How Kavanaugh Stops REALLY Work

Just ask Willy Aceituno, American Citizen

Feb 26, 2026

American citizen, Willy Aceituno, after CBP goons smashed his truck window.

In September 2025 Supreme Court Justice Brett (“I like beer!”) Kavanaugh said it is perfectly fine for masked, armed federal agents to racially profile, stop and arrest anyone, including American citizens, without a warrant or probable cause, because “[i]f the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go.”

See? No problem!

(But later, on Dec. 23, 2025, after much blistering and well-deserved criticism, he tried to walk all that back, saying, “The Fourth Amendment requires that immigration stops must be based on reasonable suspicion of illegal presence, stops must be brief, arrests must be based on probable cause, and officers must not employ excessive force. Moreover, the officers must not make interior immigration stops or arrests based on race or ethnicity.” Huh. Why didn’t you say that back in September, Brett?)

Except…we all know that’s not what happens. Just ask American citizen Willy Aceituno:

“On Saturday, November 15, 2025, DHS agents approached Plaintiff Willy Wender Aceituno while he was awaiting a food order from a Honduran restaurant in a shopping center parking lot. Mr. Aceituno is a 46-year-old Latino man. He is a U.S. citizen and has lived in North Carolina for over 25 years. … Agents approached Mr. Aceituno, asked for his last name, and asked whether he was a citizen. In response, Mr. Aceituno asked whether he had to answer yes or no. He also asked whether they were looking for someone specific. The agents responded by repeatedly telling Mr. Aceituno to give them his documents. Mr. Aceituno provided the agents with his REAL ID. The agents asked for a different document demonstrating citizenship, and Mr. Aceituno questioned whether they knew what a REAL ID was, and stated that a person has to be in the country legally to get a REAL ID. Four agents were part of the initial interaction, which lasted fifteen minutes. Several additional agents lingered nearby in the parking lot. Once the agents scanned Mr. Aceituno’s license and confirmed that Mr. Aceituno was a U.S. citizen, they let him enter the restaurant to retrieve his food. With food in hand, Mr. Aceituno then left the restaurant and was intercepted—a second time—by a different group of CBP agents. He entered his Ford 150 truck, which is registered in his name, put his seatbelt on, and was about to drive away when CBP agents used their vehicles to block him. One vehicle pulled directly in front of his truck, one pulled to the side of his truck, and one pulled behind it. Mr. Aceituno indicated to the agents that he had already identified himself, but an agent yelled “open the door.” Mr. Aceituno started recording on his phone and said to the agents in Spanish, “I’m not opening the window.” One agent tapped a baton against the window of the truck and said, “get out.” Mr. Aceituno told them: “if you break it, you will pay for it.” The agent then used the baton to smash the window, and glass shattered all over Mr. Aceituno. One agent reached for his phone and knocked it to the ground. Mr. Aceituno told them that his REAL ID was in his back pocket but avoided reaching for it because he was scared the agents might think he was reaching for a weapon. Two agents dragged him from the vehicle, forced him to the ground, and handcuffed him. In video footage of the arrest, Mr. Aceituno and a bystander who had also witnessed the first interaction can be heard pleading with agents to check his wallet for his identification, which would prove that he had legal immigration status, and telling the agents he is a U.S. citizen. Specifically, Mr. Aceituno said, “I got my papers ready, I’m a citizen, my wallet is here, check in my wallet.” While he was being handcuffed, Mr. Aceituno repeated at least four different times that he was a citizen and told them again to check his wallet. … At no point during the interaction did agents tell Mr. Aceituno why he was being arrested. None of the agents identified themselves or presented a warrant. The agents wore tactical gear, with their faces covered with black face masks and sunglasses, carrying weapons. … Still without checking his identification or taking any apparent steps to confirm whether he was lawfully present in the country, the agents handcuffed Mr. Aceituno and then—as he and bystanders continued to repeat that he was a citizen whose ID had just been checked by different agents—placed him in one of their vehicles, where he sat with other Latinos who had been arrested. At no point was Mr. Aceituno asked about his family, community ties, employment history, or how long he had lived in Charlotte. At no point did Mr. Aceituno make any effort to run away from the scene. Each vehicle held four agents, each of whom was armed. Mr. Aceituno continued to repeatedly state that he was a citizen. After driving around for ten minutes, one of the agents finally looked into Mr. Aceituno’s wallet, ran his REAL ID through a system, and stated that he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record. They pulled over and told Mr. Aceituno to get out. … Mr. Aceituno was bloody from the encounter. Knowing he was stranded far from his truck, he asked the agents for a ride back to his car, but they threatened to arrest him again if he did not walk away. Mr. Aceituno walked back to his truck, which took twenty to twentyfive minutes. He was covered in blood and glass and felt like he was going to pass out. Mr. Aceituno called the local police, filed a police report, and then went to the hospital to get his neck and arm checked out. He also had to have his truck rekeyed because the agents did not return his keys to him, and he was not able to find the key until much later. … To this day, Mr. Aceituno does not feel comfortable going out in public because he knows that even his REAL ID—proof of lawful status—will not protect him from being handcuffed and taken away in an unmarked vehicle. Despite being a U.S. citizen, he was stopped twice by CBP agents on the same day and threatened with a third arrest even after agents verified his citizenship.” - Aceituno v. DHS, CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FOR INJUNCTIVE AND DECLARATORY RELIEF, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA.

Law nerds can read more detail on how and why ICE and CBP goons are intentionally violating the law here.

THIS JUST IN: MORE ICE LAWBREAKING -

The Daily Beast, Feb. 26, 2026: “A student at Columbia University was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in a stunning escalation of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration tactics. Ellie Aghayeva, a social media influencer and undergraduate neuroscience student who was expected to graduate this year, was taken from her dorm room at the school’s New York City campus at 6:30 am on Thursday. Columbia University officials and local lawmakers say ICE posed as NYPD cops and used the excuse of a phony missing child to gain access to the building—a narrative that differs sharply from ICE’s account. … Columbia University President Claire Shipman said that “federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’” … New York state Assemblyman Micah Lasher said he was told by university officials that ICE agents had arrived at the building in plain clothes and presented themselves as New York City Police Officers. They were let into the building after showing the building superintendent a poster for a missing child. … Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president, said ICE agents “purposefully deceived campus housing/security to gain entry to the student’s apartment. The level of civil rights violations that took place is staggering.” … New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reiterated Columbia’s statement about federal agents misrepresenting themselves. “Let’s be clear about what happened: ICE agents didn’t have the proper warrant, so they lied to gain access to a student’s private residence,” she wrote X. “I’ve proposed a bill that would ban ICE from entering sensitive locations like schools and dorms. Let’s get it passed now.” … New York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, who met with President Donald Trump earlier Thursday, said that she would be released “imminently.” “Just got off the phone with President Trump. In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elaina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning. He has just informed me that she will be released imminently,” Mamdani said in a social media announcement. … Shortly after Mamdani’s statement, Aghayeva confirmed that she had been released from ICE detention and was going back to her apartment.”

Feel safer now? (Pro Tip: Keep Mayor Mamdani on speed dial, so if you get nabbed by ICE, he can just call Trump and get you released. So simple!)

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Nationwide training schedule here. (Hats off to my activist spouse for spotting this.)

FROM THE ‘STACKS:

Daniel Barkhuff on cosplay: “Yesterday, I saw two county sheriffs walk into a Chipotle in South Florida (school break, Vermont is having a real winter). They were wearing camouflage uniforms and plate carriers. One had what looked like a front and spine plate with no visible soft armor underneath, the way the Tier One assaulters at SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force used to wear it. Both had thick beards, Oakleys, and baseball caps pulled low. … Nothing in America sells like belonging to a special group. Cowboy hats for kids who have never ridden a horse. Marlboro Reds and blue jeans for men who have never worked a cattle drive. Sports jerseys for fans who have never taken a snap. Air Jordans. I’ve never worn a piece of jewelry in my life, but my son wants his ears pierced to look like Ronaldo. We buy the uniform because we want access to the myth, and the special operations aesthetic became one of the most powerful myths available in American culture. Where do you think the beards came from? … In our culture, with fewer rites of passage for men, fewer shared civic rituals, and less unifying narrative, the warrior image fills the vacuum. If you carry a radio for your job, if you serve warrants, if you work security, if you simply want to feel significant in a society that offers diffuse identities, you can adopt the look. Plate carriers. Oakleys. Beards. Camo at lunch. … Fascism does not arrive fully formed. It begins with aesthetics. It begins with the intoxicating sense of belonging to a chosen group that stands above the weak and the soft. It begins with the subtle suggestion that cruelty proves seriousness. … A republic requires men and women willing to run toward danger. It requires physical courage. What it cannot afford is confusing the costume with the character. What it cannot survive is a culture where dominance becomes the primary public virtue. We have to stop acting like anyone wearing a uniform is a hero, and embracing the corollary that aggression outside of a battlefield marks one as a full member of the tribe. If we are going to plant seeds now, they must be seeds of a different kind of cool. The military needed to be cool to sustain an all-volunteer force in a consumer republic. That was the trade-off. But now we must make something else aspirational. We must make it admirable to serve without posing, to lead without theatrics, to be strong without being cruel.” (Talkin’ to YOU, ICE and CBP….)
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez on Petromasculinity: “Until recently, I knew conservatives were more than happy to pollute the earth to the point of being unable to live on it anymore. But what I didn’t know was why. I also did not know that there is a whole area of political science that studies this weirdly self-destructive phenomenon, and it has a name: Petromasculinity. … So the next time you hear the drill-baby chant and see the lawmakers leap to their feet, understand what you are witnessing. It is not enthusiasm for a drilling permit. It is nostalgia for a world in which power meant taking whatever you wanted from the earth and never being told no. That world is ending, whether its defenders admit it or not. The question now is whether we learn to imagine strength differently, or whether we cling to the old story until it collapses around us.”

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