10/11/21

By Josh Rubin

Since Witness at the Border began watching the heartbreaking deportation flights at the small airport in Brownsville, Texas, we have learned to see ICE Air fill the skies with these carriers, our watchers counting, as best they can, the planes and the bodies involved in this grim work.

But last month, the month of September, saw more flights of men, women, and children than ever before. And before we let fade from our vision the atrocity of a world and a nation that will soon look away, let us pause to acknowledge what we have done, and what we continue to do. We are sending people away who come to us desperate for help. We are ignoring their malnourished bodies and their pleas. We are making excuses for ourselves, blaming our “broken” system.

But it is clear to me that more than our system is broken. Our humanity lies in pieces on the ground, and the taxiing wheels of ICE Air are daily grinding it to dust.