From Homeland Security to Human Abduction: The Line Has Been Crossed

“We no longer have Homeland Security. We have Human Abduction. And we are the firewall now.” - Mary Coughlin

From Homeland Security to Human Abduction: The Line Has Been Crossed

This Is What Authoritarianism Looks Like

We are Homeland Security now.

What does trauma-informed resistance look like?

So I ask you:

This Is What Authoritarianism Looks Like

And this is where we draw the line.

We have the video.
We have the truth.
Senator Alex Padilla—a sitting U.S. Senator—was obstructed, detained, and targeted by federal agents. This isn’t conjecture. This isn’t spin. This is documented evidence. And yet… MAGA operatives are already flooding the airwaves with lies.

This is not politics as usual.
This is not a misunderstanding.
This is authoritarianism—and it’s no longer creeping. It’s marching.

When the Department of Homeland Security can target political leaders…
When ICE is no longer about immigration enforcement but Illicit Cruel Extraction…
When communities are disappeared, silenced, surveilled…
When truth is on video and still denied…
We are not in a democracy.

We are in a gaslit, hijacked nation pretending everything is normal.

And so I say this:
We no longer have a Department of Homeland Security.
We have a Department of Human Abduction.
The government is no longer protecting us.
We must become our own protection.

We are Homeland Security now.

We protect truth.
We protect each other.
We protect the future.

Let’s be crystal clear: the trauma of this moment is not just political. It is physiological. Psychological. Spiritual.
We are watching democratic guardrails collapse. We are being asked to normalize the unthinkable.

But we are not powerless.

We can refuse compliance with systems of cruelty.
We can refuse silence when truth is being buried.
We can refuse despair by organizing, voting, building, weaving.

What does trauma-informed resistance look like?

It looks like calling a lie a lie—even when it’s unpopular.
It looks like standing with those being targeted—even when it’s risky.
It looks like grieving out loud and then getting to work.

I’m not writing this as a pundit. I’m writing this as a human. As someone who has spent a lifetime working in trauma-informed care, I know what happens when people dissociate, when they shut down, when they give up.
We must not give up.

Because this time, it’s not just babies in incubators.
It’s a nation on life support.
And we are the buffer between collapse and possibility.

So I ask you:

What will you do with your voice?
What will you do with your anger?
What will you do with your love for this country, this world, this fragile, precious thing called democracy?

We don’t have time to wait for someone else to fix this. We are the firewall now.

With truth, outrage, and unwavering hope,
Mary