bystanders congregated took out their phones to film asked why we were being taken shouted in unison
have you no shame? where is your warrant? how do you sleep at night? where are you taking them?
sometimes our children stayed behind abandoned in cars standing on street corners
even when we pleaded begged for one more minute offered that we had done nothing asked them to think of our families
they came in groups men wearing vests men in masks men with guns
on our way to work taking our kids to school while we labored in kitchens planted trees patched roofs put out fires
wet spackle drying ladders leaning branches scattered about yards pots boiling pans simmering fires raging
they came in vans seven or eight at a time chased us down busy streets zip tied our wrists
sometimes they took pictures held faces to pavement arms behind backs cheek pressed against car windows
came to places of worship sat outside school buildings raided major cities put up checkpoints
circled in helicopters said we resisted when all we wanted was to know why
they came in the night while we slept dragged us from our homes in our nightgowns
stood outside courtrooms after judges let us go free cornered us in elevators tackled us in hallways
pried our children from our arms pushed our partners to the floor drew guns on all who tried to stop them
calling us illegal
Edited by Yolanda Wisher
When They Came for Us responds to the escalating violence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the administration’s ongoing campaign of mass immigration enforcement. The poem considers what it means to live in a country where communities are increasingly subjected to surveillance, detention, family separation, and the threat of state violence.
The poem is interested not only in the violence itself, but in the language used to justify it, particularly the reduction of human beings to terms like “illegal” and in the ways fear moves through families and communities. It asks what happens when the threat of removal becomes an ordinary part of daily life.
Violent ICE Raid in New Jersey Sent Dozens to Detention and One Immigrant to His Death https://documentedny.com/2026/08/28/passaic-nj-ice-raids-delaney-hall-death/
The Chaos and Cruelty of ICE https://time.com/article/2026/08/06/the-chaos-and-cruelty-of-ice/
Azalea Aguilar is a Pushcart Prize–nominated Chicana poet originally from South Texas, she was recently named one of LatinoStories.com’s Top 10 Latine Debut Authors. Her debut chapbook, Foxhole, was published by Bottlecap Press and was featured in the NYU Latinx Project’s La Treintena 2026. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Latino Book Review, The Skinny Poetry Journal, The Acentos Review, Somos en Escrito, and The Mid-Atlantic Review. She is a proud alum of the Macondo Writers Workshop. She is currently crafting her first full-length manuscript, a collection exploring the intersections of love, loss, and lineage.