Month: February 2026

Let Me See Your Papers

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

Some people don’t seem to grasp the reality that Department of Homeland Security agents, be they ICE or CBP, have no authority to demand a U.S. Citizen produce identification. TSA agents are, of course, an exception when someone is passing through airport security. Customs and Border Protection can naturally require identification at border crossings. That’s the extent to which DHS agents can compel a U.S. Citizen to produce identification. The purview of DHS agents is strictly restricted when it concerns U.S. Citizens.

Hell, no Law Enforcement agency has authorization to require a U.S. Citizen produce identification unless they’re operating a vehicle, lawfully detained, or under reasonable suspicion of a crime. Even in States with “Stop and Identify” Laws on the books, those only apply if there’s reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. It’s worth noting that refusal to produce identification does not, in and of itself, constitute reasonable suspicion. There is no legal requirement for any U.S. Citizen to carry any identification.

I mention all of this because, while discussing ICE overstepping their legal restrictions, I had an old friend try to insist that people only fail to identify themselves if they’re attempting to avoid being picked up on a Warrant. Further, he suggested that refusing to comply with ICE or CBP requests to produce an ID constitutes obstruction. This clearly displayed two things for me. The first being that the individual in question has no comprehension of what “obstruction” means. The second, he fails to grasp that ICE and CBP have more restrictions regarding interactions with U.S. Citizens than other Law Enforcement Agencies (including local police), not fewer.

This same person attempted to state that Constitutional Rights do not apply to non-citizens, which leads me to suspect that the educational system has dramatically failed.

The Supreme Court clearly disagrees with his claim. Constitutional Rights to all “persons” within the United States have been upheld by the Supreme Court several times, starting in 1886, with Yick Wo v. Hopkins. Decisions in 1982 and 2001 further guaranteed this interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh in my judgment of him, since President Trump seems to be similarly lacking in comprehension of Constitutional Rights and their application. Of course, the list of things President Trump comprehends would be woefully short. The same applies to many members of his Administration.

In case anyone needs further clarification, it has been decided that any “person” (U.S. Citizens, documented, or undocumented immigrants) within the United States is protected by the Constitution and they are entitled to the same “standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law.”

It’s not the protesters or citizen witnesses who are violating the law; it’s the agents working for DHS who are violating the Constitutional Rights granted to even those who have entered this nation unlawfully. I would go so far as to say that their crime is far more egregious than that of one who has overstayed a visa or illegally crossed the border, because neither of those crimes violates the rights of anyone within the United States. If not criminal, what does one call a member of Law Enforcement who breaks the law? Are they not bound by the same set of rules and restrictions as the rest of us?

Institutionalized Racism, Or Racism In Our Institutions

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It’s not difficult to see through to the root of so many of our problems when I look around at the nation I’m living in. Anyone pretending that White Supremacy hasn’t been the underlying substrate of America since before its founding is lying, too stupid to be trusted, or in such profound denial that I doubt there’s any recovery. Worse than that, I can’t ignore that a whole lot of the ridiculous, regressive nonsense we’ve been dealing with over the last decade, as a nation (on display for the global stage), derives from the altogether too-widespread sentiment that one particular Black man did not know his place and refused to stay in his lane.

Barack Obama seems to have made a lot of people angry by having the audacity to forget that he wasn’t supposed to be above white folks in a position of authority. I applaud Joe Biden for being an establishment white man who was willing to take a second chair to Obama. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t particularly Progressive, or that he had policies that were barely distinguishable from Conservative policies of a decade or two before he was elected President. It didn’t matter that he was cautious, measured in words and actions, and held to a higher standard than any white man in the same position. He still had to fight against his own party almost as much as he had to fight against people on the opposite side of the political divide. He observed the rule of law even as members of Congress made up new restrictions–pretending they were tradition–when he tried to appoint a Supreme Court Justice he had the right to appoint.

It was the 21st Century, so some concessions had to be made, and all but the most virulent racists needed to put on a show of embracing superficial progress made since the Civil Rights era. Black men could become superstar athletes, musicians and performers, high-ranking members of the Armed Forces, and even Senators or Representatives. But the highest office–that was just a bridge too far. Black people were acceptable, so long as there was always someone white in a position above them, keeping them in check.

Hell, until the 1990s, the only two Black men to serve as Governor did so because they stepped up from the role of Lieutenant Governor in Louisiana. The first, Oscar Dunn, died under suspicious circumstances in 1871, the same year he started serving as acting Governor after Governor Warmoth was injured. P.B.S. Pinchback assumed the role of Lieutenant Governor after that and became acting Governor for just over a month, when Governor Warmoth was facing Impeachment charges. He was acting Governor for barely more than a month.

L. Douglas Wilder was the first Black man elected Governor, and that wasn’t until 1990. He served only one term. After that, it didn’t happen again until Deval Patrick was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2007. Wes Moore wasn’t elected in Maryland until 2023.

In almost 250 years of American history, only three Black men have been elected Governor, and one elected President. It seems clear that, even at the State level, Black people were expected to remain subservient to white leadership. They still are, for the most part.

It’s not just politics, though.

Clifton Warton Jr. was the first Black man to become CEO of a major U.S. corporation, and that didn’t happen until 1987. As of last year, there were a total of eight Black CEOs at the helm of Fortune 500 companies. Throughout the history of the Fortune 500, fewer than 30 Black people have served as CEO.

And, of course, a minuscule fraction have been Black women. Granted, only two women were in positions of CEO for Fortune 500 companies in 1998, seven in 2002, and a grand total of 55 women were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies last year, reaching an all-time high. So, naturally, the Venn Diagram including Black women was going to be small.

And, as you might suspect, it’s not just Black people and women. The first Latino CEO of a Fortune 500 company didn’t get into the position until 1981, and the first Latina wasn’t until 2017. There wasn’t an Asian American male CEO until 1986, or an East Asian woman as CEO until 1999 (and that was Avon).

The government has been just as proportionately non-selective in its racism, with only 27 total Governors of Black, Latino, Asian, or Indigenous descent (including the ones I previously mentioned). This is all a major component of Institutionalized Racism, when the institutions of our civilization are governed by racist practices.