If You Were That Judge, Would You Have Opened the Door?

A Mother Was Disappeared Outside Her Hearing Room. The Agents Knew. The Prosecutors Knew. The Judges Knew. What Will You Do Now That You Know?

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails...neither persons nor property will be safe."
—Frederick Douglass

"An unjust law is no law at all."
—St. Augustine, as cited by Martin Luther King Jr.

A little girl stood outside the San Antonio Immigration Court last week. She watched federal agents load her mother into an unmarked vehicle. No screams. Just the hollow quiet of a child watching the world collapse.

Her mother had done everything right. She showed up for court, obeyed every law, and placed her trust in the system. That trust was repaid with disappearance.

The agents did not flinch. They did not hesitate. And inside the courthouse, not a single judge stepped outside to stop it.

The Violence of Cowardice

Let’s be clear. These ICE courthouse arrests are not about law, order, or public safety. They are not designed to protect anyone. Their purpose is to punish those who believe in the system. This is a targeted assault on trust itself.

If these immigrants had weak cases, ICE would let them go to court. The government would prefer to win on the record. But they do not. These are strong claims, strong cases, strong facts. That is what makes the regime so afraid. So instead of facing a fair hearing, ICE removes the person before the law can speak.

They are not defending the law. They are circumventing it. This is not enforcement. This is sabotage.

When a regime loses in a courtroom, it starts arresting people outside of it. That is not a sign of strength. It is the mark of a government that fears the truth.

Turning the Courthouse into a Weapon

The goal is not just to deport the people who are taken. The real strategy is to make everyone else too afraid to show up. It is a psychological operation, and its objective is silence.

The government wants headlines that say migrants are skipping court. It wants to label them as fugitives. But the people being targeted are those who comply. By making compliance dangerous, ICE creates the crisis it claims to solve.

This is bureaucratic warfare. It turns due process into a liability. And it punishes the very people who try to do things the right way.

This is not justice. It is entrapment disguised as policy.

The Robes Are Costumes. The Court Is a Lie.

Now we must speak directly about the judges. Too many still pretend they are neutral. Too many hide behind titles they did not earn.

Immigration courts are not independent courts. Immigration judges are not constitutional judges. They are employees of the Department of Justice. They report to the Attorney General. Their job security depends on their obedience.

They wear black robes. They demand silence. They sit on benches. But they are not free to rule with integrity unless they risk their careers. And most will not.

Some of them know exactly what they are doing. They watch injustice play out in their own courtrooms and say nothing. They pretend their hands are tied. But the truth is that they have tied their own hands with pension paperwork and fear.

These judges want the appearance of power without the cost of moral courage. They want to be seen as legitimate without taking any action that might make them so.

And to them I say this: if you know what you are doing is wrong and you keep doing it, then you are not a neutral party. You are not a bureaucrat. You are an accessory to a machine that grinds up human lives. You are not trapped. You are complicit.

The Door Is Still Open

Not all government officials are lost. Some have begun to see the truth. Some ICE officers feel sick every time they zip-tie another person. Some judges lie awake at night, replaying the stories they sent into silence. Some prosecutors are questioning why they ever signed up for this.

To those people I say: you are not powerless. You are the most powerful voices in the country right now.

Because when someone on the inside speaks, the whole edifice shakes. When a judge resigns in protest. When a prosecutor refuses to file a case. When an agent drops their badge and tells the public why. Those moments matter. They cut through the fog. They show us that change is possible.

You have seen what the rest of us only hear about. If you speak now, if you stand now, if you walk out now, you will be heroes of this time.

But if you stay and do nothing, if you continue to carry out policies you know are wrong, then you are not just part of the system. You are the system. You cannot plead ignorance. You cannot plead helplessness. You have a choice. And if you choose comfort over conscience, history will remember you as worse than the architects.

Because the person who knows right from wrong and chooses wrong anyway is not a victim. That person is the most dangerous of all.

The Hypocrisy of Dependence

Let us be honest about who this country depends on.

Who watches your children while you work your government job? Who wipes your father’s mouth in the nursing home? Who cleans your house, cooks your food, washes your uniforms, and builds your courtrooms?

Immigrants do. Many of them undocumented. Many of them the very people you arrest.

You live off their labor while criminalizing their lives. You enjoy the fruits of their work and then call them lawbreakers. That is not enforcement. That is exploitation in a badge and tie.

You do not keep America running. They do. And still, you treat them as disposable.

Back to the Girl on the Sidewalk

She did not cry at first. She just stood there. Waiting for someone to come back. Waiting for the judge to open the door. Waiting for an officer to explain. Waiting for her mother to reappear.

No one did.

Inside the court, hearings continued. Prosecutors sorted files. Judges took notes. Guards kept watch. No one stopped the clock. No one stepped outside.

But out on the sidewalk, the truth stood silent, holding its breath.

We are The Firewall.

We see what you are doing. We are naming it. We are fighting it. We are calling on everyone inside the system who still has a conscience to walk out and join us.

To the judges, the prosecutors, the agents, the clerks, the court staff, and the public defenders: your voice can unlock the prison doors. Your testimony can change the course of this country. Your resignation letter can be a declaration of independence.

The choice is still yours.

And if you do not make it soon, one day, it may be your daughter on that sidewalk.