~ Written by Leora
Sanctuary of Resistance – CBS’s 60 Minutes: U.S. sent 238 migrants to Salvadoran mega-prison; documents indicate most have no apparent criminal records
There are moments, particularly of late, when the news doesn’t just inform, it pierces. It humbles. It demands a deeper reflection, and response than a passing headline or fleeting reaction.
This past week, I watched a segment from CBS’s 60 Minutes that left me feeling shocked, angry, helpless and saddened. Saddened for those swept up and lost in this nightmare, sadden for our country.
The report documented the deportation of 238 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s infamous mega-prison, CECOT, a Terrorism Confinement Center, a facility originally built for gang leaders and violent criminals. According to the investigation, approximately 75% of these individuals had no criminal record at all. Some were deported based solely on misinterpreted tattoos, assumptions, or flimsy evidence.
As I sat with this, I did feel outraged. I wanted to shout, to argue.
Instead, I stayed with it…a quiet return to thought. To feeling.
To the promise I made when I created this sanctuary series,
that I would resist, inwardly and outwardly, any erosion of human dignity.
That I would not respond with noise, useless debate, or fear-mongering,
but with discernment.
Critical Thinking as a Deliberate and Ethical Practice
In a world saturated with noise, reaction, and rapid judgment, thinking critically, and questioning becomes not just a sacred act, but an act influenced by our moral compass, an act of awareness and integrity.
This news report deserves our full attention, not just our outrage. It asks us to pause. To consider:
- What have we been led to believe about justice, rights, and democracy?
- What systems are operating behind this policy?
- How do we protect the integrity of justice within bureaucracies designed to move quickly, and not necessarily fairly?
- Who benefits from this narrative, and who is left voiceless?
- Who profits from criminalizing migration? Who stands to gain when people are rendered invisible or disposable?
- How sacred, respected, and fragile is the U.S. Constitution?
Critical thinking here is not about debating sides, it’s about refusing to look away. It is about holding the complexity in our hands and allowing truth, discomfort, and discernment to live side by side.
Spontaneous Political Community
We may not be policymakers or public officials. But when people come together around shared values, compassion, clarity, and human dignity, a political community is born. Not of campaign slogans or hashtags, but of care.
In the Sanctuary of Resistance, I want to acknowledge that politics is not just legislation, it is how we live with each other. When vulnerable people are caged without due process, when entire lives are reduced to the color of our skin, our language, a tattoo or assumption, we respond not with a weaponized voice, but a wise one. We write. We speak softly but clearly. We share what we know, grounded in fact and informed by compassion. We acknowledge the voiceless, and we let our representatives know, we are paying attention, and we are not okay with policies that strip people of humanity and due process.
Private Life & Friendship as Protection
These migrants, many without criminal records, were likely stripped of their names, their stories and their humanity. But our private, quiet attention to their plight matters. It is an act of restoration.
When we share this story in small, respectful circles, when we make space at the dinner table or in trusted friendships to say, “This is not okay“, we honor the unseen and voiceless. We protect not only our personal dignity but the dignity of those whose lives are far removed from our own.
This is a gentle kind of resistance: the refusal to dehumanize, the refusal to look the other way, the refusal to forget.
Education as a Lifelong Inquiry
I am not an expert in immigration law or international policy…but I am a student of humanity, and a mother to humans, I know what it means to care for life. To protect it.
I’ve chosen to learn, to read, and to listen. To question what I’ve been told. To trace the root of stories. Education, here, is not academic, it is soulful. It is moral.
And it asks: What is mine to carry? And what is mine to do?
I don’t need to know everything to know this is wrong. I just need to begin.
Closing Reflection
There is power in being a witness. There is grace in staying awake to what is happening in our world, not to react impulsively, but to respond meaningfully.
This week, I hold space for the families torn apart, for the stories we may never hear, and for the quiet collective refusal to normalize cruelty. May we never stop asking questions. May we continue to think for ourselves. And may our discernment, in the face of injustice, always be anchored in love, clarity and in the richness of our shared humanity.
From My Desk: An Invitation to Reflect:
Sanctuary of Resistance: What You Can Do
Welcome to Sanctuary of Resistance, Where Stillness Thinks Back
Sanctuary of Resistance: A Guidepost
**************************
Week One: Thinking for Yourself in a Noisy World
Let’s begin with two simple questions
**************************
Week Two: Thinking for Yourself in a Noisy World
A reflection on the quiet power of discernment in uncertain times
Thru soulful eyes 