On Wednesday afternoon, Joel Arrona was driving his wife Maria to a hospital in San Bernadino, CA for a scheduled Cesarean section. The two parents-to-be were nervous, but they were also out of gas, so Joel pulled over at convenience store to fuel up. As CBS Los Angeles reports, they were followed into the parking lot by a pair of SUVs. Men got out of SUVs and identified themselves as ICE agents. A few minutes later, ICE took Joel away.
They left the pregnant Maria standing in a parking lot, crying, hours away from delivery, and alone.
Under questioning by the media, ICE produced a statement, that Joel Arrona was “was taken into custody Wednesday by ICE Fugitive Operations Team officers.” According to ICE, these operations are “on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security.” However, they provided no evidence that Arrona was any threat, or had committed any serious crime. According to Maria, her husband was not even guilty of a parking ticket.
This is far from the first such incident. People have been removed from hospital beds and from family celebrations. They’ve been taken away from their children at school bus stops, and torn away from grieving relatives at funerals. All this may look like sheer heartlessness. It’s not. It’s worse.
As Daily Kos writer Stephen Andrews points out, there’s a much more accurate description of this behavior.
This shit happens in corporate and social cultures where cruelty isn't merely tolerated, it's celebrated. Where cruelty is openly bragged about. Where cruelty and examples of cruelty are how you gain status and win promotions.
No one back at ICE headquarters is thinking “Oh no, we f*cked up and left a woman about to deliver standing alone at a gas station.” They’re exchanging high fives over this. They’re laughing over this. They’ve got this one tacked up on the big “Best bust of the day!” board.
And they know Donald Trump and the alt-Reich don’t just have their backs. They’ll give them medals.
As Politico reports, on Monday Trump is planning a very special party at the White House.
The “Salute to the Heroes of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs [and] Border Protection" is scheduled for Aug. 20 in the East Room, an administration official confirmed, in the latest signal that the Trump administration anticipates the midterm fallout from its zero-tolerance border policy very differently from its critics.
None of this is accidental. Cruelty is a goal. It’s celebrated, rewarded, and they’re always looking for a way to find a way to bring even more pain.