Omar Lugones’s searing words on the ICE raid aftermath remind us that cruelty is not justice — and that no American should be cheering.
When news broke that Silvestre Jimenez Gomez, a longtime West Hollywood resident, had been detained by ICE and deported on July 4, many responded with grief and outrage. But a disturbing number of others—particularly online—responded with something else entirely: satisfaction. Some even mocked his family’s pain.
Omar Lugones, a local resident and activist, put words to what many were feeling but struggling to express. In a widely shared Facebook post, he wrote:
Americans have ideological and political differences of opinion. That has and always will be the case, but the way so many Americans are gleefully rejoicing—and in many cases even mocking the pain of these poor families who are being ripped apart by this ridiculous witch hunt—is horrifying.
Unless you are the direct descendant of a Native American, you’re the descendant of an immigrant or a slave. To applaud this barbaric cruelty is an insult to the ancestors who fought for you to have the life you have.
It also speaks volumes of your humanity or lack thereof.
I pray for Edgar and his family and the thousands of others we have failed. This is not the promise of the America that could be. It’s a regurgitation of the worst we have ever been.
Lugones’s post doesn’t read like a political statement—it reads like a moral reckoning. It strips away partisan framing and replaces it with something older and deeper: a call to conscience.
The deportation of Silvestre Jimenez Gomez on Independence Day wasn’t just a tragedy for one family—it was a reflection of a nation that still hasn’t reconciled with its own history. That history is built on the labor of immigrants, the pain of the enslaved, and the displacement of Indigenous people. Any celebration of punitive cruelty toward immigrants today is a celebration against the roots of our own existence.
In the days since the raid, Edgar Jimenez—Silvestre’s son—has spoken out about his father’s disappearance, the fear and heartbreak their family is experiencing, and their effort to raise money through a GoFundMe campaign. But amid the logistical scrambling, emotional fallout, and bureaucratic coldness, Omar Lugones’s post offers something rare: perspective.
It reminds us that cruelty is not justice. That legality is not morality. And that what we normalize today will define the country we live in tomorrow.
Yes it’s horrible for his family, but one things for sure, the caravans and gangs of people pouring over the border under Biden has come to a crashing halt.
Girlfriend
I feel for the family. But unfortunately, the father made a conscious decision to break the law and enter a county illegally. Now it has caught up to him. If I traveled to Europe, got of the plane and entered a country illegally without my passport, I would know at some point the law might catch up to me. I would have no one to blame but myself. There is the right way and the wrong way to do something. You chose the wrong way and you pay the price at some point. Come into the country legally, and feel… Read more »
We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of settlers. Settlers came here and built something. Then immigrants stepped into what had already been built. In 1924 Ellis Island was shut down because it was going to be too difficult to assimilate any more immigrants into the American culture. The fear was that there would be too many “Americas” if immigration was allowed to continue at that pace. From 1924 to 1965 there was almost no more immigration to America at all, with only a few exceptions, like “war brides”. It was in 1965 that Sen. Ted… Read more »
Thank you for running Omar Lugone‘s word’s here. I greatly appreciate the re-print. I stand with Silvestre Jimenez Gomez‘a family and Omar Lugone words. That so many of our fellow country men live, nourish and disseminate so much hate for humanity is unfathomable.
There’s nothing cruel about returning these illegals to the country of their origin. They had absolutely no right to come here and are a burden on all of us. This type of virtue signaling helped elect Donald Trump.
Good grief.
Try visiting another country without your passport……see what happens.
Life has consequences.