I wish I were writing under better circumstances, but what’s happening in Texas right now is deeply disturbing—and it’s not getting nearly the attention it deserves.
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Reuters recently flew a drone over the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) barred reporters from accessing the site. What they captured is something out of a dystopian novel: 31 detainees, held in the facility, arranged their bodies in the courtyard to form three letters, plain and urgent—SOS.
This was no dramatic flourish. This was a cry for help.
These men—mostly migrants—have reportedly been accused by immigration authorities of being members of a violent Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua. But here's the kicker: there's been no public evidence to support these claims. And many of the men, according to their families and the ACLU, have denied the allegations outright. They even refused to sign the documents ICE gave them, likely because those documents would have amounted to false admissions or waived their rights.
Then it gets even weirder.
On April 18, a group of detainees was quietly loaded onto a bus headed for Abilene Regional Airport. That move strongly suggested they were about to be deported—but then, without explanation, the trip was canceled. They were returned to Bluebonnet. No answers were given. No transparency. Just silence.
Fast forward to April 28. That’s when the “SOS” appeared in the courtyard, captured from the sky by Reuters’ drone—because no journalists are being allowed in. Think about that. The only reason we know about any of this is because a news outlet had to fly a drone over a detention center in the United States of America.
Let that sink in.
We have people locked in government custody, possibly wrongfully accused, attempting to communicate with the outside world by spelling “SOS” with their own bodies in a dirt yard. This isn’t some far-off, post-conflict country. This is Texas. This is now.
The men inside Bluebonnet were hoping someone would notice. We better make sure we do.
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