When the video above begins to play, it’s not just another clip — it’s the voice of a neighbor, a human being with a story that reaches deep into what dignity and justice should look like in this country.
Watching Aliya Rahman, a resident of Minneapolis and a U.S. citizen with autism and a traumatic brain injury, share her testimony before lawmakers was emotional. Her courage brought me to tears.
Rahman described, in her own words, how a routine drive to a medical appointment turned into an encounter that left her injured, confused, and crying out for help.
Cruelty For Cruelty’s Sake
Against the American people by their own government
As she pulled into what she thought was a safe intersection, ICE agents surrounded her car and began shouting conflicting commands at her. In my opinion, they were behaving unprofessionally and being unnecessarily cruel to a woman who had done nothing wrong.
Before she fully understood what was happening, her window was smashed, glass flying across her face, and then she was pulled forcefully from her vehicle despite repeatedly telling agents she was disabled.
She recounted how she was pinned to the ground with such force that the pain shot through her head, neck, and wrists, leaving her unable to raise her arms normally afterward.
At no point was she told why this was happening, asked for identification, or read her rights. There was no access to a lawyer. No immediate medical care. No thoughtful accommodation for her disability. Instead, she says officials mocked her pleas and denied even a cane that could have helped her maintain balance as her voice began to slur from pain and exhaustion.
What Are We Becoming?
This is NOT normal. It’s certainly not okay.
Rahman’s testimony wasn’t a distant governmental complaint — it was visceral, personal, and deeply unsettling. She recounted blacking out in an interrogation room because her requests for emergency medical treatment were ignored.
The trauma doesn’t end in the telling; it lives in her body, her memories, and now in the hearts of everyone who has watched her testimony.
Her story was heard alongside others at a congressional hearing organized by Democratic lawmakers to examine what they describe as the Department of Homeland Security’s excessive use of force. The hearing also featured other Americans who described violent encounters with federal agents, including families grieving loved ones killed during immigration enforcement operations.
Rahman’s voice — steady even through pain, dignified even when recounting trauma — reminds us that policy and procedure don’t exist in a vacuum. There are human bodies, hearts, and minds affected by these decisions.
What she experienced challenges us to ask: What kind of enforcement is acceptable in a free society? At what point does accountability become a moral imperative?
Important to Watch
This isn’t abstract. This is the deeply personal testimony of someone who has lived through what most of us can barely imagine. It’s why her words matter. And it’s why this video deserves more than a play button — it deserves your focus, your empathy, and your reflection.
