Summary
Canadian citizen Jasmine Mooney was detained by ICE for two weeks despite having a valid U.S. work visa. Stopped at the San Diego border, she was abruptly arrested, denied legal counsel, and held in freezing cells before being transferred to a private detention center.
She witnessed systemic inefficiencies, inhumane conditions, and detainees trapped in bureaucratic limbo.
After media attention and legal intervention, Mooney was released.
Her experience highlights the profit-driven nature of private detention centers and the broader failures of U.S. immigration enforcement under Trump’s administration.
So I’ve always wondered,
Are criminal factions avoidable in whatever country that is?
Like here in the US we always hear random horror stories about Mexican cartels, but we almost never hear about crimes elsewhere in the world. Honestly, I’ve kind of assumed that crime is a made up American thing to put minorities in jail.
The country is Brazil.
If you are unfortunate enough to live in the favelas (aka: Very very poor in a big city), you’ll be under their thrall.
But the little secret is that… They end up being not that different from the government. They have their own ‘laws’, and if you follow them, you’ll be left alone. Their protection rackets become like taxes, except instead of going to jail for not paying, you’ll get tortured – And you might even benefit from them in a way.
A friend of mine tells a story about doing social work in a favela, and how after years of neglect from the government resulting in kids from the place not getting vaccinated, the local crimelord bought the vaccines with his own money and had his own paralell vaccination campaign for everyone that was properly paying their protection money. Hopefully you won’t catch a stray bullet when the illegal liege lord of your neighbourhood-fiefdom is at war with the police or another neighbourhood-fiefdom’s illegal lord for the umpteenth time that year.
If you are not in the favela…
… Well… If you buy weed from a dealer or borrow money from illegal lenders and don’t pay your bills, they’ll probably abduct you and break your legs.
If you do none of those things… You might get pickpocketed or mugged, but that is honestly the extent of interactions that I, a rich boy from the third world, have had with the criminal factions of my country. Muggings. Being threatened and told to hand over my phone (which I did, I’m not stupid). Having a gameboy swiped from my bag while at an anime con.
So it’s basically just like the US.
Except I can probably be mugged in any city over 50k. Pickpocketing I’ve only really known about in big cities.
Fuck I love Canada - I haven’t been mugged in my entire life, and I have done lots of walking around dark cities