Erased by the State: The Quiet Legal Death of Citizenship in America
When ICE can detain and deport U.S. citizens — and Congress stays silent — we must understand: this is not a flaw in the system. This is the system. And it's coming for all of us.
"If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night."
— Angela Davis
"The real danger is not that machines will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like machines."
— Sydney J. Harris
The Signal Has Not Stopped
I’m still thinking about that image.
The one from earlier this week, captured by a drone above a Texas detention center. Venezuelan men, held behind chain link and razor wire, had formed their bodies into a human signal: SOS. You can see it clearly, spelled out in red prison scrubs, surrounded by empty dirt and the hum of surveillance. Their message wasn’t subtle. It wasn’t metaphor. It was what you send when your ship is sinking and the water is already rising above your ankles.
I wrote about that in Mayday on May Day. But the signal didn’t end there. The signal hasn’t stopped.
When Citizenship Becomes Conditional
Only a few days after that image went viral, the House Judiciary Committee met — and did something that should have shaken the country.
They voted to let ICE detain and deport U.S. citizens—even knowing it’s already happened.
You read that right. They voted down a simple amendment that would have stopped ICE from imprisoning or expelling American citizens. No explanation. No debate. No scandal.
Just a quiet shrug of bureaucratic violence.
There are people in this country who were born here, raised here, carry a passport — and they’ve been thrown out anyway. Mark Lyttle was born in North Carolina. Detained by ICE and deported to Mexico. Pedro Guzman, a U.S. citizen with developmental disabilities, was sent to Tijuana with $3 and no Spanish. Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, a decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran and American citizen, was arrested by ICE in Michigan despite having his U.S. passport on file—and held for possible deportation.
It’s already happening.
And the Republican majority just made it official policy to let it continue.
This isn’t incompetence. It’s strategy.
Authoritarian regimes always begin by redefining the boundaries of belonging. The first test is whether the state can detain, punish, and exile some people without resistance. If that test goes unanswered, they move on to everyone.
We talked about this in From Borders to Chains. That article asked: What happens when the mechanisms built for immigrants are turned inward on citizens?
Now we have our answer. The regime is no longer testing the line. They're erasing it.
That’s why this Sunday piece can’t be read on its own. It’s part of a chain. From Tren de MAGA to Will They Let You Vanish? to Friday’s Mayday post, we’ve been building a record. Each article is another flare fired into the sky. Another warning. Another demand.
Because what they’re doing isn’t subtle.
They're creating a system where legal status is conditional. Where due process is optional. Where identity is malleable — at the whim of ICE, the so-called Doge, or whoever holds the badge and gun in your neighborhood.
And if they can deport citizens, they can do anything.
So here’s what matters now: how we respond. Not just with outrage. With protection.
This Monday, The Firewall’s organizing call will focus on the real-world version of this moment. Breakout rooms will ask:
“If someone in your sector is punished for resisting, how can others stand with them?”
The answer starts here. It starts with clarity. This isn’t about immigration anymore. It never really was. It’s about state power. It’s about silence. It’s about what happens when we stop recognizing each other as fully human — and start accepting erasure as policy.
You want to do something? Show up Monday. If you’re in healthcare, talk about how to shield records from surveillance. If you’re in education, bring strategies for protecting teachers who resist. If you’re in tech, show us how to anonymize and alert. If you’re in law, bring defense strategies ICE hasn’t yet broken.
If you’re not sure where you fit, come anyway. Find your Hub.
We won’t win this in the courts. We won’t win it in Congress. We win it the way we’ve always won — by refusing. By protecting each other. By standing so close together that no one disappears without a fight.
Because the truth is, the SOS wasn’t just theirs.
It’s ours.
📅 JOIN MONDAY’S FIREWALL ORGANIZING CALL
May 5, 2025 @ 7 PM ET / 6 PM CT / 4 PM PT
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This is the signal. This is the call. Let’s build the firewall.
This is so powerful Jonathan. I just cross posted it and will share to my notes as well.