'ICE got me': The urgent fight to free Ludovic Mbock

Ah, I can't work this too cool.

All right, welcome everyone to Working People,

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This show is produced by Jules Taylor

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My name is Max Million Alvarez

and we've got an urgent episode for you all today

that underscores the bleak reality

and the abject cruelty of the Trump administration's mass

incarceration and deportation campaign

and what you can do to support the people, families,

and communities that are being ripped apart by it.

As we've discussed many times on this show

and as we've been reporting at the real news

while President Trump and the Maga Wright

have repeatedly claimed that they are targeting immigrants

who are violent criminals and threats to public safety,

the so-called worst of the worst.

The cold statistical reality is that the vast majority

of people being swept up and brutalized

in this fascist campaign are people

with no criminal conviction whatsoever

and no criminal charges.

At most, they have a civil immigration violation.

They are not maniacal murderers and terrorists.

They are day laborers supporting their families.

Street vendors, gig workers, housekeepers,

construction workers, farmers,

they are working people like you and me.

And even tourists, academics, journalists,

and gamers are being swallowed up in the dragnet.

As Antonio Planas and Rondez Green recently reported

in the Baltimore banner, quote,

his family described it as a routine check in with ice

for Ludovic Bach, a 38 year old regional video gaming champion

who came to the US from Cameroon legally as a teen

and built a life in Oxen Hill.

But immigration and customs enforcement in Baltimore

arrested him two weeks ago and sent him

to detention facilities in Louisiana in Georgia.

Bach's lawyer and family fear he will soon be deported

back to Cameroon where he will not be safe.

He's an openly gay person.

He won't be able to survive in Cameroon

said Bach's lawyer Edward Newville.

Cameroon punishes same sex activity with fines

and prison sentences of up to five years.

Bach also has no family in Cameroon

said his sister, Diane Sona, who was born in the US.

His arrest has mobilized the gaming community,

which has helped raise nearly $100,000

for his legal defense.

Newville has filed a habeas petition

challenging Bach's arrest.

In response, US district court judge George L. Russell

III ruled that Bach will remain in custody for 10 days

after he requests a bond hearing

in immigration court in Hyatt'sville,

which Bach can attend virtually.

End quote.

To talk about Ludovic Bach's case

and what it tells us about the reality behind the rhetoric

of Trump's mass deportations,

I'm really grateful to be joined on the show today by two guests.

First, we are joined by Ludovic sister,

Diane Sona, and we are also joined by Nikhil Delehe,

a close friend of Ludovix and a fellow gamer.

Thank you both so much for talking to me today.

I really appreciate it,

and I really, really wish we were meeting

under less horrifying circumstances.

I want to jump right in and ask if you could both

tell our audience just a little bit more about who Ludovic is

and then we'll talk a bit about what has happened to him

in the recent weeks.

Yeah, thanks so much for having us on the show.

Just genuinely appreciate the support,

and I especially want to give a huge shout out

to everyone who has been rallying behind Ludovic.

I have been in the greater fighting game community

since 2011, 2012,

and really being able to see people from truly around the world

who all share our hobby of being able to go

and play fighting games typically in person

at tournaments, at hotels, convention centers,

all around the world,

and seeing people really tangibly support

and realize the ways our community can be impacted

by these policies has really bolstered our faith

in a time that has been really trying

and extremely difficult.

Ludovic has been, he has always always said,

he is the exemplary example of the sea

in fighting game community.

There are threads on social media of people

who encountered Ludovic in tournament

at a karaoke room at a tournament

had chances to just talk to him

while they're waiting in line for merchandise or food,

and there are so many stories like that of people

who've interacted with Ludovic

because Ludovic has been in the fighting game scene

for even longer than I have,

like truly going back to the early 2000s.

Even for context, when I went over to Sweden

for the Tekken World tournament finals,

let them know that I was in the Maryland Virginia scene,

and I said, oh, I'm friends with like this person,

this person, and Ludovic, and people from Croatia,

people from Lithuania, people from England,

from France, all knew who Ludovic was.

I'm like, oh yeah, the Chenley player,

Shrewfighter IV, the guy who beat Diago,

the guy who beat this, guy who beat that.

So all of that, having that experience in January,

then coming back in February to this,

really was like even in the darkest times

when we were trying to figure out what we're doing,

I knew in my heart that there were people out there

if we spend the word that would support,

because this is someone who's been

and given back to a community for decades.

This is someone who's been here

and really made the lives richer

ever when he's getting interacted with for decades.

And not to mention the experiences that I'm sure Diane can talk about,

but video games were a huge part of his life

and were a huge part of his social life,

and still, even now, even calling into the facility,

we'll let him know, but hey, the Shrewfighter DLC is coming out.

He looks kind of messed up to fight.

Like, there's this tournament that's coming up.

People are probably going to want to see you there.

But when you get out, let's see what we can do

to make sure we get you back up to tournament speed.

So it's still something that gives him comfort

and hope and still something that binds us all together.

And really, I just can't say enough

about like the overwhelming amount of support

I've gotten from members of the fighting community

across the planet.

And truly has been such a huge help to like us,

the friends and family who are like helping

to like bring him home.

And then also more directly to the family.

I heard people who have known a lot of X of 2005,

who immediately have been rallying to his support

and who've known the family for a long time.

So just to piggyback up with Mattel,

so again, thank you to everybody.

When I got the call three weeks ago,

I wasn't expecting this.

No idea that I think they'd be able to get this turn out.

I always knew my brother was sweet

and he was a happy person and everybody loved him,

but I didn't understand the magnitude until this.

I mean, this is of course, like he said, a bad situation,

but just seeing the support that he has

and the love that he's receiving,

it just amplifies the fact that he is a good person

and shows me being his sister that I've known all his life,

just like open me up more and like,

my brother is really a good person.

He doesn't deserve this.

Like he wasn't meant to be in this situation.

As you said earlier, he was doing his regular routine

checking as he always does and didn't come back out,

which hurt everybody deeply.

And then so, as I always say to know him, it's to love him.

This is proven that he doesn't deserve this.

He's not a bad person.

He was just doing his check-in

and just trying to be a noble citizen,

mind his business and fall the rules.

That's all he does.

He just likes that work at time.

Play his games, dance and eat.

He could do that all day.

He would do that all day.

So the fact that he's not,

I know it's not a great feeling.

I know he's uncomfortable.

I know he's not happy and it makes me

and everybody else feel his pain.

Of course, we can't feel where he is,

but it's just aggravating, it's annoying.

It just makes you think that this administration

is even worse than what it is

when you see it at home in front of your face.

But yeah, I'm just out of law still

and it's been releasing, we're just waiting till Friday.

My brothers are four-born in Cameroon.

My mother came here about a year before I was born

so they stayed with my grandmother in Cameroon.

From the stories I always heard my mom all the least

thinking, whether just like to play video games,

all your grandma said that he goes and play video games.

So when I finally met him in 2000,

I said, do you all eat, do you play video games?

And he just told me that's my escape.

That's just something that I love to do

because everybody else was into soccer and stuff like that.

He would go to the arcade like my grandma just told me

if she made it to go like, she would have

tears so many stories out, losing Ludovic,

but he would just be an arcade like for hours on it.

So when you came to America in 2002,

if my brothers, they can't deal with us

because mom is here, I have a little sister,

let's all live with the family

and let the American dream met him.

And I was like, oh, this is my favorite brother,

automatically, so this is my twin,

like where best buddies were the closest and age

and he was just more relatable.

He taught me, he got to do dance dance revolution,

had to play second, had to play his free fighter.

We cooked together, he got me so hit for like anime movies

and the one movie we love is Azoomi.

And I never watched Japanese or Asian movies.

And we watched that back to back for hours on it,

just counting how many people she would kill

and he would go back home and be like, okay,

we're gonna go do this,

how Azoomi did it in Street Fighter.

I'm like, I can't do that, Ludovic, okay, whatever.

But yeah, he says, he doesn't do that as a living

for a living, but he should, I didn't realize how big he was.

He'd always say, I'm the best play, I'm the best.

Well, anybody says that, but he actually is.

So Kudel, tell me about that.

Well, and it's so wild to think that,

Nikhail, you guys were at a competition, you come back

and then you're facing this horrifying Kafkaesque reality

back here in the United States.

And I wanted to ask, I know it's painful, scary to recount,

but for folks who are just listening to this

and maybe just learning about this story now,

could you sort of walk us through the timeline of events

as you experience them from, from, you know,

Ludovic going to his check-in to now.

Yeah, anything that you're comfortable sharing

just to lay out the timeline and the process

since this nightmare began?

Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely something

that has helped to keep notes of each day

because it really all tends to blend together.

Like, when I say like I was in Copenhagen in Sweden,

feels like a lifetime ago,

when in reality that was less than five weeks ago.

And I remember I specifically went to Copenhagen in Sweden

because I'm like, I want to be able to experience

what it's like to not have ambient stress

and to be able to forget at least like the situation

and just be able to see what I guess

a functioning society looks like.

And to come back and immediately be ripped out of that referee

and have to go into essentially like,

sort of like survival mode was jarring

to the point where I had to describe multiple times.

It's like as soon as I got the news that Ludovic had been detained,

it's like, okay, I have to stop being a person.

At this point, I have to start being a function

because a person is going to be emotionally affected

while there's a person is going to allow the government

to grind them down, allow the frustrations to get to them.

A function is something that the government

and the process is and the powers that it be

cannot like dissuade or cannot move.

So I have to be immovable because for the benefit of the family,

for the benefit of his friends,

for the benefit of Ludovic himself,

there needs to be at least one person

who is completely resolute and fully focused on what we're doing.

And as soon as, as soon as Diane could explain more of the timeline,

but basically on the 17th, he went in at 3 p.m.

to his regular check-in, like one of our friends dropped him off.

To the point where like for context from a 13th,

when I saw Ludovic last, we were at a friend's dinner

and he didn't even mention that he was going in on the 17th

because it was such a routine

than he'd done so many times.

And we were talking, he literally texted me saying,

yeah, we should have more tech in sessions at the house.

And I'm like, yeah, let's figure out a timeline.

And then the next text I get on Wednesday,

after I believe he called you Diane,

was that I said, picked him up and at the facility.

And we were all like that first of all for us.

We didn't even know that he was going to the facility.

And we only figured out much later

because love just like we're gonna got in the round.

The Diane had contacted with his other friends

who eventually contacted me

and really just that whole process was like,

okay, this is the nightmare that I've had,

literally had nightmares,

woken up in a cold sweat about

in terms of the government has kidnapped

one of my friends and our family.

And it was that moment of, okay,

I can either give into the terror of this situation

or I can see how I can be of service and help

because as much and terror and fear as I'm feeling,

I could only imagine from Diane's perspective

and the family's perspective what they were feeling

and I wanted to be able to see what I could do

to manage as much of that as possible

so that they could have space to feel

while stuff needed to get done.

I was at work as I am now just feeling about my day

and for some reason, something just many,

iPhone has a thing that will be screened your unknown calls.

And I looked down and it said,

it was a 800 number and it said Ludovic

and I was like, why would he give his number to a credit?

I didn't know it was why I just answered.

And he said, you have a collect call from Ludovic

and I was like a collect call.

He doesn't get in trouble.

What is this about?

If he'd have answered, he said,

had he an iced that meat?

I said, say that again, what do we mean?

He said, I got me, I've been detained.

So from there, he was, I just knew you to call,

gave me two numbers to call and I was just like, okay,

so I hung up the phone and I just called

and then from there, that friend called Nicole

and since then me and Nicole have just been in unison

trying to get things done.

I guess his friend dropped him off and waited

that from there, he was held in Baltimore for that night.

The next day, he was moved to Louisiana that night

with it the next day, yeah.

He was moved to Louisiana without us knowing we just,

because we were moving diligently,

we just figured out that he was no longer,

and Baltimore, he'd called us after the fact

before he was moved.

And then from there again, with less than like 20 people,

maybe 30 hours later, he was moved to Georgia.

So since then, we definitely didn't know about that.

That move was very abrupt overnight and uncomfortable

from what Ludwig described to us.

And I feel terrible that he had to go with it

because I know that experience for him was probably

one of the worst besides being in Baltimore.

So I'm very not happy about that.

And then since then he just been in Georgia

for the past two weeks and we've been now

or just waiting to get him back.

Yeah, some of the like in between basically as soon as,

like I got activated and knew about what was happening,

I was like, we have to secure him a lawyer immediately.

Like everyone is shocked, everyone is scared,

everyone doesn't know what to do,

everyone was saying, okay, we wait till tomorrow

and I'm like, they're going to move him.

We need to secure a lawyer immediately.

And basically it was me and my girlfriend

and a bunch of other people, we just went,

we called the migrant solidarity mutual aid,

we called Kasa, we called every immigration lawyer

that we knew and we just went down a Google list

of every single immigration lawyer in Maryland

and called them all at like 9 p.m.

on, it was like 45 different lawyers we called

and only one of them was able to get back to us.

And in the time since, after leaving like 45 messages,

we've only gotten three calls back.

So if we were not able to connect with that lawyer

that night on there like 24 seven hotline,

I, we would have been a significantly worse situation

because we were able to connect with the lawyer

to file a habeas on the, we talked to them in the 18,

he filed the habeas in the 19th,

they moved him then on the 19th after the habeas was an effect.

So the habeas went into effect at 10 a.m.

the flight we were able to get confirmation left at 1 p.m.

So we have hard proof they moved to match

with the habeas was an effect in Maryland

and the habeas Maryland specifically said this like petitioner

shall not be moved outside of words court

does not have jurisdiction.

So that was the first court order that was violated

and we have like proof of that.

Then a lot of it goes to Louisiana.

We are all trying to scramble because the ice tracker

does an update takes like 24 hours of date.

He calls us thankfully because we are able to talk to him

and get the numbers.

We then immediately we're like, okay,

we need to, we need to do everything in terms of a state

of deportation.

We need to do everything in terms of reopening

some immigration case.

We need to do up and everything in terms of being able

to secure a Louisiana resource in case to try

on the case case.

So really like as soon as he was moved,

it was another like 24, 48 hours of this.

We need to call like 50 something lawyers.

And obviously not all lawyers are created equal

during this process.

We talked to some good ones.

We talked to some not so great ones.

And all of my mind the whole time is like time is passing.

I don't know what they're doing to him.

We don't know how they're moving him.

We don't know what they're planning for him.

And the more legislation we can get filed,

the harder it becomes for them to violate.

Like it's easier to violate one court order.

It's hard for them to violate five.

So I am operating under the knowledge

that they are going to violate stuff

and they're going to try and cover it their own tracks.

But let's try and make it as difficult

as possible during a time period.

We had launched to go fund me.

We were providing daily updates.

We saw a huge amount of support.

And we were like, okay, with this amount of support,

we could probably pursue all the legal things we need to

and not have to worry about being unable to fight

or hitting a wall in that way.

It's just a matter of securing the resources

in the right place.

So literally right after I was like talking

to a Louisiana lawyer had two hours

like, okay, we scared Louisiana lawyer.

She is going to go to the facility, show the habeas.

I think of the notification they moved him again.

And I'm like, I was so mad, I was so furious

because we had just did like a mad dash

to try and scare Louisiana lawyer.

And then it was a solid,

like once we got the notification they were gonna move

and it was like at 10 p.m. on like the 21st,

we did not hear from Ludovic for another like 12, 15 hours.

We had no idea where he was.

He dropped off the tracker.

We had people trekking the tracker every single hour

for any sort of update and for a solid,

I think like 12 to 14 hours.

It was just, we have no idea where Ludovic is.

And we luckily fear from him that night.

It was like seven, eight p.m.

like really late after let it stressing the whole day

and the calling because we basically had to go

and like all the people who track ice flight

to be okay like from this facility at this time period

where the different destinations they could go

because we just started cold calling.

All these different places.

So they're like, okay, there was a flight to Honduras.

We called, Honduras facility, we called the Louisiana.

We called like every single other flight

that could possibly go to in that window.

We called all of them.

And obviously we're giving the run around by ice on the phone.

We're not getting any information.

All the while like time is ticking,

you have no idea where he is.

And then you finally get the call

and knowing he's in Georgia, like he lets us know.

We're like, okay, like at least we know where he is.

The lawyer is like filing to like reopen his case

on like the day after.

The lawyer is filing everything in the service

of possible to reopen his case.

And the whole time we're thinking of like,

he's gonna move the two places.

How are we gonna get him back to Maryland

and how are we gonna make sure his case stays in Maryland?

So the, we talked to him again throughout the week

at the 21st.

He let us know like, okay,

there's all the people from Maryland were here.

They picked up a bunch of people that day with him

in Baltimore who were all coming in for routine

and they're just pressuring people

to sign deportation papers.

And we were able to tell a lot of it

whatever you do, do not sign those papers

because they just essentially just giving up your rights

and send people to God knows where.

And in the times since like of the people

a lot of it came with,

and they basically were keeping moving people

who were planning to fight for themselves.

Like all the people who immediately signed,

all the people who immediately were sort of like,

not who didn't have the resources to fight

say that Baltimore and then were moved somewhere

to be deported.

All the people who were choosing to fight,

they were moving around to all these impurities

in an effort to eventually break their spirit

because what have like told us

the transition from Louisiana, Georgia,

they got all rounded up at 10 p.m.

and they were put in chains

and they were not removed from those chains until 5 a.m.

So from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

they were transferred to buses and claims,

both of which with an OAC,

what have exaw people, elderly people who were chained,

elderly people who were denied medical care,

elderly people who almost passed out and nearly died,

and all the while they're in chain

was this entire time on the way to Georgia

because they couldn't just move them in the morning,

they had to move them overnight.

And so there's no sleep in chain to the entire time.

And he said like the thing that made him like sort of laugh

was sort of like this is ridiculous,

was that they said a flight attendant on the plane

still giving this sort of safety instructions

in terms of please look at this dropped out

and it's like we're in chains, we literally can't do that.

Why are you doing this to cover your own,

but like I, it's your job,

but look at the context, the situation,

what you're doing right now.

And he sort of laughed to us about them in the phone

but I could tell that really, really affected him.

It's like that's like that's the slave ratio.

Like that's like the call is made to pay,

that's slave ratio to keep people in chains that long

and keep them from me able to go to the bathroom

or do anything for that long.

So really like the timeline once we got Georgia

was like continuing to push for media,

continuing to push for everything else.

And then essentially we had to do more to make sure

you can get the right legal coverage is

while he's gone, reconstruct his light from his apartment.

So moving around in that absence of Ludovic

to try and find documents to try and think

what would he have done, try to connect with him on the phone

through even notes of monitored columns,

they like where could we find this,

where could we find that, where could we find that.

All the while we are like hustling to try

to get legal coverage handled.

So I'm talking to the lawyer like every single day,

we're talking to converse people,

we're talking to senators,

we're talking to legal resources.

I have like four or five other immigration lawyers

I'm talking to you to run everything by

and all the different jurisdictions, all different areas

that the pace they might not try to move in,

we're trying to get information in terms of who other people

who are detained, like is there a huge number

and we were able to find like in the time period

the Ludovic was paying to like 10 other habeas cases

that were filed from Baltimore specifically

of all of which were people who were moved.

And so let's say reach out to my ACLU contacts,

reach out to all these different contacts,

people say like this cannot fall through the cracks

and this cannot happen to anyone again.

And all the while Diane and from her perspective

is trying to manage like the overwhelming amount of grief

that comes from someone just being absent

and someone just being gone.

And it's, I cannot like from my perspective,

I wanted to be able to handle as much of this

like the tactical and tangible stuff as possible

because the emotional process of having to navigate this,

I wanted to be able to leave for the family

and leave for Diane to be able to do on their own time

and not feel rushed because unfortunately

due to the reality of the immigration process in this country

and when someone is detained, you don't have time to feel.

You don't have time to think you don't have time

to second guess yourself

because literally every single minute counts.

There are multiple like days in the early days

where I was like if I delayed by an hour

or a minute we would have missed,

we would have lost track about it.

And I thank myself every day that I was like,

for like going, essentially having to like

essentially stress people out

but we have to do stuff right now.

Like I know that it's hard, I know they're scary

but like we have to do things right now

and that's the thing that I think I would tell anyone

was like make sure you can have someone

who can be on that pace and at that schedule

because unfortunately you don't have time

to like go through the process

but Diane could definitely speak more

to what the family was going through during that time period.

So family-wise, like I don't even know where to start

because I've never seen my mom in this space.

Like I hate to say this

but it just seems like you've lost your child

it's just that feeling of when and now we know where he is

or when she didn't know where he was.

It was just like you're just lost

so she just has, she just tells me everything

I just go to work just to go to work to keep me busy

but she sits at home and she's literally crying

and just crying and I, when I went to see her

you can already see that she's lost 10 pounds

she's just stressed out and she's not answering the phone

she doesn't want to talk to nobody

because it's just overwhelming.

So I'm doing all the calls from everybody else

that's talking with your brother to do do do do do do

and I'm like having to retell

that's a million times over feeling everybody else

and then on top of me having my own life, my own kid

and just like all of that is it's a lot

like I took on the call all the time like I love him now

I don't know what I would have been without him

because this process is literally meant to break you

like he said there's nothing it's so much that you have

to do in this bit of time that it's impossible

and that's why they have been able to get away

with what they do they have been now

but they won't with this one

but it's still just it's a lot

like there's nothing there's no way to put it

but it's a lot and it's worth feeling

as what is he feeling being there?

It's just it's overwhelming

it's scary it's exhausting frustrating

yeah go to sleep every night

just praying that he's sleeping peacefully as well

but who's to know who's to say

I really appreciate you both sharing that in my heart

just breaks hearing it

and my heart continues to break thinking about

all the people the thousands tens of thousands of people

who are also have been swallowed up into this

mass deportation monstrous machine

who don't have that support

who don't have people who are able to do what you two

and you know your community have done

what folks you know on the GoFundMe

have been able to do to provide that support

like I am so so grateful that Ludovic has that

and I'm so heartbroken that so many others don't

and that even to have that is to still be caught up

in a nightmare like it's just to be kind of keeping pace

with this monstrous machine that is trying to break you

as you both rightfully said

and so I really want to just drive home for listeners

that this is how it looks don't wait you know

for it to happen to you and then try to come up with a plan

like this is something that you need to plan for

and be ready for and this is the kind of thing

you're going to be up against if and when it comes

for you and your family.

And I also wanted to just ask a quick

basic clarifying note before we kind of wrap up here

and talk about like where the case stands now

and what folks can do to support y'all

but like just to really drive this home

and it circles back to what we said in the intro

about how Trump claims he's going after the worst

of the worst and yada yada yada

like Ludovic is committed no crime here right

he was going to for a work permit

that he's been getting routinely

and then suddenly the game changes and he's in chains

am I right about that?

Yeah, I would say really the biggest thing

that puts word of the chair on top of all of this

is that Ludovic had a supervision order

that thought him to get a work permit the whole time.

He's had it for decades and when we were able to file

for bond yesterday that is the first time

he received the papers saying his supervision order

had been revoked and it was dated not for when he was detained

it was dated for yesterday

which means by their own admission

by when he was detained a supervision order

was not violated a supervision order was not rescinded.

Additionally to add insult to injury yesterday

he received the papers notifying that he would be transferred

away from Baltimore after he's been in Georgia for two weeks.

So those that tells us two things

one, they have the capacity to send people documentation

like you will know what's going on.

Two, if you have the right legal protection

they do get notification of when things are filed

and three, there's a conscious choice there

to either not communicate that or communicate a part of that

because in a process all of this we've reached out to senators

then disreturnes they've said their version of the story

that includes oh, he had this from 2005

not mentioning he had been detained 2008

you've been in order supervision the entire time

he's had a work claim it's not a single violation

of that process by their own admission

but they then focus on a habeas was proud on this date

say the deportation was proud on this date and this date

and it's like I'll be all the time it's okay

so you knew when that was filed

because at the time of after moving him

you're not mentioning the fact that the habeas was filed

at this date and you moved him after that

you're not mentioning the state of deportation

was filed at this date and you moved him again after that

you're not mentioning the fact that like we filed

like all of these things at this time period

you have confirmation of receipt of them

and you're choosing not to do that

so really just want to stress for all the people

is like for the thing that I've learned

about this process is like if you stay ready

you don't have to get ready

like I really and truly want people to understand

that like it is a down to minute to minute thing

and you have to be able to steal yourself

to really understand that like there's a lot of

this shouldn't be happening

you don't have time to think about what should

you don't have time to think about what would

you don't have time to think about like what could be

you can only think about what it is

because what is is what you can control

and what is is what you can do and what is

is something tangible they can't take from your death

like you and to think it doesn't exist

and there will be people who make you think

that all these legal things like oh there's gonna

they're just gonna like deny them anyway

there's gonna try them anyway

all of that builds towards a pattern of behavior

and an overall case that helps protect the person

but you are trying to to save

and it will be frustrating because it will be very much

situations of rules of the but not for me rules of the

but not for me they get to break whatever they want

they get to do this they get to do that

and all of it is just tracking your decisions

every single day right down who you talk to

right down what you did right down what you learned

and track it we have documents tracking

from the beginning of this process

and all of that is helping inform the final case

in terms of when we sent this when we received this

and so never let them tell you they didn't get something

because they get it never let them tell you

they didn't see something because they see it

never let them tell you that oh X and Y is impossible

because the minute some a bigger shark comes into the pool

and says hey like you guys have to listen to this

they'll try to cover their own tracks

but really it is a process it takes a long time

and a lot of resources and a lot of money to get to that point

and it's a lot of disrespect and a lot of dehumanization

and a lot of us really trying to actively break your spirit

before you can get to that point

and truly and honestly I think about all the people

who don't have a community who can rally like this

and keeps you up at night

because I wish I could do what I did for Ludovic

for thousands of people but I would die in the process.

Well, and I know I only have a few more minutes left

with y'all and I wanted to use those minutes

to talk about where things stand now

and any final messages that you have for listeners

about what you all need, what Ludovic needs,

what folks can do to get involved

and support y'all before we close.

So right now we are just waiting till Friday

we have the bond hearing on Friday to see,

hopefully it gets grants hit and he can be released.

The form of release like Macau said earlier

we're still waiting to see if it'll be immediate

over the weekend or on Monday

but the goal is that for Friday we hear good news

that he is granted his release.

As far as help, we do still have the goal funding up

still nations are still being accepted

because the legal process does not end

even when he returns home.

It will be an ongoing battle to make sure he's fully

a full citizen of the United States here.

So that can help if you guys want to call representatives

to get the word out any more media to reach out.

The more we speak about it, the more it gets heard,

the more it's seen and ice can get shut down.

So yeah, really it's just like my main message to people

throughout this whole process is like,

Diane and I are not superheroes.

We are not like people who were ordained

or like special people who were born

with a certain set of skills.

We are regular people who had to step up

to defend some of me loves.

And it is so easy to make people like that into heroes

and I've really like, that's not the story here.

The story here is like we're ordinary people

who were able to step up because we had to.

And for listeners, for anyone who's in this situation,

you will be asked to have to step up in a situation

you should never be asked to.

And more than anything,

if you try to keep your head down

and isolate yourself from your community,

you will be putting yourself into

an exponentially worse situation

because we could only have gotten here

by the support of wider community,

by the support of people who want to give their time

and just by talking about it.

Like so much of what this administrator

is doing is trying to isolate people

to turn them against each other

and make you feel like there's no one on your side.

We've seen in Minnesota, we've seen in LA,

we've seen all these people,

they're communities that are rallying

to protect their loved ones.

And you have to rally to protect your loved ones

against a system that is designed to break that.

And there is no like greater thing that I can say

than like you don't have to wait to be a person

who can step up and make a difference.

If you have the skill set right now,

you can be a person who helps make a huge difference.

There is a lawyer out in Minnesota

who took at one class on habeas cases,

he is free 10 people

because his track record goes to government,

he's like, I know how to argue this now.

And he's on immigration, Laurie, he just stepped up

and said like, I'm a bargoyer in this state,

there's a lot of people who are being detained.

If we had hundreds of people to do that

or across the country, we could get some people free.

It's just a matter of people believing

and being frankly crazy enough to be like,

yeah, no, I'm not going to let the powers

that be take my loved one from me.

And more than anything, you don't have to be,

you don't have to wait to be a certain type of person.

You don't have to like this type of activism,

but this type of support doesn't look like

being a certain type of person.

It means just being a person with a skeleton

who can set up and even little things like,

if you know someone who's working on this,

cooking a meal for them,

like being able to watch their kids,

being able to like do tiny things like that,

all add up to be able to refuel people

to essentially fight a hydro with infinite resources.

And we're hoping that on Friday,

we'll be able to show a lot of it

who has his faith like rocked in so many different ways,

but also the people of Maryland

and then like this area that not only can he fight,

you can win and you can win conclusively

with the power of community.

And again, none of this would be possible

without the fighting in community,

the greater like Washington DC community, Maryland, Virginia,

all the tons of people who have contributed to this process

and really just want to thank everyone

who has been a part of telling this story

and a part of sharing this story

because we wouldn't have been able to get here

to the point where we have a bond hearing scheduled

without a lot of people putting in work.

And I pray and I hope that no one I know ever

has to go through this ever

because it truly breaks something inside you as a person.

It doesn't mean it can't be fixed,

but it means that like there's a lot of effort there

and really and truly I just want to just impart

to people is like, this is,

it seems like an abstract nightmare once on the news.

It seems like an abstract nightmare when you hear about it

and you could maybe keep your head down from it

and you could mainly hide from it.

Some people might be able to,

but if you don't get ready for the possibility

of it happening, you will not be able to keep up

and you will strike up people.

One of it has told us and talked to us

about people who inside that you have been there for a year,

people who have been there for two years.

People who get sent down to Georgia

and have their case transferred

and get sent to a judge who's denies

every single bond order and they just languish there.

And the thing that really just fills my heart

is like even in Ludovic being in the worst situation

possible, she is still thinking of ways

to help these people.

He is still thinking of ways with the people

and the people he's connecting with,

the people he's showing kindness to

that even at essentially their rock bottom,

he is finding ways to put up their spirit

and find a way to be able to help them

like he has been helped.

And if Ludovic can do that for people

who are being detained,

who are having their rights violated,

then it is up to us, the people on the outside

to do absolutely everything we can

to advocate to make sure we bring,

not just some of them,

but bring all of them home

and to make sure this never happens to anyone ever again.

Ever again, ever again.

All right gang, that's going to wrap things up for us today.

I want to thank our guests,

Diane Sona, the sister of Ludovic Bach,

who is currently being detained in facing deportation

and Nikhil Delehe, a close friend of Ludovix

and a fellow gamer.

And of course, I want to thank you all for listening

and I want to thank you for caring.

We'll see you all back here next time

for another episode of Working People

and in the meantime,

please go explore all the great work

that we're doing at the Real News Network

across our YouTube channel, our podcast feeds,

our website and our social media pages

and help us do more work like this

by going to therealnews.com,

forward slash donate and becoming a supporter today.

I promise you guys, it really makes a difference.

I'm Maximilian Alvarez, take care of yourselves,

take care of each other, solidarity forever.

When my face you no longer see, I live on, yes, I live on.

Wherever we go, we are going to roll the union on the song.

I live on, yes, I live on.

Wherever hunger, hunger are we.

Just as homeless, hunger can be.

Your song, I live on, yes, I live on.

Well, mean things are happening in this land.

Just read a song, I live on, yes, I live on.

Wherever the book, mean things are happening

in this land, it's red, I live on.

Yes, I live on.

Wherever the video tape of me is shown,

I live on, yes, I live on.

If I have help, you make this a better world to live here.

I live on, yes, I live on.

When my body is tired, I can hear some notes and breathe.

I live on, yes, I live on.

When my songs and poems are red, I live on, yes, I live on.

I live on, yes, I live on, yes, I live on.