This isn’t hyperbole; this was always the plan. So take care of your family, friends, and community. Carry your passport if you have one, particularly if you’re black or brown. If you speak Spanish volunteer to help your local legal aid organizations; if you can afford it, donate to them.

Here’s my article with all the links to ways you can help: contrarian.substack.com/p/15-more-wa.... I want to highlight two: form and join, a rapid response network—and use it to report raids. And share resources to help people find loved ones disappeared by ICE— www.nilc.org/resources/ho...

“What did everyone think mass deportations meant?” It’s a good question. And the answer for this regime is a campaign of mass disappearances. People in balaclavas holding assault rifles demanding your papers—and throwing you and your neighbors into unmarked vans if you can’t prove your citizenship.

Authoritarians love external displays of force—soldiers in the street, paramilitary actors in unmarked vans.

But I think it’s small, everyday acts of kindness and love—helping and fighting for people you don’t know, that kindle democracy. One action, one brave choice. We can do this—together.

Right now, one of the best ways to resist is to be loud. When ICE raids your neighborhood, they count on bystanders to stay home, look away, and let it happen. Don’t. When someone is disappeared into the ICE machine, your voice and advocacy can help locate that person and bring them home.

Some of these will push you outside your comfort zone. Some demand commitment. But all of them matter. You don’t need to do everything, or even the hardest thing; even small steps are steps of resistance. Bring others with you. This is how we build the type of resistance that authoritarians fear.

Here’s the article if you want to read it: www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019...

The non-place issue also lets these wannabe tinpot dictators tell ghost stories about DC, scaring people across the country into looking the other way as militarized agents disappear our neighbors into unmarked vans. We will stand strong--and in solidarity with everyone else when they come for you.

But it's not a non-place. The District is home--it's where I met my wife, where I met my best friends, where I've built my career. My dog is a DC Brown Dog. People live here, their kids go to school here, they fall in love, grieve, and die here. And now we have an occupying army in our streets.