It is March and the lovely #EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "water".
Oh no! The USA clown President Trump hallucinated immigrants committing felonies (projection?) and sent kidnap squads to Minnesota, Chicago, and elsewhere. Those squads kidnapped US citizens, kids, US citizen kids; they used tear gas by kids' schools. They… Well, it's bad.
Darned thin silver lining: it inspired a cryptic crossword puzzle. Careful: not only is it cryptic, there's a gimmick. You might start with 15-Across to find out what's going on.
![screen shot of puzzle grid. It's a cryptic, so US solvers might think it looks sparse, more like a lattice than an archipelago. It shows the clue for 15 across: 'What ICE really needs? [thus explaining this puzzle's gimmick] Obtain oil wrongly.'](https://lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/importable/2026/what-ice-really-03-09.jpg)
