After World War II, the German pastor Martin Niemöller reflected on his own silence during the Nazi regime — a silence that allowed persecution to spread unchecked. His words have endured as a warning about the cost of indifference:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Nearly eighty years later, that warning feels painfully relevant.

In recent months, throughout Los Angeles and across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been conducting roving raids, detaining undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for decades.  These are people with families, jobs, and deep roots in their communities, people like Luis Martinez, who has lived in Los Angeles for 27 years with his wife, stepdaughter, and three grandchildren. Earlier this year, he was picked up in an ICE sweep at a local Home Depot and transferred to a detention center in Arizona. His sudden disappearance left his family devastated. Through the generosity of a donor, IILA’s legal team was able to hire an Arizona attorney to file a habeas writ that ultimately secured Luis Martinez’s release after more than four months in detention.

Tragically, Luis Martinez’s experience of being seized and detained indefinitely is becoming increasingly commonplace.  Being undocumented is not a criminal offense under US law; historically, it has been treated as a civil matter handled in Immigration Court and has not involved detaining people who have committed no wrongdoing. Luis Martinez’s story is emblematic of a system that has strayed far from the constitutional values of justice and dignity it claims to protect, as well as the due process rights of noncitizens living in the community.

There are those who believe this harsh and inhumane treatment of our undocumented sisters and brothers is justified because of their immigration status.  But what should alarm us all is the increasing number of US citizens and lawfully present immigrants being arrested and detained without due process by ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies. The ICE roving raids target people based not on criminal conduct, but on appearance, language, or dress.  Anyone who looks Latino can be picked up and detained, regardless of whether they are a citizen or an immigrant who is legally authorized to be here.  If you are of Latino descent, you may have already decided to carry a copy of your passport just in case you are stopped by ICE.  Yet even that may not be enough.

At least 170 US citizens have been arrested or detained by immigration agents under the second Trump Administration. According to ProPublica, “Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigrations agents.  At least two dozen citizens have reported being held for at least a day without access to a phone or lawyer.”  On October 20^th, the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations announced an investigation into reports of misconduct by federal agents during immigration requests across the country, focusing on the detainment of American citizens.

It would be comforting to believe that these abuses affect only a small, distant group of people — that the system targets only those who “don’t belong.” But the arrests of American citizens who look like they may not belong remind us of Niemöller’s words and of how dangerous that logic can be. When we fail to defend the rights of our neighbors, we weaken the protections that safeguard us all.

We cannot look away. We cannot tell ourselves that silence is neutrality. It is not. Silence is complicity.

Today, we are called to speak out — for Luis Martinez, for the families torn apart by raids, and for the promise that America can still be a place of justice and compassion.

Because if we wait until they come for us, it will already be too late.