“Advocating for justice is not divisive.
Speaking up for rights is not divisive.
Protecting communities from violence is not undermining democracy –
it’s the essence of it.”
On social media, I recently watched the video of ICU nurse Alex Pretti rushing to help a woman pushed to the ground by ICE agents in Minneapolis a few days ago. And horrified by what I saw next – ICE agents tackling, pepper spraying, beating Alex, followed by shooting him dead.
Cold blooded murder. That shook me. A few weeks ago Renee Nicole Good was killed. And in September 2025, Silverio Villegas González was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Franklin Park, Il.
When giving a eulogy for a veteran he had cared for who had died at the VA Hospital, Alex Pretti said “We have to work at freedom.”
During times like this it’s important to remember our humanity, and our values of integrity, empathy and clarity...and to stand up and take action for the protection of our rights as Americans.
Today, over 66,000 people are currently imprisoned in over 100 ICE detention facilities and tent camps in our country. Nearly 75% have never been convicted of any criminal offense. This is chilling, and reminds me of the incarceration of 150,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during WWII for two to three years in desolate camps for no reason except for the color of their skin.
The government said it was military necessity but that was proven false in a document found some 30 years later. 16 members of my family - some children - were incarcerated. My maternal grandfather died in a camp in the middle of Oahu. Most never wanted to talk about what they considered a very traumatic and shameful experience.
290,603 people have been actually deported in 2025. This represents just 7% more removals than occurred in 2024 during the last full year of the Biden administration. Yet during the Trump administration, there has been a massive expansion of the detention system holding people for extended periods. The actual number of deportations have not increased proportionately. Why?
86% of ICE detainees are held in facilities run by for-profit entities: GEO Group and CoreCivic. ICE pays about $165 a day for each person held in detention. With 66,000 people detained, that’s approximately $10.9 million per day or roughly $4 billion per year at current detention levels. ICE’s total detention budget for FY 2025 surpassed $14 billion more than 400% greater than 2024.
Yet overcrowding is rampant as well as lack of basic sanitation and medical care for those incarcerated. 32 people have died in ICE custody in 2025 with another 6 dying in early 2026. Private prison companies are seeing enormous profits while so many people are suffering in the camps along with their families and friends in communities across the country.
Martin Luther King said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere…We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. “
These Bill of Rights amendments protect individual freedoms from government interference in our Constitution:
· First Amendment: Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition
· Fourth Amendment: Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures
· Fifth Amendment: Due process, protection against self-incrimination and double jeopardy. This amendment protects citizens (and all persons) from federal government actions including ICE and Border Patrol agents.
· Sixth Amendment: Right to speedy and public trial, impartial jury, and legal counsel
· Eighth Amendment: Protection against excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment.
This Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse represents unstoppable energy and vitality. May we know our rights, have the courage to bear witness to cruelty and injustice, and then do something about it.
And may we continue to send loving kindness (metta) to all those experiencing suffering in the world because of our ignorance, anger and greed.
Malama pono (take care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Tanoue
Kumu Hula, Roshi
P.S. Recent talks at our Zen Life & Meditation Center:
Eve Marko, "Not Knowing" https://youtu.be/na8rpMWSPig