Deported by Glitch, Buried by Silence

As I watched Pope Leo XIV give his first homily at Mass this morning, talking about love, honor, and respect, I became inspired to write this article. We are NOT helpless. The world is on our side!

Guest article by Michael Cohen

I used to believe I was on the inside; a consigliere with a front-row seat to power. But there’s a difference between sitting next to the devil and becoming his spokesperson. And if you’re still defending this administration’s immigration policy—its reckless, cruel, and morally bankrupt war on the vulnerable—well then, congratulations. You’re part of the machinery. And that machinery, like all machines of inhumanity, doesn’t make mistakes. It makes victims.

Let me start here: my father is a Holocaust survivor. And I’ve heard him say more times than I can count, “When they come for the innocent, silence is complicity.” It was one of the reasons I became a lawyer: to be a voice when others were voiceless, to stand up when others sat down. And now, under President Trump’s second reign of terror, that silence is deafening. ICE, under his command, isn’t just an agency. It’s an executioner’s sword—dull, blind, and swinging wide.

You probably missed the late Friday court filing; that’s the trick. They bury their sins in weekend news cycles, praying you’re too busy grilling hot dogs and burgers to notice the screams. But in this filing, ICE quietly admitted what whistleblowers, lawyers, and human rights advocates have been shouting: they got it wrong. Again.

A man known only by the initials O.C.G. was deported to Mexico. ICE claimed he said he wasn’t afraid to return. Turns out, that wasn’t true. The “evidence”? A comment logged by a glitchy software tool—ICE’s Orwellian-sounding “ENFORCE Alien Removal Module.” I mean, for fuck’s sake… who names these things? Dr. Evil? Upon closer inspection, no ICE officer could confirm ever speaking to the man about his fear. So he was deported based on a typo, a bad click, or a broken algorithm. Welcome to American justice, Trump-style.

This isn’t an isolated incident; it’s a damn pattern. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, accused of gang ties—a favorite Trumpian smear against brown men—was deported in direct violation of a court order. Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a Venezuelan man with a valid asylum claim, was dumped in El Salvador, despite a court-approved settlement. Judges have called these deportations premature, sloppy, and unconstitutional. But the Trump administration? They call them “successful removals.” That’s because when you don’t see migrants as people, it doesn’t matter where they end up—a prison camp, a gang’s hit list, or six feet underground.

But let me tell you what does matter: a single innocent life.

I don’t say this as some bleeding-heart liberal or Substack talking head. I say this as a Jew, a son, and someone who knows damn well what happens when government agencies start treating lives like data points. I was one of them, wronged and ruined by a weaponized Trump Department of Justice—or, should I say, Department of Injustice.

The Torah, in Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5, teaches us: “Whoever destroys a single life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world.” It doesn’t say a criminal life. It doesn’t say a citizen’s life. It says a life. Full stop. And whoever saves one—one—has saved the world.

Maimonides, who Trump probably thinks is an employee at Mar-a-Lago, said it better than I ever could: It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death. That’s the ethic, the heart, the soul of Judeo-Christian law. And it should be the soul of American policy too. But this administration—an administration that claims to be so righteous—has none.

Trump, flanked by sycophants like Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, who mistake cruelty for strategy and deportation quotas for immigration reform, have turned the machinery of government against the very values that built this country. They don’t care if an innocent man, woman, or child dies in a cartel-run border town or languishes in a prison camp in a country they fled in terror. They care about headlines, optics, and “owning the libs.” But every wrongful deportation is a desecration—not just of law, but of humanity.

So what do we do?

We save the world—one person at a time. We show up in court. We fight the lawsuits. We amplify the stories ICE wants buried in PDF court filings. We say: not in our name.

We do this because we know that the moment you look the other way, just once, it becomes a habit. That’s how democracies fall. That’s how camps start. That’s how families disappear in the night while your neighbors sip cocktails and pretend it’s just “policy.”

I once sold my soul to Trump. I won’t do it again. And I sure as hell won’t stay silent while innocent people are being sacrificed at the altar of Trump’s broken ego and broken promises.

Because if we don’t fight for the innocent, then we’re not just complicit.

We’re next.

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THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PERSONAL NOTE:

ARE YOU WITH ME? I CAN’T DO THIS ALONE!

If you’re reading this, it means you care. You care about truth. About justice. About saving our democracy from the grip of grifters, liars, and power-hungry con men. But let’s be real: I can’t carry this weight on my own.

I’m asking—no, urging—you, my loyal Substack readers, to help grow this platform into a force they can’t ignore. We’re not building a newsletter; we’re building a movement. One loud enough, sharp enough, and relentless enough to push back against the lies and hold the corrupt to account.

Now more than ever, independent journalism needs you. Your support keeps this alive—not corporate sponsors, not shady billionaires with agendas. You.

And yes, as a personal thank you, the first 240 Founding Members will receive a rare, signed, numbered Substack edition of my New York Times bestseller, Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice Against His Critics. A collector’s item—and a statement.

But this is bigger than a book. It’s about standing up while others stay silent. It’s about building a community that calls out the bullshit and fights like hell for what’s right.

So here’s what you can do:

1. Become a supporter.

2. Share this Substack with family and friends.

3. Bring your people into the fight.

Do your part. Stand up. Speak out. The time is now—and together, we will be heard.