In the AC Hotel, we got word from a staff member that the agents were staying here and questioning the workers—the workers that were cleaning their rooms, the workers that were making their food. They were questioning them and asking for their ID and in a very aggressive way.

At first, observers applauded them as they watched them work. They took pictures. Then as the site began to crowd with cleanup workers, it was clear that most of them were Latinx. Some of the people observing them now started yelling, ‘Leave! Leave! Leave!’”

When it was his turn, she had him sign his name on a blank sheet of paper and compared his signature to the signature on his Colombian pass-port. ‘They made all of us sign on blank paper, then compared the signature to any ID we had. Then they let us in,’ he says.

An official of some kind—from where, he doesn't remember-overseeing the line walked over and asked him why he left the line. Milton fumbled. The truth is, I'm not here legally, he said. Get back in line, she said.