all people would prevent the realisation of Project2025 just because this bill doesn’t benefit his companies enough?