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Immigrants in Crisis: How We Can Help

  • Writer: Jay
    Jay
  • Oct 21, 2025
  • 4 min read

Updated: Dec 15, 2025

Why We Must Rethink Immigration Enforcement and Abolish ICE


On Monday, November 3rd, Indivisible Boca Raton will host a vital community event: “Immigrants in Crisis: How We Can Help.”

This isn’t just a conversation. It’s a public reckoning with a broken immigration system and a platform for real solutions from people working on the front lines.


Speakers include:

  • Barbara Eriv: Lead of the Palm Beach County Indivisible Immigration Committee

  • Mari Blanco: Director of the Guatemala-Maya Center

  • Renata Bozzetto: Deputy Director of FLIC Votes and the Florida Immigration Coalition


📍 WHEN: Monday, November 3rd | 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM📍 WHERE: Andre Fladell Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach (formerly South County Civic Center)


Cruelty with Intent

The stories are painful and far too common. A U.S.-born woman in Miami was detained by ICE after agents claimed her birth certificate was suspicious. She lost wages, missed work, and spent several days in custody before being released without charges. A father in Palm Beach County, legally present for over a decade, was stopped for a minor traffic violation and held in a detention center for weeks despite having valid documentation. A pregnant U.S. citizen was hospitalized after collapsing in ICE custody where she had been wrongfully detained.


These aren’t isolated mistakes. They reflect a system where fear and confusion are baked into policy. Human lives are treated as political inconveniences. The cruelty is intentional.



A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is executing the Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards undocumented immigrants. © 2018 Photo by John Moore/Getty Images


Deaths, Neglect, and Disappearances

Inside ICE detention centers, the stories are worse. People have died from untreated illnesses, suicide, and gross medical neglect. Others have reported moldy food, physical and sexual abuse, and being kept in solitary confinement for weeks. Detainees have described freezing cold cells and no access to the outdoors. Families often have no idea where their loved ones are.


Right here in Florida, a facility deep in the Everglades, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” has become a national disgrace. In July 2025, about 1,800 people were held there. Today, roughly 1,200 of them have disappeared from ICE’s detainee tracking system. Some names are gone entirely. Others are labeled with “Call ICE for details.”


Attorneys say they’re being blocked from seeing clients. Families are left in the dark. Former detainees describe fluorescent lights that never turn off, windows blacked out with paint, and large tents where men lose track of day and night. Some advocates are calling it a black site.


This isn’t just a policy failure. It is state violence operating in secrecy.


ICE’s Pattern of Harm and Mismanagement

ICE has detained hundreds of American citizens, costing taxpayers millions in legal settlements. The agency has consistently failed at the most basic level of competence. Many agents lack adequate training in de-escalation, civil rights, and mental health response. Psychological screening is minimal. Oversight is almost nonexistent.

We are funding an agency that causes measurable harm without delivering meaningful results. All of this happens with the backing of federal dollars and minimal accountability.


A federal agent pepper sprays a protester at the Broadview ICE detention facility, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention, in Broadview, Illinois, U.S. September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska


Lessons from History

In the early years of Nazi Germany, repression advanced through quiet, legal steps. There were deportations, forced removals, and the creation of camps labeled as resettlement centers. Most actions were framed as necessary and lawful. Many citizens believed they were witnessing policy, not persecution.

They did not have the Holocaust to look back on as we do.


For those of us who have studied that era, whether as survivors, descendants, or advocates, this moment raises serious concerns. These are uncomfortable parallels to draw, but they help us recognize patterns and understand where indifference can lead.


When a government builds secret detention centers, separates families, and targets individuals based on where they come from, history does not remain silent. It warns us. It reminds us that injustice often begins quietly, with paperwork, fences, and silence.

We have a responsibility to pay attention. The lessons of the past only matter if we act on them now.


Central American asylum seekers wait as U.S. Border Patrol agents take groups of them into custody near McAllen, Texas. © 2018 Photo by John Moore/Getty Images


The Power of Showing Up

The event on November 3rd is more than a panel. It is a chance to hear from people who work with and advocate for immigrants every day. You will hear stories that never make headlines. You will learn how to fight back, legally, politically, and locally.

If you’re heartbroken by what you’ve seen, if you’re angry, or if you’re just starting to understand this issue, your presence matters.


📅 Monday, November 3rd | 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM📍 Andre Fladell Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach



Sources:

  • Democracy Now, “Florida’s Secretive ICE Detention Center: Hundreds of Immigrants Vanish,” September 25, 2025

  • The Economic Times, “Hundreds of immigrants disappear from infamous Florida ICE prison,” October 2025

  • The Guardian, “Inside ICE Facilities Where Lights Never Go Off,” October 20, 2025

  • ACLU, “Florida’s Secretive Immigration Detention Center Explained,” 2025

  • NPR, “Immigrants in ICE Custody Dying from Neglect,” 2024

  • ProPublica, “American Citizens Wrongly Detained by ICE,” 2020

  • Frontline PBS, “Separated: Children at the Border,” 2019


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Donations

We also are in need of any donations you can make towards Indivisible Boca Raton. Money is needed to be able to rent the Civic Center, serve refreshments, pay for postcards, office supplies, name tags, signs and other necessities to operate. This is a grassroots organization and any amount you can give would be extremely appreciated.


Click here or scan the QR code below. It will take you directly to our Act Blue Page. Thank you!


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