WARNING: Enforced Disappearances Are Increasing
An interview with scholar Dr. Jessica Mecellem on this expanding autocratic action—and how we as ordinary citizens can fight back to protect our civil rights
The enforced disappearances of Mahmoud Khalil, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Andry José Hernandez Romero are but a snapshot of the hundreds of known cases of enforced disappearances committed by this Trump regime. Such actions resemble an autocracy quickly spiring into fascism, rather than a Democratic Republic that protects due process of all for all people in this country—as the 5th and 14th Amendments mandate. How do we respond to this growing threat?
Today I am pleased to share with you an interview with Dr. Jessica Mecellem, PhD, an independent scholar who studies enforced disappearance as a state practice. This is an important conversation for my readers because by better understanding how enforced disappearances are a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, we can better understand how to identify these injustices in real time, and work to stop and prevent them from happening in the future. Education is our weapon against injustice, and I’m grateful to Dr. Mecellem for sharing her wisdom with us. Let’s Address This.
Qasim: Before we dive in, please share with us a little about yourself and your research on enforced disappearances?
Dr. Mecellem: As a political scientist, I have researched how societies deal with violent and unjust pasts. Specifically, my research has focused on instances in which governments use enforced disappearance as a coercive practice to stifle dissent and create obedience. Scholars and journalists have documented how this coercive practice is part of a set of techniques that has been taught by militaries to other militaries and police around the world.
I no longer work in academia, but I continue to work to increase awareness about this important topic. The strategy behind enforced disappearances is to convince the wider population that what they witness, or hear about others witnessing, is not actually happening. Therefore, increased public awareness and sharing of information about the step-by-step practice of enforced disappearance is one of our society’s best lines of defense in this moment. What I share here comes from analysis of enforced disappearances in a range of countries over almost a century, including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Algeria, Lebanon, as well as some earlier cases in the 20th century such as Nazi Germany’s Night and Fog decree, and also in the context of Franco’s Spain.
Qasim: So let’s dive into the main question—what exactly is an enforced disappearance?
Dr. Mecellem: According to the Rome Statute, which established the foundations of the International Criminal Court in 1998, enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity. Many human rights organizations provide ample information about it, but in the most simple terms, it occurs when three factors are in play:
a person is deprived of their liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by
a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which
place such a person outside the protection of the law.
The last part—placing them outside of the protection of the law—is key in understanding how this human rights abuse functions. When someone is forcibly disappeared, their loved ones and legal representation do not know where they are or cannot reach them to provide legal protection. According to this definition, as of today, thousands of people have been forcibly disappeared in the United States.
Qasim: What hallmarks of the practice are we seeing in the US today?
Dr. Mecellem: There are a couple things to consider. Let me break them down.
Narratives: Public narratives promoted by people in power that out groups—in this case immigrants—are “dangerous”, “criminal”, “undeserving of constitutional rights” (that are legally theirs, simply for living on US soil, whether or not they are citizens). Those dehumanizing narratives seek to justify in the eyes of the wider population draconian measures that criminalize and brutalize entire communities.
States of exception: When the government leader claims that the circumstances are so exceptional that normal procedures that we would have to follow to uphold the rule of law, can be ignored, for public safety. But the key thing here is to observe - there is no evidence of an immigrant invasion being used to justify a state of exception.
Tactical Elements: The use of detention facilities that minimize legal access of detainees, the use of unmarked vehicles and or plain-clothed officers who are unwilling to identify themselves, even tacit encouragement or approval of vigilante violence or the participation of private security companies or militias in law enforcement activity, a refusal to tell families or lawyers where the person is being taken, under what authority, how to contact them. Makeshift and moving detention centers, and people being tracked in the detention system and then simply disappearing from that system, no longer being tracked. Quotas among law enforcement which incentivise arrests and reduce the incentives for officers to comply with the rule of law.
All of these things are hallmarks of enforced disappearances and are currently being documented in the US.
Qasim: Why do state actors (or those working with their authorization or acquiescence) forcibly disappear people?
At their core, enforced disappearances are an outcome of the deterioration of and disregard for the rule of law. And there’s two main things to remember here:
It is a tactic of terror that impacts not only the person abducted, but the remaining community—those left behind. Because of the refusal to provide concrete information about who took the person, where they have been taken, or where they are being held, and because legal protection is rendered impossible in this situation, communities and families left behind are filled with fear. This form of ambiguous loss created by enforced disappearances has been recognized by international legal courts as a form of torture. This is important because the US has signed and ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Enforced disappearances are a silencing technique, to scare others into backing down in their criticism of those in power, as well as to paint those left behind in communities as social pariahs who cannot be trusted or who are not equally human and deserving of their constitutional rights.
Qasim: Has this happened in the US before? If so, how does what we are seeing now compare to that?
Dr. Mecellem: In short, yes. Enforced disappearances have occurred in a variety of contexts in the United States in the past. For example, a non-exhaustive list includes:
In Chicago’s Homan Square which has been documented by the Guardian to be a location of enforced disappearances by the police department between at least 2012-2015 in which up to 7,000 individuals were disappeared.
Portland, Oregon in 2020, Federal and local law enforcement forcibly took protestors in unmarked vans.
Although these were time-bound instances in which individuals were released within hours or days, they are still considered enforced disappearance in international law. But there’s more examples I can share:
In 2017 a prison system was set up in Louisiana to house immigrants for deportation, which the ACLU has described in an in-depth report published in 2024 as mimicking enforced disappearance because of the ways that victims are prevented from the protection of the law. The organization Freedom for Immigrants demonstrated in their 2021 report that “enforced disappearances are a feature—not a bug—of the immigration detention system, which routinely and systematically disappears those in its custody.”
The decades long crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and people across the United States is in many ways similar to and overlapping with the dynamics of enforced disappearance. Although there are particular historical and contemporary dynamics surrounding cases of MMIW&P which shouldn’t be ignored, we should not overlook the similarities to enforced disappearance.
The US government engaged in what is recognized as enforced disappearances during the War on Terror, through its practice of extraordinary rendition. Renditions have been adopted again by the current administration as a tactic used to remove immigrants to third party countries such as El Salvador, Costa Rica and Djibouti.
Qasim: Are there any things or actions that protect against the use of enforced disappearances?
Dr. Mecellem: Certainly, we should look to build up several aspects of our society that will better protect us from enforced disappearances. This includes, for example:
Strong rule of law, including, crucially, a dependable and timely judicial response to instances of enforced disappearance.
Civil society with an established system for “Rapid Action Alerts” to draw attention quickly to cases, spread the word and make it publicly unacceptable for perpetrators to continue.
The professionalization of private security companies; reduction of overlapping jurisdiction of different agencies; strong ethical commitment to civil rights and liberties for all; whistleblower protections, etc.
Strong positive histories of relations between law enforcement and civil society in a given geographic location which can facilitate trust between these groups, documentation of activity associated with enforced disappearances, and sanctioning of perpetrators.
Qasim: When we talk about these cases of enforced disappearances, how many cases are we talking about? Are these exceptional circumstances that can be understood as being carried out by “bad apples”?
Dr. Mecellem: Not exactly. It’s more widespread than most people even realize, though fortunately more people are becoming aware of it today. One data scientist has put together this tracker, based on media reports. Although it’s not perfect (it includes some cases that do not fall into the definition of enforced disappearance), it is gathering cases documented in the media and, according to those working on the tracker, it is an undercount of current cases. It should be noted that, those case documented on this tracker do not include the hundreds mentioned in the 2024 ACLU report, nor the almost 1000 cases of individuals mentioned in the 2021 FIF report, which determined that “these enforced disappearances are a feature—not a bug—of the immigration detention system.”
Remember: The main goal of enforced disappearance is to create a chilling effect on the community and families of those left behind—to scare them and confuse them into silence and retreat from criticism of the government, or participation in cultural or political activity that the government has deemed threatening. But we know this is a tactic - one that has been taught by militaries to other militaries and police and intelligence actors around the globe.
Qasim: This seems daunting and is incredibly frightening. But I refuse to believe that we are helpless. What can we do to fight back in a meaningful way?
Dr. Mecellem: You are right that while it is frightening, we are not helpless. Based on what organizations around the world of families of the disappeared have done in situations like these and significantly worse, here are some steps I encourage everyone to understand and be ready to take:
Document what you’re seeing even if it feels like there is no recourse right now
Connect with local community organizations about how you can help spread the word
Speak vehemently against what has already happened to spread awareness among the general population of the practice of enforced disappearance and what to do if it is witnessed.
Refuse the minimizing discourse being advanced to justify this activity (dehumanizing, criminalizing, claiming state of emergency, etc.)
Assess your understanding of where your city, town, or state falls in relation to key dynamics with police, the judiciary, etc.,
Support local organizations representing targeted groups that have systems—such as Freedom for Immigrants—or that are setting up systems to document, investigate and rapidly publicize occurrences in the form of urgent action alerts, as well as toolkits for families of those disappeared.
Support the funding of legal defense funds for cases going before the courts.
Qasim: These are excellent ideas and at least for me, helps combat the feeling of helplessness or hopelessness. What do you want people to remember as they share this information with those around them?
Dr. Mecellem: Families around the world have been and continue to fight for truth, justice and repair in the face of enforced disappearances. It is because of the tireless work they have done that today international law captures this crime - recognizes it as an illegal human rights abuse, and a crime against humanity. Their work—documenting and increasing awareness about enforced disappearances, and researching to lead to repair—has won court cases in the European Court of Human Rights, the Latin American Court of Human Rights, and in front of judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, to name only a few.
Qasim: Thank you so much for your time today. We hope to have you back soon to continue to share your insights.
Dr. Mecellem: It’s my pleasure, and yes I would love to continue to collaborate on this incredibly important issue.
Further information about Jessica Mecellem
Dr. Jessica Mecellem has published about Enforced Disappearances in the International Journal of Transnational Justice and Law & Social Inquiry. Her work has also been cited by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
She holds a PhD in Political Science from Loyola University and has a master’s degree from the Aix-Marseille University in Middle Eastern Studies. She currently works in the private sector and as an independent scholar. Readers can contact Dr. Mecellem here.
Thank you! This is so important. I was particularly struck by what was said about trying to make people believe it isn’t happening. I know people myself who think it’s paranoid and “This doesn’t happen here.”
well it is always handy to remember Americans legally abducted, kidnapped, tortured, and abused other humans out of Africa for 246 years! Legally....This is part of our history along with all the legal harm done to native American Indians. We do not have a good record historically speaking, for fair and just treatment of persons of color. Remember the Japanese interment camps? All of this should be taught in history courses in grade school and yes we should be ashamed of our past and it should make us feel bad. But MAGA wants to 'white' wash our history so they can repeat the same crimes now and do the same thing...We need to stay woke and reject MAGA's desire to lull us all asleep by demonizing woke ideology and DEI policies. Only people led by Satan would demonize these things.