The woman who actually lives in the house had just moved to Oklahoma City from Maryland with her family about two weeks earlier.

“I keep asking them, ‘who are you? What are you doing here? What’s happening,’” she said. “And they said, ‘we have a warrant for the house, a search warrant.’”

She said they ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes.

“They wanted me to change in front of all of them, in between all of them,” she said. “My husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments—her own dad, because it’s respectful. You have her out there, a minor, in her underwear.”

Marisa said the names on the search warrant were not hers or anyone in her family.

“We just moved here from Maryland,” she said. “We’re citizens. That’s what I kept saying. We’re citizens.”

She said the agents didn’t care.

“They were very dismissive, very rough, very careless,” she said. “I kept pleading. I kept telling them we weren’t criminals. They were treating us like criminals. We were here by ourselves. We didn’t do anything.”

Marisa said the agents tore apart every square inch of the house and what few belongings they had, seizing their phones, laptops and their life savings in cash as “evidence.”

“I told them before they left, I said you took my phone. We have no money. I just moved here,” she said. “I have to feed my children. I’m going to need gas money. I need to be able to get around. Like, how do you just leave me like this? Like an abandoned dog.”

Before they left, Marisa said one of the agents made a comment.

“One of them said, ‘I know it was a little rough this morning,’” she said. “It was so denigrating. That you do all of this to a family, to women, your fellow citizens. And it was a little rough? You literally traumatized me and my daughters for life. We’re going to have to go get help or get over this somehow.”

Now, Marisa said they have, quite literally, nothing.

“I said, ‘when are we going to get our stuff back?’ They said it could be days or it could be months,” she said.

Marisa said she is left with nothing but questions.

  • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)
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    1427 days ago

    Why is ICE seizing anything outside of whoever they supposedly had a warrant for? Did the warrant say take all electronics and valuables as they are being used to hide/fund someone we don’t like, but the people that live their, yeah their fine let them be? Like what? How is this not just want to be terrorists fucking over people with impunity?

      • @ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        It is so demoralizing to try and explain civil asset forfeiture. I’ve never had a single person believe that it’s real when I tell them about it - everybody insists that it can’t possibly be true since it’s so flagrantly unconstitutional.

        • @infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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          36 days ago

          “The court system in my country is so close-knit with the police that they have a policy of not charging cops with most of the crimes they might commit when on duty or requiring any proof of their statements in court.” Yeah it’s demoralizing but I don’t find it hard to explain because at a high level the issue isn’t complicated.

        • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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          66 days ago

          Same, most people assume I’m being a crazy person and I’m about to go off about some sovcit shit or “the moon is a NASA projector they lost control of in 1962!” Or something.

        • @NotAnotherLemmyUser@lemmy.world
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          It’s “constitutional” because they’re accusing the “money” of being used illegally. There’s no actual person being accused here, but if you want to get your money back you’ll need to prove it’s innocence in court.

          It’s ridiculous. At least the Institute for Justice has been winning court cases against this, but there’s still a long way to go: https://ij.org/issues/private-property/civil-forfeiture/

          Edit: typo

      • @4am@lemm.ee
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        466 days ago

        Why does ICE have jurisdiction to seize civil assets anyway? Does my cash need a fucking passport now?

      • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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        66 days ago

        There’s a movie called Rebel Ridge in which this practice, and a corrupt police department, serve as the antagonists. It’s a very harsh movie but very vindicating conclusion.

    • @michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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      627 days ago

      We decided we needed to be able to shut down drug dealers by seizing their money without need for any real proof. Since then the majority of seizures, 84%, are civil most incidental to purposeless searches that turn up no crime. Many seizures are in fact under $1000 and most are under $2000. In theory you can get your money back but it often would cost thousands so for most victims its impossible to actually get money back without spending more.

      Basically for decades the authorities have been acting as robbers and have collectively stolen billions from the people directly often stopping minorities for driving while black and treating the $400 in random bob’s wallet as proceeds of an imaginary crime they don’t need to substantiate. Being black and having $400 is enough.

      • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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        66 days ago

        We decided we needed to be able to shut down drug dealers by seizing their money without need for any real proof.

        This is why it was so important to declare a “War on Drugs.” Most people thought it was just political rhetoric, but it was far more than that. By declaring a literal WAR on drugs, it offers the government an array of options that aren’t available in peacetime. One of those being the ability to alter the way suspects/combatants and their possessions/ weapons are treated. Money and valuables can be treated as a tool of drug dealing, and confiscated as spoils of war.

        • Youre really misunderstanding what declaring an actual war is or is not. Technically the US has not been in an actual declared war since WWII.

          The Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Iraq wars, none of those were declared as actual war by congress. The war on drugs is just political rhetoric and has no actual legal bearing.

          You cant declare formal war on drug use because drug use isnt a recognized sovereign country

          • @WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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            36 days ago

            You’re misunderstanding that you don’t need to declare an actual war to use wartime emergency powers. At any given time there are dozens of official federal emergencies, some of which have been in place for decades, allowing the White House to claim emergency powers.

          • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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            -46 days ago

            Youre argument makes no sense, and is contradicted in each sentence.

            The Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Iraq wars, none of those were declared as actual war by congress.

            And yet, they were still wars, with lots of deaths of Americans. Clearly, those that are committed to fighting wars, don’t feel like they require the distinction of being legally declared wars by Congress.

            The war on drugs is just political rhetoric and has no actual legal bearing.

            And yet many people have died, been imprisoned, and died as a result. Just try to tell people who are serving years or decades in prison that their sentences were just “political rhetoric,” and had “no actual legal bearing.”

            • Youre fundamentally confusing what “political rhetoric” is versus what a legal action is. Calling the war on drugs a war doesnt make it a war with any actual legal modifications for anything.

              Calling the war on drugs a war is a political justification for the actions taken against drug use. Therefore, calling the war on drugs a war is not a legal thing. Its just political rhetoric.

              I dont see how else to explain that for you

              • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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                -16 days ago

                You keep saying that, but their actual actions contradict that.

                Its like saying HitlerPig isn’t supposed to rule with Executive Actions, he needs to legislate through Congress, as Constitutionally-mandated, and yet here he is, doing it.

                It doesn’t matter what the law says, if the result is the same. They framed the “War on Drugs” as political rhetoric to provide plausible deniability for enablers like you, when in reality, it was absolutely used as a justification to greatly militarize law enforcement, deny citizens (mostly minorities) their Constituional and Civil Rights, increase prison sentences, embrace civil forfeiture, etc. You accepted it as strong language to fight the drug scourge, but they used it as cover to supress our rights, in the name of drugs.

                It worked so well, they used the same strategy again. In the 2000s, they used the threat of Terrorism to declare a War on Terror, and establish Homeland Security, and reduce our rights even more.

                • @michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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                  15 days ago

                  The smartest thing to do at this point is just block you because you literally don’t understand what words mean and when called on literal nonsense just double down on the nonsense.

        • @michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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          35 days ago

          The war on drugs has only ever been rhetoric. It never literally gave anyone any additional powers because it is not in any way shape or form a declared war and has no legal meanings other than the ones you have completely fabricated in your alternate history.

    • @Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      337 days ago

      How do you know they are even ICE. Not saying they aren’t agents, but there was an EO that basically repurposed a lot of other agencies to become ICE deputies. DEA, ATF, etc.

    • @Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      406 days ago

      They have been doing shit like this for years anyway. The cops in some communities even outright stop countless vehicles coming out in order to 'seize drug money’and they end up taking any cash the person has without any evidence whatsoever. This is some Robin Hood villain shit.

    • plz1
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      86 days ago

      The life savings were illegal immigrants?

      /s , obviously

      The real reason is probably civil asset forfeiture.

    • @jordanlund@lemmy.world
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      57 days ago

      Generally the search and seizure is for the property, not the people. That’s IF they bother with a warrant which apparently is a big ask these days.

  • @Inucune@lemmy.world
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    4277 days ago

    Illegal search and seizure. Where’s the nra? The various groups that swore to uphold the constitution?

  • @randomname@sh.itjust.works
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    296 days ago

    everyone needs to remember that if/when this is over, anyone who supported this or participated in it needs to be shunned for the rest of their lives.

  • @aramova@infosec.pubOP
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    1337 days ago

    Remember folks, every vote counts. We did this to ourselves.

    I’ve said it before elsewhere but it needs to be heard…

    It’s just wild to me continually seeing posts not understanding how this all works, and how it would play out. It’s like the people who thought China paid the tariffs…

    The house is almost tied. That’s who passes bills, handles impeachments, some of the most powerful committees are, and who impeaches Presidents…

    218 Republicans, 213 Democrats.

    Let’s see, take New York for example.

    26 representatives total, 19 Democrat and 7 Republican.

    5 of those were within 2 points last time their seat was up.

    People who think that New York is blue, their vote doesn’t matter, skips the votes for the House and Senate and end up losing a Blue house seat but later complain that nothing changes are literally the fucking problem.

    Every. Fucking. State. Is. Like. This.

    Apathetic morons who don’t realize that the president is only held accountable by the other branch of government then wave their hands around when they did jack shit to help put people in place to, are the fucking problem.

    District 3 of California was lost by 24,000 votes. District 22 was lost by 3,000.

    Those two seats in the house, along with the close ones in New York, Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, hell every state… Are what makes the House of Representatives or breaks it.

    So, if you think that your vote for president doesn’t matter, so you skip voting and let these other seats slip, yes, you’re a fucking moron who can’t grasp basic concepts of government that are taught in 4th grade.

    And don’t get me started on the State House/Senates, how they define voting laws and voting zones and engage in gerrymandering.

    Every fucking vote counts.

    And until the country realizes it, and starts acting on it, we’ll keep getting the shit we deserve.

    House needs a simple majority, and two thirds of the Senate.

    Democrats would need ~18 seats.

    First, that won’t happen in 2026.

    Even the best cases make it hard to win enough by 2028. Which is why impeachment is just not something we can hold out for.

    Gerrymandering is part of why this is a problem, which is done at the local level, and again why every vote counts.

    How could it play out? Assuming some absurdly weird upside down world just opposite of what we’re living in, this is the only path just looking at the numbers…

    Again, Democrats would need to gain 18 net seats. Seats Potentially in Play (Republican Incumbents): This requires looking at seats up in upcoming cycles.

    • Class 1 Seats (Up in 2026):
      • Highly Competitive Targets: These would be the first priority. States where Democrats have won statewide recently or that lean only slightly Republican. Examples based on recent political history might include:
        • North Carolina (Budd-R)
        • Alaska (Sullivan-R) - Unique dynamics with ranked-choice voting.
      • Stretch Targets: States that are more Republican but could potentially flip under exceptionally favorable conditions (like the hypothetical turnout).
        • Iowa (Ernst-R)
        • Montana (Daines-R) - Depends heavily on candidate matchups.
        • Kentucky (McConnell-R’s seat - potential retirement changes dynamics)
        • Kansas (Marshall-R)
        • South Carolina (Graham-R)
      • Very Difficult Targets: Solidly Republican states requiring overwhelming Democratic turnout and significant shifts among other voters.
        • Texas (Cornyn-R)
        • Mississippi (Wicker-R)
        • Alabama (Tuberville-R)
        • West Virginia (Capito-R)
        • Oklahoma (Mullin-R - Special election winner)
        • Wyoming (Lummis-R)
        • Idaho (Risch-R)
        • Arkansas (Cotton-R)
        • Nebraska (Ricketts-R)
        • South Dakota (Rounds-R)
        • Louisiana (Cassidy-R) - Jungle primary system.
    • Class 2 Seats (Up in 2028): (Looking further ahead)
      • Highly Competitive Targets:
        • Maine (Collins-R) - Often competitive, depends on matchup.
        • Georgia (Perdue/Ossoff dynamic showed competitiveness, depends who holds it after '26 potentially) - Assuming GOP holds a seat here.
      • Stretch Targets:
        • Michigan (Peters-D currently, but listing potential GOP flips back if one happened hypothetically before 2028) - Generally leans D, but could be contested.
        • New Hampshire (Shaheen-D currently) - Generally leans D, but listing potential GOP flips back.
      • Very Difficult Targets: (Many solidly Republican states)
        • Tennessee (Hagerty-R)
        • Alaska (Murkowski-R historically, depends on dynamics)
        • North Carolina (Tillis-R)
        • Iowa (Grassley-R seat potentially)
        • Texas (Cruz-R)
        • Kentucky (Paul-R)
        • And many others similar to the 2026 list (SC, AL, MS, WY, ID, NE, SD, KS, WV, OK).

    It’s going to take an absolutely historic level of pain to both drive enough people to vote MAGA out to make this change though.

    The amount that’s being excused, sanewashed, and just drowned out with other absurdities…

    We’re on all on this shit ride until some new wildcard comes into play.

    No impeachment, no Supreme Court, no guardrail is going to change that.

    Something new and unaccounted for is the only feasible catalyst.

    • @Saleh@feddit.org
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      It is true, every vote counts, but not for the Democrats. They have approved Trumps household and supported him in other legislation already. Biden continued much of Trumps legacy of deportations, wall building and raiding innocent people. The laws around “civil forfeiture” have been expanded by Democrats on state level and upheld by Democrats on the federal level throughout the past 30ish years.

      Unless the leadership and party elites of the past decades are purged from the party it will never be a vehicle of change, only of maintaining the decline at a slower rate than under the Republicans.

      EDIT: Another example of the Democrats making sure that progressives that could challenge Trump are blocked as much as possible on their way. https://www.jezebel.com/75-year-old-democrat-who-beat-aoc-for-key-role-resigns-after-4-months

    • @pulido@lemmings.world
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      6 days ago

      I wish people didn’t vote against Bernie in the primaries.

      I’d vote to support progressive candidates, but neo-liberals can legitimately go fuck themselves.

      We should unite and convince people to stop voting for establishment candidates. It’s their turn to fall in line since progressives aren’t doing it.

    • @M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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      -106 days ago

      every vote counts

      Ummm, not to be an ass but no. The usa has some of the highest number of disenfranchisement in the world. Then you have people like me who’s vote does not count at all in american elections (there are dozens of us!).

      • @aramova@infosec.pubOP
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        176 days ago

        Confidently incorrect.

        Like I said, every single local election, from city BOE and councils, to county boards to state officials count.

        The local elections are who draw the districts are who disenfranchise.

        The county courts, the district courts who are elected are who rule in favor of gerrymandering.

        So if you skip a vote, if you are too busy, too tired, too hungover, that’s it. It’s on you.

        If you can’t grasp that, it’s on you.

        • @M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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          I am not american, and if I was one of approximately 5.1 million (that is about 1 out of 44 or so people) who have lost the ability to vote, no I don’t have a say in any level of us politics.

          You are as a nation well past the “lesser evil” party saving you. You are full on into the sort of terrible collapse shown in the subject of the article you are promoting. As a side note, with how the silly two teams system of yours works, the dems if back in power will forever be a little worse then before trump.

        • @pivot_root@lemmy.world
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          Not be that guy, but the person you’re replying to isn’t exactly wrong in saying “every vote counts is wrong” in some cases.

          Being pedantically literal, yes, every vote is counted.

          The reality of First Past The Post voting and the Electoral College is that the only votes that “count” insofar that they actually affect the outcome of an election are votes for the winning party. Now add on to that the common understanding that both major parties only care about what their corporate donors have to say, and that individual voter participation isn’t likely to influence anything other than the party campaign strategy for the next election.

          That means that if enough people vote as a collective to flip which party wins, then and only then does their vote count for anything meaningful. People should vote anyways, but it’s not hard to see why someone might be just a little bit disenfranchised when their participation in the democratic process seems to result in nothing but wasted time because they live next to a bunch of a conservative hicks.

          You are absolutely right about smaller state and local elections, though. Those are where each vote actually has a chance to be meaningful.

          • @M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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            196 days ago

            Or you live in DC, or Puerto Rico or any other US territory, or are a felon, or an immigrant. I am really shocked that anyone can look at the usa and see a democracy in this day and age.

          • @aramova@infosec.pubOP
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            66 days ago

            And it’s the local smaller elections that form the basis of the “parties” that put those candidates up.

            The DNC and RNC, all those people sent from the states to nominate who the Democrat or Republican runner is, they’re all locals.

            If people stepped up and replaced those ignorant twats, we’d get something different.

            But instead, we whine that it doesn’t matter and don’t do anything and wonder why it doesn’t change.

  • @CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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    927 days ago

    Curious how they felt they were entitled to seize their electronics and savings. AFAIK “search warrants” are typically isolated to specific people and property, not a free-for-all where they can just take anything they feel like taking. However, I saw it mentioned in a previous post about this that these agents aren’t even getting search warrants but a “writ” and that agents are intentionally conflating the two in the media in order to provide a false sense of legitimacy to their illegal and unconstitutional actions.

    • @jonne@infosec.pub
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      657 days ago

      Welcome to the world of civil asset forfeiture. That family will have to prove that that money was not the proceeds of a crime to get it back. And yes, that is a reversal of the standard: the money is guilty until proven innocent.

      The US justice system has been subverted long before Trump to enable absurd shit like this that are obviously in violation of the 4th amendment.

    • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      It should be illegal…

      But with alternating between Republicans and neoliberals for 50 years, no one has ever actually put in serious effort to reign in police. Asset seizure is 100% legal and since they’re “charging” the money/property there’s no presumed innocence.

      Biden didn’t fix policing, Obama didn’t, and under Clinton it got worse in large part due to a bill Biden wrote.

      Obviously Republicans have been worse, but the point is shit doesn’t ever get better.

      We have a good DNC now, that won’t block good candidates, but that’s a very recent development

      Quick edit:

      This meant to be a reply to someone else, but something weird is happening

      • Refurbished Refurbisher
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        66 days ago

        Not to mention both Obama and Biden not only failed to abolish ICE, but had higher deportation numbers than Trump in his first term.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness
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        327 days ago

        We have a good DNC now, that won’t block good candidates, but that’s a very recent development

        Wouldn’t be so sure about that. Ken Martin is out there trying to stop David Hogg from primarying incumbents.

        • @cristo@lemmy.world
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          -127 days ago

          Good, Hogg has no traction and never will win an election. He should be the last choice for the left.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness
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            167 days ago

            Huh? He’s not running for election; he’s using his PAC to support young progressives primarying Dem incumbents in safe blue seats.

              • The bigger issue is that you felt it necessary to comment via assumptions rather than even doing a cursory google search. Without knowing anything about charisma or policy you said he should be the last choice for the left? Do you think the incumbents are doing a good job?

                • @cristo@lemmy.world
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                  No I don’t think incumbents are doing a good job, but I know David Hogg, his policy positions, and public outlook. He is not a good candidate in my opinion. I was surprised and thought he was running with the way he worded his comment.

  • matlag
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    797 days ago

    I really hope someone hacks into the ICE database and send them kick down Trumpists doors.

  • @The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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    375 days ago

    In the military we referred to this as PILLAGING. It’s illegal for US soldiers to do it to foreign nationals in Iraq and Afghanistan and if they get caught they get court-martialed. I guess if you work for Trump and you do it to Americans, it’s okay though.