Years ago I helped out a very little with an ambitious Catholic ministry that went into the prisons. I actually was the chaplain's guest a few times in a medium-security prison, an old prison that had been updated with some technology -- Norfolk Prison Colony, in Massachusetts. Back in the pre-electronics day, it was maximum security, with its multiple walls and its "traps". That was a difficult experience. But I met prisoners who were turning their lives around thanks to this ministry.

One of them is in big trouble. He is a parolee, he was released on good behavior and has lived an exemplary life in the seventeen years he has been out of prison. He is also one of the Vietnamese boat people who escaped to this country. ICE has now detained him and will deport him back to Vietnam, where he has no contacts and will have to start all over. I guess his criminal record is a big part of why he was detained in the first place.

The people in the prison ministry are heartbroken. He was totally dedicated to giving back to the ministry that had changed his whole life, and they will miss him terribly. Perhaps that experience with the prison ministry will actually help him cope with the new and difficult situation he will find himself in.

So now I can say that I am one of the people who knows someone who was targeted by ICE. I guess there are a lot of us who know someone.