Donald Trump is turning our courthouses into abduction traps.
This week—alongside Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and faith leaders—I made my sixth trip to witness immigration hearings, and after seeing more New Yorkers cruelly and unjustly arrested by federal agents and held in deplorable conditions, I can say with certainty: each time it gets worse.
We witnessed a young family—father, mother, and daughter—enter the courthouse and all receive a hearing. Yet for some reason, the father, and only the father, was detained, and as a result, the family was separated.
There is no legal reason for any of them to be detained, and certainly, no reason to separate a father from his wife and daughter.
Donald Trump says he's going after the “worst of the worst,” but the individuals I'm meeting every week are just regular people who have fled extreme persecution and extraordinary circumstances to pursue the American dream.
This week I met Yasir, a young Zaghawa man from Sudan, whose family was murdered by the RSF and who was kidnapped at 19 before miraculously escaping and making his way to New York. I accompanied Yasir to his ICE check-in because we were terrified he might be deported back to Sudan, which would mean certain death. Fortunately, thanks to his legal team at The Door, he was able to do what far too many others are not: walk safely out of the building and return home.
