May 25, 2025

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

I apologize for missing weekly deadline on this piece because it is not about nostalgia nor is it the usual observations of ordinary life that tell of the humanity most people share. No, this column is about bully-like behavior. It must be said.

When I was a young fellow – fifth grade – I was shaken down by a kid who demanded baseball cards or he would pounce on me. He was a bully who became a surgeon, whatever that story line entails. He did not get the cards because my late younger brother, bless his soul, intervened.

That recall is tame compared to other young people today bullied in school for looks, gender, just about anything. Some kids take their own lives when they can no longer stand the abuse. Who knows where the bullies go?

Now, in the present, in Kenneth, Missouri, what is surely a true, smallish American community, perhaps even Norman Rockwellish, government-sanctioned, taxpayer-paid action that can only be described bully-like has taken into custody a 45-year-old woman, mother of three, who escaped family abuse in Hong Kong and who over-stayed a visa 20 years ago.

In late April, according to media reports, Carol Mayorga apparently was lured into a sudden appointment at immigration offices in St. Louis, originally scheduled for August, so that she could be arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mayorga faces deportation to an uncertain fate in Hong Kong.

The arrest was degrading, humiliating. Here was a woman, an unarmed person with no criminal history, who entered the U.S. legally but who committed a civil violation in remaining without authorization, forcefully taken into custody in a public place as if she had murdered someone.

According to an account in Newsweek, “After waiting for nearly seven hours, ICE agents detained her, placed her in shackles and transported her between jails before confining her to Greene County Jail.”

Shackles? For a civil offense? Whom did she kill? That is action by bully-like roundup, and it is approved by an administration that is ignoring due process, let alone decency. This was unreasonable, arbitrary arrest, a violation of the Constitution.

Media further reported that “Kenneth – with a population of roughly 10,000 – is a Trump stronghold. However, Mayorga’s detention has drawn criticism, as the community rallies to support her.” One resident noted that even Trump backers feel that the arrest was wrong. Another said that Mayorga is “a very upstanding citizen in our community … she deserves to be free with her kids.” The woman’s case should be reviewed by the Immigration Court while she continues her life with her children and in her community. Let the court decide her fate. Why should she be roughly taken and sent to detention?

This broad sweep, this expensive sweep, this bully-like sweep of illegal immigrants happening every day across our America, which is supposed to corral true criminals, is instead gathering by undue, excessive force those immigrants in civil violation awaiting Immigration Court proceedings.

Ignored is constitutionally guaranteed due process. Ignored is the “cruel and inhuman punishment” of enforced detention, even being sent to a foreign country. Ignored is procedure that enables rough arrest. Ignored is decency.

Watch out. The line between proper and respectful government action and bully roundup of anyone is blurring.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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