“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me,” — Martin Niemller, 1946

This quote highlights the dangers of silence in the face of injustice. No one is safe. We must make our voices heard.

On Feb. 18, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raided a lumber mill in Tupper Lake owned by the Quebec-based Matra Group. Without a warning or a warrant, they took nine of the mill’s employees, almost half their labor force. According to Nicholas Drouin of Matra, all employees were “authorized to work in the United States, as we verify all employees through the J-9 process.”

On a national level, Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card legal U.S. resident and graduate of Columbia University’s leadership program, was arrested without a warrant on private property (university housing where he lived with his eight-month pregnant wife who is an American citizen), for being involved in peaceful protests. He is currently being held at a for-profit federal prison, without charges.

In Boston, three masked, plainclothes ICE agents dragged Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish Fulbright Scholar studying child trauma, off the street and into an unmarked SUV. The video is public. Her crime? Co-writing a pro-Palestinian article in her student newspaper. She has not been officially charged, but her student visa was revoked without her knowledge.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Brown University professor and kidney transplant specialist, was prevented from returning home after visiting relatives in Lebanon.

On March 24, ICE conducted a raid at the North Harbor Dairy Farm in Sackets Harbor in Jefferson County, taking seven workers. A mother and her three children were dragged out of their beds at 6 a.m., put into a van and taken in handcuffs to a Texas immigration detention center 1,800 miles away.

“They’re classmates, they’re good friends, they are wonderful students, and they are part of the fabric of our school community, and they need to be returned to their classrooms,” Sackets Harbor Central School District superintendent Jennifer Gaffney said.

The Sackett’s Harbor community took action. After mounting pressure from the community and the public, the family was back on their way back to their Sacketts Harbor home 11 days later.

On March 26, masked and unmasked plain-clothed ICE agents entered Cooke Elementary School in Washington, D.C., attempting to detain a school nurse. Employees intervened, surrounded the nurse, demanded a warrant, took videos with their phones and took action. The agents were forced to leave and the nurse stayed.

They come in black, unmarked vans. They wear no uniforms. They’re often masked. They carry no signed warrant. They refuse to identify themselves. They snatch people off the street. People are being seized and detained without due process.

Is this the Gestapo in Germany? The KGB in the Soviet Union? No. This is happening today in America. Just as the Nazis targeted Jews in Germany, in the United States today, immigrants are being targeted.

The Holocaust began with mass deportations. If immigrants, professors, green card holders and others can be targets, so can you.

“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.” — Proverbs 31:8 (ESV)

We cannot afford to be silent. We must speak up now — before there is no one left to speak up.

It’s time to speak out. To mobilize. To fight back.

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Yvona Fast is a poet, cookbook author and cooking columnist for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. She lives in Lake Clear.