Witherspoon Presbyterian Church
Princeton, New Jersey

I joined the Defensa del Barrio committee yesterday of my local Resistencia chapter–in “defense of the neighborhood,” also known by its slogan, ICE Out of Princeton. It reminds me that when I was in fifth grade, I wrote a short story in which my friends and I were forced to some woodland redoubt just outside of town, to organize resistance to hostile forces that had somehow taken over. I guess the adults had dropped the ball, leaving the defense of the town in our hands. I don’t remember who the hostile forces in my story were, or what we ended up doing about them. I just find myself wondering whether the story was coincidence or prescience.

Either way, I get to re-write it. I’ve figured out who the hostile forces are, and how they take over. It seemed so mysterious then. Not any more.

“Conoce tus derechos frente la migra” (exige un abogado, guarda silencio, no firme nada): know your rights against ICE (demand an attorney, otherwise remain silent, do not sign anything)