You know you’ve fallen into fascist territory when ICE agents arrest a U.S. citizen who has no criminal record and then tell him to shave his beard. Which is what happened to a 33-year-old Houston man whose looks got him arrested and detained.
Miguel Ponce Jr, born in Texas, was on his way to work when Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents pulled him over. Even after showing his valid ID and explaining that he was an American citizen with a clean record, he was hauled away. The government goons handcuffed him and detained him at “another location” for hours.
“I pretty much felt kidnapped,” he told KHOU via Newsweek. “[They] told me I have a deportation order, put me in handcuffs, and took me to another location.”
No amount of explaining how he was born in College Station and had never been arrested penetrated these ICE agents — who did not have a warrant. Insisting that he looked like a violent criminal on their wanted list, they continued to interrogate him. Until, that is, he finally showed them his tattoos — which did not match those of the suspect.
That’s when the incompetent agents sent him home, not with an apology but with some strong advice: “They said: ‘Shave your beard off so we won’t mistake you again,'” Ponce recounted. When MAGA talks about their freedoms, choosing how to look has apparently been removed from the list.
From Newsweek:
A man says he was left shocked and offended after immigration agents allegedly asked him to shave off his beard after a case of mistaken identity, a request he found both humiliating and unjustified.
“I’ll never shave my beard, that was disrespectful, the audacity,” Ponce told Newsweek in an exclusive statement.
After presenting his ID, Ponce was asked to exit his vehicle. Despite repeatedly stating that he was a U.S. citizen, he says the agents did not produce a warrant. Instead, they showed him a photograph of someone they claimed he resembled.
Ponce was handcuffed and held for approximately 90 minutes to two hours, during which time he says he was repeatedly dismissed when insisting they had the wrong person. …
“The agents seemed to think it was a game, telling me that multiple people use my social security number, and when I asked if they could show me proof, they just changed the subject,” Ponce said. “I kept telling them I’m not who they want, they just said, ‘just ’cause you keep saying it doesn’t make it true.'”
