The ICE Stories We Don’t See on Camera
 September 25, 2025 Greetings Meteor readers, It’s been a very long week, but a delightful one in my life as one of my closest friends just had her first child (and no, I’m not talking about everyone’s bestie Rihanna).  BADGALRIRI BUT MAKE IT MINI (SCREENSHOT VIA INSTAGRAM) In today’s newsletter, we consider the lives lost in ICE custody. Plus, we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the historic United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Baby C’s auntie, Shannon Melero  WHAT’S GOING ONYesterday, a young man opened fire across from an ICE detention facility in Dallas, Texas, killing one detainee and critically injuring two others before taking his own life, the AP reports. Little is known about the shooter and his motivations, but the Trump administration is already making early claims that this was an ideologically motivated killing based on writings allegedly tied to the shooter, and ammunition found at the scene that read “ANTI-ICE.” This is an ongoing investigation, and as details unfold, we will hopefully know and understand more. But something we know right at this moment is that, even prior to this shooting, 19 people have died in ICE custody this year. That’s 19 human beings—some possibly dead as a result of human rights violations while in federal custody. It is an ongoing tragedy, and perhaps what makes it even more tragic is that it is mostly going unnoticed. The actual taking of humans into ICE custody has stirred attention and outrage. Videos of immigrants and legal citizens across the country being snatched off the streets have gone viral; each time, we are angry, and we question why federal agents are wearing masks. But then what? For the most part, what happens to detained people next takes place with little media attention, except in a few cases that manage to hold the national attention, albeit briefly. But overall, ICE detainees are being disappeared and, now, 20 of them have disappeared permanently. Twenty lives may seem like a negligible number, especially with 58,000 individuals currently being held in detention centers around the country. But each one of them matters—to their families and to us. And when we go about our days as normal and no outcry accompanies these deaths, the administration gets the message that Americans are willing to tolerate at least this level of violence. What else might they do, counting on our silence? To find out what to do if you see ICE agents in your neighborhood, check out this comprehensive explainer from The Intercept. AND:
 “A revolution has begun. There is no going back.”On the anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference, a blueprint for a brighter future ONE OF THE OPENING DAY SESSIONS FOR BEIJING (VIA GETTY IMAGES) Thirty years ago this month, women from around the world gathered for a conference that made history and, as it turned out, would not happen again. The 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was a monumental moment for activists and world leaders who came together to “answer the call of billions of women who have lived, and of billions of women who will live,” as the first female Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, put it at the time. It’s the meeting at which then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, building on years of women’s organizing, famously said, “Women’s rights are human rights,” which made global news because it was (and apparently remains) a radical perspective. The journey to the conference—which is documented in a new multimedia project from the United Nations Foundation and co-produced by The Meteor—was two decades long, with previous meetings held in Mexico City, Copenhagen, and Nairobi. Beijing itself was the largest women’s rights gathering at that point in history, with a massive audience of 45,000 people invested in building a better future. Pulling it off was no small task, but the leaders charged with doing so were more than up to it. Among them was the inimitable Gertrude Mongella of Tanzania, the Secretary-General of the conference, who later became known as Mama Beijing. “A revolution has begun,” she said during a closing speech at the Conference, “there is no going back.”  Mongella was a key player in producing the Beijing conference’s most significant document: The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—which remains the most comprehensive blueprint for gender equality and women’s rights ever created. It wasn’t just a wish list; 189 countries committed to it in Beijing. It demanded women’s inclusion in government and policymaking; economic policies built with gender in mind; the understanding that violence against women is a human rights violation; and was also one of the first international agreements to demand that governments complete a thorough analysis of how climate change and industrialization had affected women. From the Platform: “The continuing environmental degradation that affects all human lives has often a more direct impact on women…Those most affected are rural and Indigenous women, whose livelihood and daily subsistence depends directly on sustainable ecosystems.” You probably know how this ends: While some of the Platform’s key goals have been achieved—women’s representation in government, for instance, has risen—many have yet to be fulfilled, 30 years later, not because of an absence of activism, but because of global backlash and competing priorities. But the women at the forefront of global change remain motivated. When asked what the next global feminist conference should focus on, Nyasha Musandu of the Alliance for Feminist Movements put it this way: “We must dare to dream bigger, disrupt deeper, and build bridges across movements. The fight for justice is not just about breaking barriers—it’s about reimagining the world itself.”  WEEKEND READING 📚🎧On the business of babies 🎧: Kindbody was poised to be a “disruptor” in the fertility industry. Was the human cost worth it? (IVF Disrupted) On your problematic friends: Emma Watson is still trying to grapple with her relationship to anti-trans author J.K. Rowling. (The Cut) On the shoulders of wives: There is one thing that makes it a little easier to drive a country toward fascism: a complicit housewife. (The Guardian)  FOLLOW THE METEOR     Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? |
