The overwhelm of it all and the spike of “frozen water people” in Maine

These days, national media and popular content creators are largely dictating where we put our attention and it is overwhelming at times. So much so that it becomes easier to tuck in, do the bare minimum or less and just trust that things will work out before we get messed up by the system. To think that if we all simply show up and vote during the midterms that things will get better, the people creating global havoc will be out of office and that things will return to normal in the near future.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and to piss in your morning Cheerios, but the likelihood of that happening is up there with scoring a winning Powerball ticket that gives you sudden uber-wealth. Not very likely.

What is happening is that this administration, true to form, told us their plans and they are executing them, even down to “flooding the zone” as Stephen Bannon once told us was part of the strategy—a non-stop stream of bad shit that is so overwhelming, that we get tired and tap out.

It is a steady stream of overwhelm and many of us are tapping out because it is too much. I am seeing it here in Maine and it is scary to witness.

In January of this year, the administration announced Operation Catch of the Day in Maine under the not-so-gentle ministrations of Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino. ICE tore through Maine, ultimately arresting over 200 immigrants, who it was later determined that—despite the right-wing talking points and administration propaganda that these were among the worst of the worst—turned out to be pretty normal and harmless folks, with only a handful of them even having any criminal backgrounds. They were people in Maine out to make a better life for themselves and their families. People eager to build new lives and become a part of the community.

Yes, I acknowledge that most of them probably were undocumented but the whole thing was that ICE vowed to come in and only target criminals during their surge, and 80% of the people they snatched didn’t even have pending criminal charges against them, much less past convictions (only 6% had actual convictions, and there is no way even most of those handful were “worst of the worst” kinds of crimes). And while I don’t have numbers, I’m sure there were more than a few people rounded up who were here legally and went through hell merely because of the color of their skin or their accent.

During ICE’s brief “surge level” occupation in Maine, there were visible protests and actions, the media was covering it, and it had our attention here particularly but also to some degree national attention. We were all talking about it, and then the operation “ended” (the surge part of it, anyway) and it seemed like things were normal again, and outside of activist spaces, people moved on.

Except that ICE activity continued. Operation Catch of the Day may have ended, but ICE didn’t stop doing what it was doing.

It just became less obvious, with fewer masks and more attempts to blend in. Under Markwayne Mullin, DHS in general (but very much ICE in particular) has become more efficient and dangerous. Noem and Bovino craved attention; Mullin is much more quietly efficient at orchestrating kidnapping and such to meet those high arrest quotas that keep drawing in more and more documented immigrants and even citizens for detention.

As we saw on July 13, with the murder of Johan Sebastian Guerro in Maine—who was killed by an agent that even mumble-mouth Tom Homan, the border czar, agreed wasn’t properly vetted and shouldn’t have had the job—the literal bottom feeders of society have been given the power and authority to terrorize our communities.

As this happens in more places with more regularity, we are largely accepting this “new normal” out of a misguided sense that we are powerless. These bottom feeders are state-sanctioned bounty hunters with quotas and a taste for violence.

Well, ICE struck again a few days ago in Maine. Debora Kapisha, a registered nurse from Zambia (who is employed by Maine Medical Center) was detained July 30 at Boston’s Logan Airport by ICE. Right-wing talking points are claiming that she overstayed her visa but the Maine State Nurses Association and National Nurses United say that she is in fact authorized to work and live in this country and that she has an active asylum case. Considering ICE’s track record, I would take anything they say with a grain of salt, if that—especially seeing as how it was just reported in local Maine news that ICE “inadvertently” removed a 31-year-old Portland resident to Guatemala back in January.

(In the hours after I finished writing this piece, Kapisha was released on her way back to Maine, but that was largely because of the quick intervention of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree. Most people snatched by ICE don’t get that level of help, and even with a relatively speedy resolution for Kapisha, it neither forgives ICE behavior and bad practices nor does it erase the trauma of being snatched and detained.)

Since the beginning of the year, ICE in Maine has accidentally killed a man (who wasn’t the person they were looking for), has arrested hundreds of people with no criminal records despite a massive propaganda campaign to smear them, has terrorized the immigrant community in Maine to the point that businesses closed to keep people safe, and is now detaining healthcare workers who are highly regarded by their colleagues at a time when we need more healthcare workers, not less.

In addition, the few activists who have chosen to post up near Maine’s only ICE detention facility in Maine are reporting nonstop activity, including people showing up for their scheduled check-in appointments because they are in fact following the law but being detained on the spot. In one instance just a few days ago, a father arrived with his wife and kids but the father was taken into custody and the mother was left with the car and kids (but she doesn’t drive). Imagine losing your breadwinner, driver, and partner all because they did what they were required to do as part of your family building a safer life, and they were punished for “doing the right thing.”

In Maine, the activists on the ground are taking extraordinary risks in this age of surveillance to do the right thing but when the same people stay committed and few new people get involved and stay involved, it is overwhelming. A few days ago, a local community fund, Community Relief Fund (created to support families with family members taken by ICE) announced it was winding down due to the funds needed to support families winding down. The group started in March of 2025, and was a BIPOC-led, volunteer effort meaning these were people who were working regular jobs on top of their community efforts. People who were not paid to do the right thing but who extended themselves for over a year to make a difference.

Survival for Black, Brown, and other marginalized people in this country has always required people to push beyond their limits. Our collective survival moving forward requires the same of all of us—not simply those already being victimized. This kind of concept is a very new way of living for the vast majority of white people in America, who have been raised with the American ethos of rugged individualism, which says to look out for yourself and your people first. It creates a false reality that denies how interconnected we all are, but in this new macabre version of America, we are learning just how interconnected we are—how much we need each other and how our survival is a joint effort.

When members of our community are being killed and taken and our lawmakers aren’t moving with speed and care, it becomes our job to move with speed, care, and love. People often ask me what can they do, and why can’t someone just tell them specifically what to do? For me, if I don’t know you, and we have no trust between us, I am not going to say much to you. This country has historically infiltrated activist spaces and with today’s technology, it is even easier than ever. So, I am going to say bluntly, you can’t build a strong and effective movement online today. You can’t build a movement in Signal chats. Stop asking people questions on Meta platforms.

I am not saying online avenues have no place at all in the work, but they aren’t the places to actually build connection, community and networks of people that can get things done in terms of protest and resistance.

But you can build a movement by showing up to your area actions and getting to know the people on the ground. In Maine, there are people meeting daily outside of the detention facility, bearing witness, offering support to families left stranded by the cruelty of this administration, and more.

And I know people hate talk of money but the reality is movements require money. Funds that help people require people to give the funds to begin with. A lot of foundations that might have supported such efforts in the past are moving differently these days. If you really don’t have any money, then signal-boost the people doing the work and needing the funds, or consider using a special event to raise funds for movement work. If you keep spare change in a bottle, maybe consider turning it into bills and donating it; every little bit counts. We have a notion particularly in Black femme and non-binary spaces: We often will pass the same few bucks around to help someone in need, knowing that as people grounded in the love ethic of the community, when we need help, others will be there for us. I have lived this and experienced it.

Every community is different but connecting with the folks on the ground in your area is the first step and it is needed because things are rapidly worsening. We can’t afford to look away; we cannot let fear of losing what we value hold us back because we are heading in a direction where jobs are going to get scarce as AI slowly replaces humans. Remember, the people in charge are guided by men like Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin—they are not logical or compassionate in the slightest. They are playing rich men games with all of our lives; they want a new reality that eventually will exclude most of us. Their words are not hyperbole, or fantasy. They are banking on us brushing off most of what they say as pure lunacy. We have seen this country reshaped in less than two years. What makes you still think that someone is going to impeach the head wig and restore order?

Again, BIPOC and marginalized people have always had to read the room for our survival and it would behoove all of us (especially the non-marginalized folks) to get on the same page. Look, if we don’t fight back, we won’t have a future. Is that how you want to be remembered? Take a few breaks here and there as needed but don’t bury your head in the sand, and don’t allow the exhaustion or the “overwhelm” keep you from doing the right thing.

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Image by Usman Yousaf, obtained via Unsplash