Christmas in Hell – When ICE Uses the Holidays for Mass Arrests

In Charlotte, North Carolina, federal agents arrested two people. Their offense: they warned others about upcoming ICE raids. Ten days before Christmas Eve 2025, this is the new reality in the United States. The two people arrested committed no crime. They shared information. From person to person, as has always happened in threatened communities. They called neighbors, spoke in community centers, issued warnings. For this, they were labeled liberal terrorists and arrested.

The logic behind it is simple: anyone who warns others becomes a target themselves. Apps that report raids are being monitored. Information chains are being broken. The message is clear - solidarity will be punished. ICE has deliberately chosen the Christmas holidays. The agency knows that families come together over the holidays. Relatives travel in, everyone is in one place. That makes the raids more efficient. More people can be processed at once.

Smartphones over Christmas will not be occupied with holiday greetings, but with warnings and calls for help. GPS coordinates will be shared. Messages like “They are in the neighborhood” or “Do not open the door” will circulate. This is no longer a celebration. This is survival. Every day, people are arrested whose only offense is their origin. On the way to work, while shopping, in front of their children. The arbitrariness is intentional. It is meant to spread fear. No one should feel safe.

The man was completely innocent: the painter Krzysztof Klim, arrested by agents of U.S. Border Patrol and ICE in the Edison Park neighborhood of Chicago while his identity was being checked, originally from Poland, long since a U.S. citizen, detained between Halloween decorations, later released - and yet it is always the same pattern. Innocent people are arrested, they are denied access to their wallets to prove they are American citizens, families are usually not informed, neighbors take over, relatives drive to the detention facility, seek help, are first left standing outside, then an attorney is found who in turn has to wait for hours before even being admitted. At the moment he lays the papers on the table, everything could be over, but it only begins a new chapter: mistrust, follow-up questions, “is this even real?”, “that is not you”, ever new delays - sheer madness. And these are still the easy cases. Anyone with only a precarious immigration status faces the real ordeal: more than four to six such cases per day is hardly manageable, each time finding a lawyer, hoping for pro bono support or at least a somewhat bearable arrangement somewhere around 500 dollars, organizing, notifying the family, researching at breakneck speed, coordinating with the ACLU or local aid organizations - a system that claims to bring order and in reality tears people out of their daily lives minute by minute.

In South Minneapolis, massive confrontations between ICE agents and residents occurred on Monday afternoon. Near Lake Street, not far from Karmel Mall, dozens of people confronted federal agents after warning whistles sounded through the neighborhood. Eyewitnesses report shouting, pushing, and violence. A woman was forced face down onto the ground, even as bystanders shouted that she was pregnant and could not breathe.

The crowd demanded her release while agents dragged her away by one arm. Snowballs flew, more observers rushed in. ICE used pepper spray, later also a taser. Several people, including journalists, were hit by irritants. The Minneapolis Police Department and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office responded but later stated they had seen no attacks on agents and had themselves used no force. Arrests, possible injuries, and the exact sequence of events remain unclear. The operation targeted a neighborhood with a large Somali population and followed shortly after derogatory remarks by President Trump about Somalis in Minnesota, further escalating tensions.

During an ICE operation in St. Paul, Minnesota, there was extremely severe violence against peaceful protesters. Federal agents deployed pepper spray from close range directly into people’s faces; several individuals vomited and struggled to breathe. As people attempted to leave the area, enforcement vehicles nearly struck bystanders. Those affected report physical pain and significant emotional distress. Family members of workers lost contact with their loved ones during the raid. ICE later stated that, together with the FBI and DEA, it had executed a nationwide search warrant at the company Bro-Tex. How many employees were detained remains unclear. At present, we have documented 21 cases.

It is an image one would expect from a dictatorship rather than the United States: while flames tear through the forests of the Olympic Peninsula, masked federal agents suddenly appear, check IDs, and lead away two men - men who are not fleeing, but fighting the Bear Gulch fire with hoes and hoses. Two firefighters from contract crews, in the middle of operations, were taken away in handcuffs. Both men were later secured release from detention.

This must be confronted. Not only theoretically, but practically. Where it happens. In neighborhoods, at doorsteps, on the streets. Lawyers must be on standby. Even at Christmas, even on New Year’s Eve. Hotlines must be active. Legal counsel must be immediately available, because often minutes matter. Every arrest must be documented - name, place, time. The chain of evidence must be airtight. Organization must function. From north to south, from east to west. The problem is not locally confined. Charlotte today, tomorrow it could be Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Chicago, or New York. Trump’s policy makes no regional distinctions in its hatred.

Europe should take a close look. What is happening here is not abstract. This is the concrete implementation of a policy that an AfD could also pursue. People are turned into hunted targets. Families are torn apart. Those who help are punished. This is happening now, in real time, in a Western country.

The two people in Charlotte did what was morally right. They warned. They protected. Of course we support the two individuals. They showed solidarity. For that, they were arrested. That is precisely why one must continue. Keep warning. Keep helping. Do not stop. The organization needs even more structure. It needs people willing to take on standby duties. It needs networks that can respond quickly. It needs documentation that holds up in court. It needs financial resources for lawyers and bail. It needs secure communication channels.

ICE will use the holidays. That much is certain. The raids will come, large scale and coordinated. The question is not if, but where and when. The answer to that is organized resistance. No symbolic gestures, but concrete help. Legal counsel. Safe spaces. Escape plans. Financial support. Publicity. Acquittals. What happened in Charlotte is a warning signal. The arrest of people who warn others marks a new level of escalation. It is no longer just about the persecution of undocumented migrants. It is about criminalizing any form of help and solidarity.

This is the moment that shows how serious it really is. Not with words, not with outrage, but with actions. When the neighbor is taken away - what do we do? When the family next door disappears - how do we respond? When people are arrested for their humanity - do we stand against it? The two people in Charlotte made their decision. They acted. Now they are paying for it. The people who were sprayed with pepper spray stand for something that has been lost in this world. To openly stand up against it. Their warning is out there, not at the kitchen table. And it must be passed on. From person to person. Despite the risks. Precisely because of the risks. Christmas 2025 will show how much humanity is still possible when the state criminalizes it. The holidays will not be a celebration. They will be hell.

The social consequences are severe. Families are torn apart, children are left behind, social networks collapse. States like Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras or Venezuela are particularly affected – but so are people from Bangladesh, Russia or China. The political message: deterrence through unpredictability, deportation as an act of administrative force, not as the result of an individual review.

It was shortly after seven in the morning, children laughing as they ran through the glass doors of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center, a bilingual kindergarten in the north of the city, when black SUVs suddenly rolled into the parking lot. Seconds later, a woman, Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano - an educator - ran from a vehicle toward the entrance. Behind her were men in bulletproof vests with large white letters reading: POLICE ICE. Before she could close the door behind her, she was detained - between two glass fronts, in front of the children.

For relatives of detainees, it is important to act quickly. ICE assigns each detained person a nine digit alien registration number, which can be used to locate them via the official ICE detention locator portal. Detainees generally have the right to consult an attorney and can request a list of free or low cost legal services. Families should secure copies of all relevant documents and record details of the arrest. Raids and ICE activity can also be reported to enable legal assistance and public documentation - for example through the nationwide hotline of United We Dream at 1-844-363-1423.

One question Donald Trump must be asked: many were sent up a mountain. What did he think would come back down from the mountain? Resistance is growing, and none of us is willing to retreat even a single millimeter in this fight. People need help - and they shall receive it and will receive it.