Is This America?!

This is not how a democracy treats people. This is not how America—the supposed beacon of freedom—should handle deportations. And yet, here we are, witnessing grotesque, dystopian images of Venezuelan deportees shackled, bent at 90-degree angles, heads forced down, paraded like subhuman criminals. This isn’t justice. This is humiliation. This is domination. This is a deliberate act of dehumanization.

Worse still, many of those deported had not even been convicted of a crime. No trial. No defense. No due process. Just a one-way ticket to a prison infamous for its brutality. These are not hardened felons. These are human beings. Refugees. Asylum seekers. Fathers. Mothers. Young people fleeing regimes that the U.S. has condemned—only to be sent to another authoritarian hellscape, by the very country that promised them refuge.

These images, reminiscent of Russia’s brutal prison system, now belong to the United States. Until now, we believed America stood for something greater.

“Nazis Got Better Treatment.”

That’s not hyperbole—that’s a legal assessment from a sitting federal judge. And yet, the Trump administration presses on, invoking a wartime law from 1798—a relic of authoritarian paranoia—to justify removals that bypass fundamental human rights.

Make no mistake: this is not about law and order. This is about cruelty as policy. Humiliation as deterrent. Pain as spectacle.

When did we accept torture-adjacent punishment as a form of immigration enforcement? When did we decide human rights are optional? That dignity is a privilege, not a right?

This is how Putin treats his prisoners. This is how Xi Jinping crushes dissent. This is not who we are.