The "like" icon feels somehow inappropriate, and the "restack" pretentious. Yet from across the globe, all I can do is tell you: I have read this, this hurts, this matters.
Thank you, Fotini. I appreciate your attention very much.
This focuses on the specifics of this issue of not understanding each other as human family in US immigration policy, yes. But it's a larger global issue, of course.
May we find ways to come together as a human family.
This had me in tears. The weight of senseless cruelty is almost beyond language. Thank you for your witness -- it counts and it raises the numbers of grains of sand.
Wow, Holly! What beautiful storytelling. Your powers of observation are profound and so poetically evoked. Your reporting is critical and well-sourced, and your message is spot on! Thank you not simply for joining the choir of resistance singing in ever-louder harmony, THE CRUELTY IS NOT OKAY! THIS IS NOT THE PEOPLE WE WISH TO BE!, but for becoming one of its soloists through this very important and moving series. As I read, I felt like I knew Lisa and Elena, Camila and Diego from my own reporting across the 2000-mile US/Mexico line for Crossing the Line. Thank you for becoming a handful of sand and for bringing others into the fold with your storytelling. I will share it far and wide. Meantime, I look forward to our coming conversation. As for my Call To Action to align with your series, here's the link: https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahtowle/p/our-basic-rights-are-under-attack?r=464pd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true.
Stay strong, my friend. The only way through these dark times ahead is . . . together.
Thank you, Sarah! This means so very much coming from you. What an honor to have you take the time to read my reporting. I, too, look forward to our conversation.
And I look forward to finding more ways to keep throwing sand into the gears, to keep sharing these stories.
Thank you for the work you do. It's impressive and important. And thanks for this Call to Action. Can't wait to get into it.
To moving forward together, to solidarity, to storytelling.
During the Vietnam protests it took visual images of slaughter to persuade people of the government lies about that filthy US war.
And now we have the great media divide that keeps ignorance comfortably within political bubbles of information.
Your amazing reporting in these Sharks Mouths stories requires empathy, patient dedication to parsing words and a level of historical intelligence lost over this decade (& not missed because not known by those growing up in this decade)— the very tools that are absent in the lives of the haters made by this administration.
Thank you Holly for the report and your dedication to truth-telling… and as several substackers say: “we’re in this together.” You are a brave example for us all.
Thank you, Sara, for being here and for asking important questions. I'm going to link this call to action https://sarahtowle.substack.com/i/168137898/call-to-action-here-are-a-few-things-we-can-all-do-today into the piece and share it in notes. As for the education piece, activist Sarah Towle suggests volunteering at a local sanctuary of "detention" center, joining a local Welcome the Stranger program, inviting friends and neighbors to attend both with you--to meet migrants first-hand, and printing and distributing Know Your Rights cards to everyone (not just migrants). In talking with her, I'm starting to see her vision of us regular people helping people understand by word of mouth--witnessing personally if we can, telling and sharing stories, widening the circle of people who know the truth one person at a time.
And thank you so much for your kind words about my work. Yes, we are all in this together. And I appreciate you very much.
Dear Holly, thank you for this series and for raising greater awareness of the horrors that many people are facing, which have escalated under our current regime. And thank you for linking resources where we can become a grain of sand.
Hard stories to read, hard stories to write and hardest stories to live. Thank you for shining your gifted writer's light on these stories and to Lisa and Elena and Carlos--it goes on and on. This matters Holly, what you have done and are doing matters so much. Thank you.
Just this, Hollly: Thank you for witnessing, for writing, for telling these stories. We must find ways to change what is going on. We must resist. We must help our immigrant neighbors find home and safety. We must.
Holly -- !! I’ve now read all three parts of your series, and I’m sitting with a heaviness I can’t put down, nor do I want to. Thank you for the clarity, compassion, and diligence you’ve brought to telling these stories. The way you hold systemic violence alongside the personal heartbreak of lives like Camila’s and Elena’s is powerful—and necessary.
“Can you even imagine that choice?”
“Her broken heart would be her son’s salvation.”
“They live in terror, basically hiding in their home.”
The stories expose a brutal truth: this isn’t the failure of one administration, but of decades of policy shaped by cruelty, avoidance, and fear. From Reagan-era deportations to “Prevention by Deterrence,” MPP, and now the revived raids—always in response to the wrong question.
Today, I read a piece about the agricultural industry’s use of the term invasive species—a colonial narrative of dominance that applies just as destructively to immigration. The metaphors we use have consequences. Your writing actively resists those narratives, giving voice and context to people the system tries to erase.
I come away—as I often do—feeling like I can’t possibly do enough. But your work is a powerful reminder that even if we can’t do everything, we can’t do nothing. Like Sarah Towle says, we can be grains of sand in the gears. This series is a whole handful.
Please keep writing. You are helping us see more clearly—and feel more urgently.
With so much admiration and resolve, I'm here with you, and with Lisa.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I so appreciate you. And you're so right about the power of metaphor. I think it's easy to forget that we're animals--animals who've evolved to love story and to be moved by it. May we continue to tell stories that move us toward understanding ourselves as a human family and ourselves as individuals as capable of being the grains of sand that make change.
The way you humanise the ‘numbers’ of people affected by this madness by telling their individual stories is so heartbreaking and also deeply deeply important Holly.
Thank you for sharing these stories and raising awareness about this tragedy.
The "like" icon feels somehow inappropriate, and the "restack" pretentious. Yet from across the globe, all I can do is tell you: I have read this, this hurts, this matters.
Thank you, Fotini. I appreciate your attention very much.
This focuses on the specifics of this issue of not understanding each other as human family in US immigration policy, yes. But it's a larger global issue, of course.
May we find ways to come together as a human family.
This had me in tears. The weight of senseless cruelty is almost beyond language. Thank you for your witness -- it counts and it raises the numbers of grains of sand.
Thank you, thank you, Jan.
I appreciate you dearly.
Wow, Holly! What beautiful storytelling. Your powers of observation are profound and so poetically evoked. Your reporting is critical and well-sourced, and your message is spot on! Thank you not simply for joining the choir of resistance singing in ever-louder harmony, THE CRUELTY IS NOT OKAY! THIS IS NOT THE PEOPLE WE WISH TO BE!, but for becoming one of its soloists through this very important and moving series. As I read, I felt like I knew Lisa and Elena, Camila and Diego from my own reporting across the 2000-mile US/Mexico line for Crossing the Line. Thank you for becoming a handful of sand and for bringing others into the fold with your storytelling. I will share it far and wide. Meantime, I look forward to our coming conversation. As for my Call To Action to align with your series, here's the link: https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahtowle/p/our-basic-rights-are-under-attack?r=464pd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true.
Stay strong, my friend. The only way through these dark times ahead is . . . together.
In solidarity and storytelling, Sarah
Thank you, Sarah! This means so very much coming from you. What an honor to have you take the time to read my reporting. I, too, look forward to our conversation.
And I look forward to finding more ways to keep throwing sand into the gears, to keep sharing these stories.
Thank you for the work you do. It's impressive and important. And thanks for this Call to Action. Can't wait to get into it.
To moving forward together, to solidarity, to storytelling.
Yes… education; but how?
During the Vietnam protests it took visual images of slaughter to persuade people of the government lies about that filthy US war.
And now we have the great media divide that keeps ignorance comfortably within political bubbles of information.
Your amazing reporting in these Sharks Mouths stories requires empathy, patient dedication to parsing words and a level of historical intelligence lost over this decade (& not missed because not known by those growing up in this decade)— the very tools that are absent in the lives of the haters made by this administration.
Thank you Holly for the report and your dedication to truth-telling… and as several substackers say: “we’re in this together.” You are a brave example for us all.
Thank you, Sara, for being here and for asking important questions. I'm going to link this call to action https://sarahtowle.substack.com/i/168137898/call-to-action-here-are-a-few-things-we-can-all-do-today into the piece and share it in notes. As for the education piece, activist Sarah Towle suggests volunteering at a local sanctuary of "detention" center, joining a local Welcome the Stranger program, inviting friends and neighbors to attend both with you--to meet migrants first-hand, and printing and distributing Know Your Rights cards to everyone (not just migrants). In talking with her, I'm starting to see her vision of us regular people helping people understand by word of mouth--witnessing personally if we can, telling and sharing stories, widening the circle of people who know the truth one person at a time.
And thank you so much for your kind words about my work. Yes, we are all in this together. And I appreciate you very much.
And I you!
Dear Holly, thank you for this series and for raising greater awareness of the horrors that many people are facing, which have escalated under our current regime. And thank you for linking resources where we can become a grain of sand.
Thank you, dear friend!
May we become the grains of sand we want to see in the machine!
Hard stories to read, hard stories to write and hardest stories to live. Thank you for shining your gifted writer's light on these stories and to Lisa and Elena and Carlos--it goes on and on. This matters Holly, what you have done and are doing matters so much. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, Leslie. I appreciate you.💕
It is sad to see individualism/nationalism overtake basic humanity and decency.
Great article, Holly! I just can't bring myself to hit the heart symbol.
Thank, Yi. I so very much appreciate you reading and commenting.
May basic humanity and decency fight back and come out on top.
Just this, Hollly: Thank you for witnessing, for writing, for telling these stories. We must find ways to change what is going on. We must resist. We must help our immigrant neighbors find home and safety. We must.
Yes, we must. I'm linking this Call to Action up in the piece -https://sarahtowle.substack.com/i/168137898/call-to-action-here-are-a-few-things-we-can-all-do-today. I REALLY appreciate the specific steps to resistance, to helping our neighbors find home and safety that Sarah Towle mentions.
Thank you for your support, Susan.
Holly -- !! I’ve now read all three parts of your series, and I’m sitting with a heaviness I can’t put down, nor do I want to. Thank you for the clarity, compassion, and diligence you’ve brought to telling these stories. The way you hold systemic violence alongside the personal heartbreak of lives like Camila’s and Elena’s is powerful—and necessary.
“Can you even imagine that choice?”
“Her broken heart would be her son’s salvation.”
“They live in terror, basically hiding in their home.”
The stories expose a brutal truth: this isn’t the failure of one administration, but of decades of policy shaped by cruelty, avoidance, and fear. From Reagan-era deportations to “Prevention by Deterrence,” MPP, and now the revived raids—always in response to the wrong question.
Today, I read a piece about the agricultural industry’s use of the term invasive species—a colonial narrative of dominance that applies just as destructively to immigration. The metaphors we use have consequences. Your writing actively resists those narratives, giving voice and context to people the system tries to erase.
I come away—as I often do—feeling like I can’t possibly do enough. But your work is a powerful reminder that even if we can’t do everything, we can’t do nothing. Like Sarah Towle says, we can be grains of sand in the gears. This series is a whole handful.
Please keep writing. You are helping us see more clearly—and feel more urgently.
With so much admiration and resolve, I'm here with you, and with Lisa.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I so appreciate you. And you're so right about the power of metaphor. I think it's easy to forget that we're animals--animals who've evolved to love story and to be moved by it. May we continue to tell stories that move us toward understanding ourselves as a human family and ourselves as individuals as capable of being the grains of sand that make change.
Sarah Towle's Call to Action - https://sarahtowle.substack.com/i/168137898/call-to-action-here-are-a-few-things-we-can-all-do-today - is terrific and specific.
🙏
The way you humanise the ‘numbers’ of people affected by this madness by telling their individual stories is so heartbreaking and also deeply deeply important Holly.
Thank you for sharing these stories and raising awareness about this tragedy.
Thank you, Michael.
I very much appreciate your support.
But of course. :)
Displaced migrants meet
the worst, the best of our souls.
Oil or sand in gears.