Rueben Antonio Cruz was sitting with a friend in Rogers Park when ICE agents pulled up onto the street.
The immigration officers stopped their truck and went straight after them on Oct. 9, Cruz told the Tribune.
“They asked us if we have papers. I said I do but I don’t have them on me,” Cruz, a 60-year old man with heart problems originally from El Salvador, recalled in Spanish.
The agents stood Cruz up, put him in their truck, drove around in circles, and asked questions, he said.
Ahh I see we are officially transitioning into the “papers, please” stage of fascism already. Buckle up folks, the road only gets rougher from here on out. The witch hunts don’t stop here.
To be fair I believe it is a legal requirement for non citizens to carry their papers on them. https://international.northeastern.edu/ogs/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/03/DRAFTv5-FAQStatusDocs-3.24.25.pdf
This is not condoning the behavior of any of this b.s. that has been going on. But just trying to share information.
Greencard Perm Resident here who read all their paperwork very carefully thrice so I didn’t have to hire a lawyer, can confirm am always supposed to carry it.
No kidding. TIL. That’s still pretty lame though.
i see you’re not black, a minority, or visibly poor….
i’ve been fighting “papers please” for a while….
it’s definitely much worse now thoughI certainly might not be those things, or I might not be American either. Hard to say for sure, it’s fun to speculate though isn’t it?
well if you think papers please just started, you’re probably white
Are you a lizard?
No wait, don’t answer that. How many questions do I get first?
Three
What is your name?
What is your quest?
What is your favorite color?My name is holytimes
My quest is to find a really neat cup
My favorite color is green, no wait purple?
Gets yeeted
Papers please American DLC when?
its the family guy parody, where stewie hires a bunch of mexicans, and one of them keep suggesting asking for the papers.
I think the IRL version just dropped
Region locked on the US (for now :/)
Don’t some European countries have mandatory ID laws?
Yeah, we had them forever.
For me, the only practical consequence has been that when I forgot my driving licence at home, I could show my ID and the cop at the traffic stop could check my licence status.
Having mandatory ID isn’t not the same as having to carry them everywhere and surrender it to a random masked guy.
No, it just allows you to be easily identified by the masked people when they start asking! The slippery slope of handing your liberties away. Look at the pride you have in your own. It always starts somewhere but it ends the same. The people fighting for power right now are not interested in regional control
As opposed to being disappeared without identification just based on your skin colour.
Heh. Yes. Tbf, it was always a requirement.
Maybe they let ya back out… maybe ya end up like Emmett Till or James Byrd Jr
this is litterally that one scene from the phineas and ferb movie (the 1st one) where this robot asks for papers or else death
Not defending the actions of these agents, but I’m so glad he only got a fine and not deported.
Btw, there are many enforced laws just like the requirement to carry greencard, for example, “legal weed” is a misnomer, weed is still federally illegal, so if you are a non-citizen or know someone who is a non-citizen, please know that: do not using weed or posessing weed until either (A) you get citizenship (remember: you aren’t officially a citizen until the oath ceremony and get the papers), OR (B) decides to abandon the US forever.
This has been the law even before current political shenanigans.
They could potentially retroactively revoke citizenship if they found out about your weed usage/possession before you got citizenship.
If you are a citizen, the first thing you wanna say when you get detained/arrested/workplace-raid is tell them you’re a citizen immediately, tell them your name and identifying info, A photo of your papers can help too.
The outcome all depends on whether you get the “standard” assholes who only mildly harass you, or get very unlucky and get the the MAGA assholes.
They could have driven him to his house so he could retrieve those papers or have someone bring them out for him. Boom, crisis averted. It’s not hard to not be a time-wasting asshole, but they seem to excel at it.
Lets not set the precedent that you should ever get in a car of someone claiming to be an ICE agent.
Sure. But this is a heck of a lot better than beating him up, arresting and deporting. Keep the pressure on them.
Gee, why is no one going to the US?
I hope he gets rich from suing them.
That’s the most American rebuttal to this - too bad the Supreme Court is in Trump’s pocket.
He was technically required to have his papers on him and the Supreme Court made it legal to racially profile people… which is just sad but it does mean he has no recourse
It’s technically illegal to not carry your green card. But it’s also authoritarian as fuck to kidnap somebody because they didn’t have it on them.
And beeline to the poc.
Supreme Court: 6/3 not signed its legal to ICE to fine citizens if they look brown.
Unsigned orders from the emergency docket are not decisions.
I just wish it didn’t come from our taxes. Should come from their pay and/or benefits.
Should come from their pay and/or benefits.
I agree.
However, I’m more than happy to contribute my share of taxes to this man’s payout specifically because fuck ICE
So, if you’re a legal immigrant and get “randomly” asked for your paperwork, you have to produce it on the spot or face a fine?
What if you’re a legal immigrant and just say you were born here? No native born citizen carries around their passport
Or can they also fine native born white Americans for their birth certificate and fine them if they don’t have it? But we just don’t hear about it because they don’t bother “randomly” checking white people?
Since when is failing to carry a passport a civil offense… What law covers this?
Seems like ICE is starting to make up laws now to justify their BS with more BS
Nothing new. Wife is green card holder and they were clear it must always be with her when we got it almost 10 years ago
That will be a fun law suit
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Bad advice
Can white liberals/leftists please stop telling minorities to do open defiance that will get them killed
And if he had his papers, they would have said they were fake, confiscated them, and hassled him anyway:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/24/us-citizen-detained-ice-real-id
Papers please lol
