SEPTEMBER 8, 2025 – This morning I watched the full hour-plus-long video of a media Q and A session with John Shin, a free-lance violinist, his wife, also a musician, and his attorney in the attorney’s office in Utah. Based on this stunning, revelatory presentation, I concluded that what we’re all witnessing is “the Mephisto Gigue.”
John Shin was born in Korea and came to the United States with his family when he was 10—27 years ago. His father was here on a student visa, and the other family members were admitted legally under the father’s student status. John grew up in Utah and always considered himself an American. He obtained his masters degree in violin performance and pedagogy at the University of Utah. At some point (years ago), his father fell gravely ill, resulting in severe hardship for the family, financially and emotionally. Under extreme stress (an explanation, not an excuse), John apparently self-medicated with alcohol and was arrested for DUI but pled guilty to the lesser charge under “implied consent.” He complied with all conditions of his probation. According to the lawyer, none of this formed a sufficient basis for denying John a green card after he married—years ago. (The couple has two young children.)
In August ICE agents entrapped John, arrested him and shipped him off to a detention center. Only because his wife—an American citizen by birthright—had the resources, the connections, and undaunted courage, was she able to line up a topflight immigration lawyer who fought for and obtained John’s release on conditions of posting a $25,000 bond and wearing an ankle bracelet. His case is likely to hang open until the year after next.
Four salient facts leap out from the record: 1. John entered the country legally; 2. He hasn’t been convicted of a felony; 3. He isn’t accused of having committed a felony or any serious crime; and 4. As attested by 100s of supporters who’ve written letters vouching for him, John poses absolutely no threat to the safety of anyone.
Three additional critical facts ought to make our blood boil: A. Over 50% of the detention facilities established to handle detainees are run by private companies that contract with ICE. Obviously, these companies are in this business to make a profit. Profit equals revenue minus expenses. The lower the expenses the higher the profit—which explains why John was fed rice and pinto beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and why he wasn’t provided a pillow or more than one blanket for warmth in an unheated cell; B. ICE is overwhelmed by the volume of cases. Hearings can be delayed years. Personnel from other agencies are being pulled off the line to try to sandbag against the deluge; and C. Detainees are given very limited information and granted very little contact with the outside world.
This ill-conceived and badly managed campaign is causing inestimable damage to our country, economically, socially, political, and culturally. It is ethically and morally reprehensible and has helped shatter our standing in the world. Currently, every single one of us should be ashamed of what our nation is doing to itself. I don’t know how else to react in a way consistent with what I thought were our basic operating principles.
John Shin’s case underscores the central and most dangerous axiom: One hundred percent of a snake oil salesman’s success depends on lots of people buying the snake oil. For some time, lots of Americans have been snapping up the snake oil. The carnival barker thundered that we needed to staunch the tide of “illegals” crossing our southern border. Why? They were taking away jobs, burdening taxpayers, and committing heinous crimes. And for good measure, “We won’t have a country anymore if we don’t require people to follow the law.”[1] But it’s snake oil, all of it, in giant puddles around the barker’s stand. In front of one crowd after another, he struck a match and tossed it into the oil. As the conflagration erupted, he danced the gigue of Mephistopheles. People fell for the snake oil—fire, dance and all.
Thanks to their buy-in, we now have an awful mess on our hands. Awful. And don’t think for a moment that the detainees and deportees and their families will be the only ones paying the price when the bill arrive. Every single full-fledged American will pay in ways we cannot know until the sun sets on the most disturbing freak show of the Trump regime.
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
[1] If that were true, we would’ve ceased “having a country” after mass production of automobiles and the advent of paved highways. For decades, the vast majority of motorists have exceeded the speed limit and at one time or committed some other moving violation. Then, of course, there’s the issue of gun violence in America—land of 400 million firearms—but somehow addressing that problem has never been elevated anywhere close to our assigned priority of dealing with an estimated 11 million undocumented residents.
