Norma Bowe pressed a stethoscope against the 10-year-old’s chest, listening to her lungs.
asserted
Bowe → press → lungs
The child, worried about her father locked inside, was hyperventilating.
asserted
child → worry → father
Norma, a professor and registered nurse who had previously worked in emergency rooms, told her to breathe deeply as she checked for wheezing.
asserted
she → register → wheezing
Through the building’s opaque windows, Norma could make out the silhouettes of detainees pressing their bodies against the glass.
uncertain
Norma → make → glass
Several hundred had recently gone on hunger strike over rotten food, metallic-tasting drinking water, and a lack of access to medications, toilet paper and menstruation products.
asserted
hundred → go → medications
For the past year, Norma had parked her brown-and-beige camper van outside Delaney’s gates most weekends.
asserted
Norma → park → gates
Converted into a mobile clinic, it was stocked with sutures, glucometers and trauma and CPR kits, and offered health checks to families and protesters.
asserted
it → convert → families
“Can you come over here?” someone asked.
asserted
someone → come → ?
Norma followed, thinking a person may need first aid.
uncertain
person → follow → aid
Instead, she encountered a wall of two dozen ICE agents in paramilitary vests, carrying batons, tasers and firearms, most of their faces masked.
asserted
most → encounter → faces
Protesters faced them, some holding phones in the air to record the scene.
asserted
some → face → scene
The sounds of drums echoed.
asserted
sounds → echo → drums
Then, someone screamed.
asserted
someone → scream → ?
Norma looked down and saw a federal agent dragging a young woman across the ground, her bright pink shirt ripping off, until she was down to a black bra.
asserted
she → look → bra
“Help me!” the young woman shouted.
asserted
woman → help → me
Decades earlier, as a psychiatric nurse, Norma had watched colleagues reach for restraints and sedatives when patients became violent.
asserted
patients → watch → restraints
Her instinct was different: “No, let me talk to him.”
asserted
me → let → him
She would sit beside them and try to calm them down.
asserted
She → sit → them
Now that same instinct kicked in: de-escalate the situation and help the woman being dragged across the ground.
asserted
instinct → kick → ground
Norma felt herself going into “mom mode”, moving closer.
asserted
herself → feel → mode
That’s when someone from behind yanked her up.
asserted
someone → ’ → her
An ICE agent in a cap, black facemask, and gloved hands reached for her arms from behind her.
asserted
agent → reach → her
She felt her body fling through the air.
asserted
body → feel → air
Norma’s body barreled hard on to the sidewalk face down, as someone screamed: “Dr Bowe!”
asserted
someone → barrel → Bowe
Bystanders tried to help.
asserted
Bystanders → try → ?
One yelled: “She’s a medical professional!”
asserted
She → yell → ?
At 69, Norma knew what it felt like to be thrown like a sack of trash.
asserted
it → know → trash
She had been abused as a child, an experience that helped propel her toward a life caring for others.
asserted
that → abuse → others
But now the violence came from an ICE officer, flinging her “like a javelin”, as she would later describe.
asserted
she → come → javelin
Five months earlier, Norma had been horrified by the killing of another nurse, Alex Pretti, when ICE shot him to death after he stepped in to help a woman shoved to the ground by federal agents on a Minnesota street.
asserted
he → horrify → street
As Norma felt her own face slam against the concrete, she thought about Pretti.
asserted
she → feel → Pretti
And she thought about death.
asserted
she → think → death
What does it take for an ordinary person – a nurse, journalist, construction laborer or cemetery worker – to seek justice after being harmed by a federal agent?
asserted
person → take → agent
The question is becoming increasingly urgent as ICE arrests have surged since the summer.
asserted
arrests → become → summer
A recent ACLU report in eight states found that over 400 of more than 1,200 incidents involved misconduct by agents, including use of force with batons or grabbing people by their necks.
asserted
400 → find → necks
But taking legal action against a federal officer – especially when ICE agents operate from unmarked vehicles, often masked and without visible names or badges – is harder and more convoluted than suing local police.
asserted
agents → take → police
A claim against city law enforcement will typically identify the officers involved and requests police records and body-camera footage (depending on state public record laws).
uncertain
claim → identify → laws
The municipality can take about 45 days to reply before the plaintiff can then file a lawsuit, which may lead to a jury trial.
uncertain
which → take → trial
Claims involving ICE are much more constrained.
uncertain
Claims → involve → ICE
Most people must first file under the Federal Tort Claims Act and wait up to six months for a response before they can file a lawsuit.
uncertain
they → file → lawsuit
…and 143 more, not listed.
The Aporia
