MOST PARENTS HAVE STRAIGHTFORWARD IDEAS for what to give their teenaged son for his birthday: a pair of new sneakers, or headphones, or a game to play on his Xbox.
asserted
PARENTS → have → Xbox
She just wants her son to be able to celebrate outside the detention center our country has trapped them in.
asserted
country → want → them
Her aspirations for him have been reduced to this.
asserted
aspirations → reduce → this
She just wants him to be free.
asserted
him → want → ?
For five months, Tahmasebi and her son have been locked in the Dilley Detention Center, along with other women and children held indefinitely in the Texas facility.
asserted
Tahmasebi → lock → facility
Her husband, Eissa, is interned in a separate camp a twenty-minute drive away—not that she ever gets to go there.
asserted
she → intern → camp
They can speak only a few minutes every couple of weeks.
asserted
They → speak → weeks
Eissa, like so many other detainees, has had basic medical treatment denied or delayed.
asserted
treatment → have → detainees
Their capture was the result of Marco Rubio’s decision to draw on a provision added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1990 that allows the secretary of state to designate a noncitizen as deportable if their presence leads to “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
asserted
presence → draw → States
In this case, Rubio determined that the family is such a grave threat to our national security that they must be held captive indefinitely without basic due process rights.
asserted
they → determine → rights
You might imagine that such an extreme measure must have been taken because the family participated in drug smuggling or terrorism.
uncertain
family → imagine → smuggling
Maybe this is a situation where they thought that family was plotting with al Qaeda cells?
asserted
family → think → cells
The government has provided no evidence the detainees pose any threat.
asserted
detainees → provide → threat
They are not accused of any crime.
asserted
They → accuse → crime
None of the family members has even violated any immigration laws.
asserted
None → violate → laws
And Maryam had a pending citizenship application.
asserted
Maryam → have → application
So how could Rubio possibly justify detaining them like this?
uncertain
Rubio → justify → this
How could he rationalize keeping a high school student in a makeshift prison camp that was meant for the “worst of the worst”?
uncertain
that → rationalize → worst
The answer is stupider and more enraging than you could possibly imagine.
uncertain
you → imagine → ?
We are imprisoning Maryam, Eissa, and their teenage son not because they are a threat to national security—but because of something a family member did before any of them were born.
asserted
any → imprison → them
MASOUMEH EBTEKAR, EISSA’S MOTHER, was the spokesperson for the students who stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held fifty-two people hostage for over a year.
asserted
who → storm → year
The American media dubbed her “Screaming Mary” for her frequent appearances before Western media.
asserted
media → dub → media
A “reformist” (the less conservative Iranian political faction), Ebtekar went on to serve the Iranian regime in various high-level government positions and is currently a professor in Tehran.
asserted
Ebtekar → go → Tehran
What does this have to do with the family we are detaining now, though?
asserted
we → have → family
The government has not provided any additional evidence about their alleged threat to national security.
asserted
government → provide → security
In announcing their detention, Rubio tweeted:
Masoumeh Ebtekar - also known as “Screaming Mary” - was the spokeswoman for the Islamic terrorists who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days - subjecting them to beatings, starvation, and mock executions.
asserted
who → announce → beatings
Her family should never have been allowed to benefit from the extraordinary privilege of living in our country.
asserted
family → allow → country
America can never become home for anti-American terrorists or their families - and under the Trump Administration, it never will.
asserted
it → become → Administration
In other words, these people had a family member who defended people who tortured Americans, so we are going to, in essence, torture them back.
asserted
we → have → them
Just last week, Rubio’s colleague, Vice President JD Vance, inveighed against exactly this sort of guilt-by-relation:
“The idea that because of your genetics, because of your blood, because of your ancestry, you are guilty of a crime you never committed.
asserted
you → inveigh → crime
I think that blood libel . . . is the exact opposite of the Christian gospel.”
asserted
libel → think → gospel
Vance got a lot wrong there, including what the “blood libel” is, but he got one thing right: It is an affront to God and country to punish someone for a crime committed by their ancestors.
asserted
It → get → ancestors
In this country, a place where freedom is supposed to reign and the rule of law is supreme, it is a betrayal of the promise of the founding to punish people based on their bloodline.
asserted
it → suppose → bloodline
It echoes the ugliest parts of our history—from slavery to Japanese internment.
asserted
It → echo → internment
Before you continue, a word from our sponsor: you, hopefully.
asserted
you → continue → sponsor
It’s our Bulwark+ members who make work like this possible.
asserted
work → ’ → this
MARYAM TAHMASEBI DOES NOT WANT to be a public person.
asserted
TAHMASEBI → want → ?
She would rather her story not be told.
asserted
story → tell → ?
She is scared and angry that her son’s name was doxxed by our government and that trolls have attacked him after the Nation first published her story.
asserted
Nation → doxxe → story
But after five months in hell, you get desperate.
asserted
you → get → hell
…and 80 more, not listed.
The Aporia
