<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/09/they-kidnapped-a-hard-working-kid-off-our-streets-the-gardener-seized-by-ice-and-the-new-york-town-fighting-back>
"Gerson Turcios didn’t recognise the men standing next to a couple of dark SUVs
outside his house one July afternoon last year. He figured they were lost and
approached to see if he could help. A slim 23-year-old with short dark hair and
big brown eyes, Turcios had just finished work mowing lawns in the pretty town
of Rhinebeck, in New York’s Hudson Valley. The men asked if he knew someone
called Jimmy – he did, but Jimmy hadn’t lived in the small, white weatherboard
house with Turcios, his brother and his brother’s girlfriend for a while.
The men noted Turcios’s accent and asked where he was from. Turcios didn’t
answer, so one took out his phone and snapped a photograph. The next thing
Turcios knew, he was in handcuffs in the back of one of the SUVs and on his way
to an ICE processing centre in Newburgh, New York, then on to a detention
centre.
Mass deportation has been the defining mission of Donald Trump’s second
presidency. In the year since he took office, ICE – United States Immigration
and Customs Enforcement – has deported nearly a quarter of a million people
from inside the US (half a million including from its borders) as part of an
immigration crackdown. These forceful apprehensions, which have in some cases
resulted in fatal shootings of potential deportees and bystanders, have
resulted in protests – and sparked international outrage. Behind the
statistics, though, are stories of hope and perseverance; of young immigrants
who risked everything crossing rivers and deserts to build lives, start
businesses and put down roots in communities that are now fighting to keep
them.
Back then, as he was shackled and led to his cell, sure he was about to be
deported back to Honduras, Turcios – an immigrant who had made a terrifying
journey as a teenager, fleeing violence there – had no idea that his community
in Rhinebeck was already mobilising; that they would raise tens of thousands of
dollars in days, galvanise support from Hollywood actors and film-makers who
also called the town home, and even recruit the lawyer who essentially wrote
the book on stopping ICE deportations around the nation to represent him.
I’d moved to Rhinebeck with my own family from Texas during the pandemic, drawn
to the bucolic countryside and good schools. Our own daughter now walks the
same high school hallways Turcios once did. For me, and a lot of other people
who call this small town home, Turcios’s arrest was personal."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
