Until last month. Growing up Muslim, this can happen. At least in my family, my mother never took off her veil except in the privacy of her room. There were times when we would go to the super market, and the wind would blow the dark veil against her body. Thinking back, she had a decent figure. But things got bad when Trump was elected president. My mother is a refugee from Iraq, she came here in the 90s after Desert Storm. As a Sunni Muslim living in Iraq, things could get hard. My dad was special forces, they met, fell in love, and she came to America as a refugee. I never knew why they didn't just get married. Apparently she insisted on coming into the country with refugee status. They were informally married by an Imam somewhere in New York. I was born on April 21st, 1999. I was their first and only child. All my Dad said about their years in America before I was born were: "We had a place by the sea". When ever I asked my Mom about the years between her coming to America, and my birth, she always side stepped the issue by making me do some chore. So eventually, I quit asking. Ever since Trump's travel ban, DHS has been constantly calling my mother. Agents came to the house 5 times. It really scared her. My father died 3 years ago and she lives alone now. After the last visit she called me in tears saying the agents had told her she had to leave. Back to Iraq. This sounded ridiculous, after all, she has been here around 25 years give or take. So two weeks ago I decided to drive home from college and try to cheer her up. Nothing could prepare me for what happened next, or the level of intrusion and downright cruelty displayed by our government. You say the travel ban is to "keep Americans safe". That's bullshit. Its about unbridled state power and the demonization of minorities for political gain. As I drove up to our subdivision, police, FBI, and DHS vehicles were parked everywhere. Swat agents holding guns and leading dogs were all over our yard. Neighbors peered from their windows or stood behind the yellow caution tape cordoning off our property. An officer signaled me to stop, just before the drive way. "Whats your business here?". Over weight, white, with an obvious glare that you could feel even from behind his black sunglasses, he spoke as if I had broken some law just by coming near my own home. As I was explaining that my mother lived there, I heard the scream that I still cant get out of my head: my mother was crying out in pain from inside the house while attack dogs barked viciously. I didn't even think. I just bolted. Pushing the officer aside I sprinted for the open front door our house. As I think back, 10 different voices ordered me to stop, 10 different officers all leveled their assault refiles at me. In that moment the only sounds consciously in my mind were my mothers screams and the snarl of attack dogs. As I entered the house what I saw riveted me, standing stone still, to the floor. My mother was sprawled out, unveiled and weeping, as 3 officers bound her hands and feet with zip ties. Attack dogs were in the other corner of the room, tearing her veil to shreds. As she looked up and our eyes met the thick dull [i]whack[/i] off a rifle butt drove me to the floor. I didn't feel pain. Just surreal shock. With the left side of my face pressed against the floor, my Mom's face was also pinned against the ground, maybe 3ft from my own. She was trying to tell me something, but in that moment I couldn't hear what she said. The image of blood, tears, bruises and terror that made her face a single spasm of fear will stay with me the rest of my life. She kept saying something, over and over, repeatedly. But I couldn't understand. My head swirled and the world went dark as I lost consciousness. You probably didn't hear about this on the news. They dont report shit like this. But it happens everyday while we all bite our nails over hurricanes happening far away, that we inevitably recover from despite the fact that they were reported as "doomsday storms". Its all a shame, the news, american democracy, and the basic freedoms we believe in like naive children. Oregon is just like any other state. If this shit can happen here, it can happen anywhere. I still dont know where my Mom is. I heard rumors from some people down by the coast that a swat convoy was driving by the cliffs, to God knows where, when one of the detention vans swerved out of control and fell into the sea. One old timer from the area showed me a picture he took from afar of a crew pulling the wreck ashore. The drivers were in the front seat, visibly dead. The back doors looked like they had been forced open from the inside. I dont know how to process this kind of grief. I'm pretty sure my Mom is dead. Things were so hard for her after the election. I like to think she is free now, alive in spirit somewhere in the sea. I take long walks by the seaside, and seem to feel her presence in the evening breezes. Last night, as I struggled to get what fitful sleep I could, I dreamed that I could remembered the final words she had spoken in the process of being arrested. They were: [spoiler]"[i]Please, please. I'm a person too. Bring my purse, I'm gonna need about $3.50.[/i]"[/spoiler]