In the wake of political rhetoric, nearly 150 people descended on a Somali restaurant to have lunch and write notes of support.
It was a bit of a relief to learn the explanation for the Chinook helicopter I saw hovering near the local airport about two weeks ago. The twin rotor Chinook can carry a payload of about 15,000 pounds, enough for a couple of SUVs. At the same time social media posts told of the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in our small Midwest city.
I had contemplated including this in a news story about a community’s response to reports of ICE assaulting immigrants. It wouldn’t have surprised me if there had been a connection between that and the helicopter. There wasn’t, at least not yet. However, it was a good example of the need for fact-checking. Posting something could have launched a thread of false information.
The guy I called at the airport seemed amused when I asked about the helicopter. He said the Air National Guard uses the airport for training missions from a nearby city, landing, taking off, that sort of thing. The only cargo reported by the airport guy was a bag of deli sandwiches. The father of a crew member lived in town. Once when the big chopper landed they opened the big ramp and picked up the sandwiches he had brought.
Not amusing, is the thought that there could have been a connection between a Chinook and ICE. They certainly could have afforded the expense. The initial ICE budget runs around $10 billion annually. A supplemental appropriation in 2025 adds nearly $75 billion through 2029. A Republican bill would direct another $75 billion to ICE through 2029, including $45 billion for detention expansion. That could pay for operating big helicopters.
Eugene O’Neill’s play, “The Ice Man Cometh,” first staged in 1946, could be a metaphor for some of the political and cultural morass experienced today, including the assault on immigrants. Its bleak themes portray “self-delusion, despair, and the human need for illusion in order to cope with life’s harsh realities.” The self-delusion and despair could resemble MAGA mania. The need for illusion could be their worship of a fraud who seems all powerful. They want Just ICE; we in the majority want justice.
Christmas spirit
With the message of Christmas upon us, there couldn’t be a greater contrast than with the anti-immigrant evil excreting from the minds of those now in charge of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, and those above them. Those who claim to follow the Christian, Jewish, or Muslim faiths exhibit profound hypocrisy in the face of their teachings about welcoming the foreigner.
In the Old Testament: Psalms 146 verse 9: “The Lord watches over the foreigner, and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” We’re still waiting for that last part to happen. And Leviticus 19:33: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
While most Americans are celebrating Christmas with family, thousands of immigrants to the U.S. are being illegally imprisoned by ICE. Of the nearly 70,000 being held, more than half have no criminal record, according to The Guardian. In total this year ICE has detained 328,000 and deported 327,000.
Several of the recent detainees were abducted by ICE from the small Midwest city visited by the helicopter. If they were imprisoned at the local county jail, they could have been among those receiving holiday greeting cards sent by local citizens. The card-writing represented a variety of support activities.
Embracing diversity
About a week before the ICE visit, the community was still processing hurtful and false rhetoric spewing from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue about people from Somalia. The community (pop. ~22,000) is home for up to 2,000 residents from East Africa, primarily Somalia. Immigrants are major players in the local economy and public services. The rhetoric, followed by the ICE invasion, brought a surge of fear and absences from schools and workplaces.
In a county where a majority favored the authoritarian wanna-be, the community has a long reputation and practice for supporting racial and cultural diversity over past decades. (See my Aug. 22, 2025 post). They showed that Dec. 6 in support of a local Somali business.
Responding to a social media post, about 150 people showed up at a Somali restaurant to have lunch and show their support. That included writing notes expressing support, which were posted at businesses and offices around town. A video of the event went viral on Instagram drawing more than 17,000 views.
A week later several dozen showed up at the county library to write greeting cards. They were delivered to the county jail, which is used by ICE to imprison up to 150 immigrants. The event was sponsored by the local Indivisible chapter and the ACLU, which sent the follow-up note:
“Thank you so much for attending yesterday’s holiday card writing event! It was heartening to see how many community members wanted to send messages of solidarity to people in ICE detention… As ICE continues to have an increased presence locally, we encourage you to keep having conversations with each other and your elected officials about your concerns.”
In small Midwest cities, ice – frozen water – is welcome on the lakes, but not on sidewalks and roadways, whether in the frozen water form, or in the heavily armored, poorly trained, overpaid, and deeply misguided form that represents Americans in fearful attack on the new Americans. Our nation has enough substantive issues to address that far outweigh the overwrought focus on immigration.
