I’ve seen what’s happening with ICE before — in Czechoslovakia when it was under the Soviet Union

I am an immigrant from a part of Europe, formally known as Czechoslovakia, now called Czechia, the Czech Republic. I came to the United States in 2000 and married a Morgantown, West Virginia, native, an all-American boy, now a military veteran. We are still strong and have two children. 

I obtained my first green card in 2015 and became a citizen. Yes, I went through the legal process and was very proud to do so. My children attended when I took the oath in the courthouse.

Yes, I am a citizen, and I watch in horror as the process is violated and denied to others, how the constitutional rights of due process and the right to claim asylum are trampled over. How people are denied the right to speak up against this injustice. How not just immigrants but even the citizens are being snatched off the streets, unlawfully incarcerated, and some deported without due process. 

This is a walk of shame toward authoritarianism. I know that very well. I was born, raised and lived in such a country. Czechoslovakia was under the Soviet Union’s boot. I saw Soviet soldiers stationed and marching through our streets. I remember the feeling of fear and hatred towards them. I remember the words spoken against the regime in private and whispered, always making sure no one could hear and tell the secret service. 

I remember people being dragged into black unmarked vehicles and prosecuted for saying things, for reading forbidden books, for listening to Voice of America or Free Europe radio stations. The mistrust of state propaganda tv stations. 

There is so much I can remember and say. I have my grandfather to thank for letting me listen to forbidden radio and telling me the truth. He was himself prosecuted by the communist regime for not giving up on his little business; he owned a small butcher shop. He was sent to a uranium mining prison camp for seven years and died prematurely long before he could see the authoritarian government fall in 1989. What glorious fall that year was! Thousands of people in the streets marching, chanting, ringing the keys, singing in protest, peacefully taking down the oppressive government.

I was there, saw it, lived it, participated. We, the people of Czechoslovakia, did it! The whole Eastern Bloc fell like dominos. And now I watch and live through the attempt to install such an oppressive police state here, in my new home. I never dreamed that it was even possible to see something like this come to happen in America.

I have been beating the drum since 2016. No one wanted to listen or believe, and 10 years of warning, here we are. ICE is doing in the streets exactly what I feared — even killing innocent people. In our communities. Under the government’s order. 

How? I ask you, my fellow Americans, how do we allow this? We can’t! We have to stand for our rights and freedoms. We have to defend our principles. I ask every one of you, get involved, help organize and go vote in the coming elections.