Last Friday, the day before Alex Pretti was killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, Colorado Public Radio reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Eagle County, Colorado, had left ace of spades cards inside the cars of nine Latino immigrants they had detained. Family members found the cards, which read “Denver Field Office” and listed the address and contact information of a detention facility in the city of Aurora.
The ace of spades has a violent and racist history attached to it. During the Vietnam War, American soldiers often left the cards on the bodies of dead Viet Cong guerillas and North Vietnamese soldiers. They were a symbol, death’s calling card.
