This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfanone.substack.com

When people hear “mass deportation,” they picture the border. They picture adult men. They picture buses and planes and numbers on a chart.

They don’t picture pregnant kids.

Not women in their twenties. Children. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen.

And what’s happening to them right now is the kind of thing most Americans were never supposed to notice—because it sounds too ugly to be policy. But policy is exactly what it is.

I wore a badge for years. I’m not going to argue ideology with you here. I’m going to talk about custody—because custody comes with rules that don’t depend on your politics.

When the government detains someone, it doesn’t just take their freedom. It assumes full responsibility for their safety, their medical care, their wellbeing. Especially when that person is a minor. Especially when that minor is vulnerable.

That’s the deal. You take control, you take responsibility.

And when the government uses custody to shape outcomes—not just hold someone, but determine what they can and can’t do with their own body—that’s not enforcement anymore. That’s coercion with paperwork.

Here’s the twist.

Federal officials have been concentrating pregnant migrant minors into a single shelter in South Texas. Not because it’s the closest. Not because it’s the best equipped. Not because it’s random logistics.

Because it’s Texas.

A state where abortion is effectively illegal. No real exceptions. No meaningful options. And when you’re in federal custody, you don’t get to pick up and leave. You don’t get to travel. You don’t get to “just go somewhere else.” You are where they put you.

That’s the point.

Once you understand the power dynamic, the whole thing changes. These kids are not choosing a state. They’re not choosing a health system. They’re not choosing anything. They’re being placed. And placement, in custody, becomes destiny.

If you’re a pregnant child in a federal shelter, the government controls:

where you live, who you see, when you move,

what care you can access, and what “options” exist at all.

So if the government deliberately concentrates pregnant minors in a place where options are legally eliminated, that’s not a neutral decision. It’s a decision that reaches directly into the future of a child who has no power to resist it.

And before somebody starts yelling “well they shouldn’t be here,” I want you to hear me: children are not policy props. They’re not leverage. They’re not a bargaining chip in a campaign speech.

They are in custody. Which means the state has a duty of care. Period.

What makes this even darker is that it doesn’t exist in isolation. We’ve already seen reporting and investigations showing minors held longer than they should be, moved around, bounced between contractors, dealing with poor conditions and inadequate care. That’s not “border security.” That’s a system that treats kids like inventory.

And when you treat humans like inventory, it gets brutal fast.

Your support keeps this show growing, keeps us on the road, and keeps these stories from getting buried.

🟧 Paid subscribers get 15% off your next merch order🟧 Founding Members get 20% off for life

You’ll get the link in your welcome email.

GET DISCOUNTS BELOW! ENJOY!