Fortaleza✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽
One way that I’ve found myself processing our current conditions with ICE detainments and abuses goes back to an old movie. In 2005, Stephen Spielberg premiered War Of The Worlds. A remake of the classic H.G. Wells film. Of course, Tom Cruise plays a NJ single dad and many scenes were filmed here which already makes it a favorite. Yet I’m haunted by the film during these difficult and dark times. The scary moment when the alien ship like tripods come and pluck people from the street as they run in fear, leaves the audience in awe. It’s either be taken, hide, or die. Not just any death but obliteration of your body. A long mechanical arm reaching down from the sky and taking humans. Containing them while the aliens continues to pluck more and more people. For what purpose? Even more terrifying as Tom Cruise is sprayed in the face with human blood. They’re harvesting them.
Not so different from what we are witnessing today. People are being told to report for their immigration check in appointments. A legal process many have been doing for years to be told now, they have to be detained. Even if they didn’t do anything wrong. Snatched from their communities and taken. Masked men with weapons banging on doors separating families. “Illegal Aliens” they call them. The problem is that they are from our species. They are human beings, Homo sapiens. What’s alien, is the way in which these raids and separations are taking place. Humans are being warehoused, harvested for profit. https://yescounseling.org/2026/03/22/the-habeas-corpus/
I didn’t need to be sprayed in the face with real blood to realize what was really happening. Going for myself to see, visiting detention centers and talking with families affected was enough to open my eyes to the real reality. Sitting and talking with the detained fathers has helped me learn a critical and vital survival strategy. Who are we when everything is stripped away from us, when everything we have held on to is taken?
One of the fathers I have the opportunity to connect with and advocate for has provided me with a master class in humility. He sits hundreds of miles away from all that he knows and loves. Alone, in pain, and holding a suffering that only he can know about. Every time we speak, he never fails to tell me that he’s praying for me. Praying for our mutual aid group. His prayer is that God grants us “Fortaleza” which translates to strength, fortitude, a fortress. I take his words and ask God, in my own prayers, to help us become a fortress of strength for the families we serve and to grant us to fortitude to continue with the work ahead.
It may seem like unsurmountable odds, like we are losing the battle. Like Tom Cruise in that moment of total despair in the movie. And then, a turning point. The simplest solution appears. In fact it was always there. We just have to look up, breathe in, hold on. Endure.
Watch the turning point here: https://youtu.be/O_c3QheDbPI?si=GxlTSzL3n1Y9YCf-
Please consider supporting Morristown together or another mutual aid groups in your community.
https://linktr.ee/MorristownTogether?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=92e179a4-bfa5-4060-a1f4-25233581c200
Additional support please see: https://www.aclu-nj.org/
Author Bio: Dr. Yessenia Guglielmi is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Director of Yes Counseling. She specializes in trauma-informed advocacy for families impacted by immigration detention.
Building a fortress of safety for our neighbors. 🏰⚖️
#Fortaleza #NJAdvocacy #MorristownTogether #HumanRights2026 #TomCruise