The night before we were set to fly out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, I approached my partner with a confession: For the first time that I can remember, I was afraid of flying with a Latino last name.

It was a new sort of affront I had to steel myself against. Air travel is filled with moments — buying basic economy tickets, being herded through winding security lines like cattle, squishing your limbs into a compact seat — that smoosh you until you feel subhuman, usually along class lines.

In the days leading up to our flight to Las Vegas, however, I saw the indignities of the airport mount as President Donald Trump deployed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into America’s terminals, turning an already-debasing necessity into something more chilling.

Certainly, that’s how I felt after my experience. At JFK, an ICE agent was taking the customary Transportation Security Administration role of checking IDs at security. Everything, though, seemed to be running as normal. When I handed over my passport, however, he asked me a question I hadn’t heard him ask anyone else in front of me — most of whom presented as white: “Do you have a second form of photo ID?”

  • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    It trained me to buy a Beretta 1301. Learned how to ghost load it to a 7+2 capacity. Learned about different ammo types and what use cases.

    I didn’t own a gun before ICE was set loose like wild dogs.

    Train that.

      • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Indeed. And it doesn’t mean I’m stupid and am going to go around shooting ICE for sport.

        But what it does mean is if armed masked thugs break into my home without a judicial warrant, they’ll be fired upon.

        I’d rather an honest to God murder trial then getting disappeared with no due process to some black box foreign prison. And yes, I’d rather die fighting for that end, rather than the unknown end that is the ICE process.

        And it also means if society does start cracking at the seams and anarchy or insurrection become plausible, I’m not completely defenseless.

        • maplesaga@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I remember during the BLM protest Trump put in a curfew, then their agents who were shooting rubber bullets started getting shot at with real guns. It stopped very soon.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      So the next time you are in an airport, how will this help? And will you go to jail afterwords?

      • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        What next time I go to an airport? I’ll just not fly. I don’t play unfair games, I don’t engage with broken systems. There are plenty of other ways to live my life.

        • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          That was their whole point. To make you “not engage”, to make you disconnect, alone, afraid, not trusting, clutching your gun. That’s their ideal human right there.