Laura Flanders

12/01/2025

In Manhattan, ICE is a scandal. The day after the Canal St chaos, activists held a press conference and forced city officials to answer questions. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani called the federal operation “aggressive and reckless” and “authoritarian theatrics”. He has promised to review the NYPD’s role in coordinating with federal immigration enforcement, as he should, given that this is supposed to be a “sanctuary city.” Speaking at the scene, City Comptroller Brad Lander called the action “horrific” and emphasized that while street vendors are not a national security threat, the military-style response is actively endangering New Yorkers.

In rural Michigan, meanwhile, even people who live close-by have lost track of the comings-and-goings at North Lake. And that is just how it’s supposed to work. Our incarceration system has long relied on distance, desperation and euphemism. Now basic due process is intentionally being outsourced to far-flung ZIP codes like this one.

Civic duty today requires getting geographic. The truth is, I’d never paid much attention to that U.S. government-owned garage just two blocks from me. Now I’ll be taking an inventory. County GIS maps, zoning board agendas, sheriff’s contracts — they’re all publicly available. Which boxy brick buildings near you are federal jails, lockups, “processing centers,” or government property convenient for ICE staging areas? Which ones are run by private companies like GEO under state or federal contracts? Who approved those agreements, and what did they tell you they were buying — “jobs,” “economic development,” or “public safety”?

Surveillance-savvy city dwellers in well-connected places like New York and Chicago are doing well, keeping the heat on ICE and its militarized people-snatchers. But the bodies are being taken to quiet, no-notice, rural places that urban people have ignored for too long already. It’s time that changed, before America expands its carefully hidden gulag.