Papers, Please.
A "how it was, and how it's going" post
Conversation with my husband ~3 months ago:
Me: “When you go out for a walk, take your ID with you.”
Hubby: “No. I’m a US citizen and know my rights. Demanding to see IDs from citizens is unconstitutional.”
Me: “Do it anyway.”
Hubby: “Did you hear what I just said?!?!?! NO. As a US citizen, I’m not required to provide one, and can’t be detained.”
Three months later...
Me: “Remember our conversation from roughly 3 months ago, about carrying ID at all times?”
Hubby: “Yeah...”
Me: “I just read about this: An ICE crackdown was performed in Minnesota, on several restaurants with Somalian employees. Some establishments were barricaded by ICE, trapping all inside. ICE demanded they all show their IDs. The employees had been warned by their managers to keep ID on them at all times. All of them are citizens. The number of these targeted people who were kidnapped by ICE in this operation? Zero.”
Hubby: “ID won’t save us. We’re at the “Papers, please” phase now, and ICE is grabbing anyone they want. They don’t care about checking. WTAF is this? We really are living like the period of late 1930s-early 1940s Germany.”
Me: “With ID on you, at least you may have a chance to provide it after several days of detention, therefore avoiding rendition to a 3rd country. It’s a small chance, but a chance.”
Hubby: “This is so fucked up, yet here we are. Damn it so much.”
He stares out of the kitchen window for a few minutes, taking slow, deep breaths. He slowly shakes his head from side to side, and eventually goes to sit on the couch in silence. I go on and finish cleaning the kitchen, listening to Enya, trying to keep my cool, and carrying on.
By Maxfield Parrish - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56684443