THE van doors opened and the crowd roared with delight.

It had been a long day for everyone - a long day for those who were first to arrive at Kenmure Street and who put in a whole day's shift waiting around the immigration enforcement vehicle.

A long day no doubt for the police officers both issuing and carrying out orders.

How endless the stretch of hours must have felt for the two men, Lakhvir Singh and Sumit Sehdevi, as they waited inside the van to find out what life held for them next.

Would they end the day in a detention centre or would they end it back in their own beds?

And I cannot imagine what the time felt like to the man underneath the van.

From my spot at last Thursday's demonstration in Pollokshields, I could just see the top of his head between the chassis and the road.

It was too tight for him to eat or drink from a bottle so for the first few hours he had no food or water until a bladder with a straw was sourced and fed under the van to him.

Hot water bottles were passed underneath too, further thoughtfulness from the crowd round about.

Crowd, or, as the Home Office is alleged to have called, it the "mob".

There have been allegations made that it was impossible for Police Scotland to stop Rangers fans from gathering on Saturday because they allowed the protest last Thursday.

I was at both events. There was no comparison.

One was a peaceful demonstration to protest hostile immigration policies that are seeing the introduction of dehumanising and traumatic practices carried out by the state against friends and neighbours.

The other was an excuse to get drunk and smash things. Things, and one another. For really no reason.

My friends and family who are Rangers fans managed to celebrate with a glass of bubbly in their back gardens.

No climbing of scaffolding, throwing of bottles, smashing of barriers or shouting of racist language to be heard.

Kenmure Street was an example of when everything goes right.

A man who had been trained by Glasgow No Evictions Network happened to see the enforcement van and take action.

Others decided to help.

The crowd that turned up was peaceful and thoughtful.

Protestors won the day and were rewarded with what they came for.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city another Indian national was taken from his home, placed in an immigration enforcement vehicle and detained.

No one saw that van, no one intervened. Celebrated human rights lawyers and politicians did not show up for him.

My colleague Kirsteen Paterson in our sister title The National told the story of this man, who was woken in his bed by five immigration officials and taken to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre, Scotland’s only immigration holding tank.

He told Kirsteen he has been in this country for 16 years. “I have cooperated with the Home Office and I have been working closely with my solicitor to submit a fresh claim," he said. "I have never missed a reporting date."

He's done what he has supposed to and was still treated in this way.

Lakhvir and Sumit had good fortune on their side.

Others have not and will not.

Earlier this year we told the story of another man who had been targeted in a dawn raid in Glasgow and ended up in hospital.

He was part of Maryhill Integration Network, which stepped in to support him. In light of that man's attempted removal last month, MIN was told of other raids in the city beginning in January this year.

After protests against dawn raids previously, it was thought the practice had ended permanently. Not under Priti Pate's Home Office.

This is the woman who talks of a "migrant invasion", using the language of war to describe desperate people in small rubber dingies. The woman who threatens these vulnerable craft with a Navy ship.

That might play well with a crowd elsewhere. Not in Glasgow.

Kenmure Street was an example of success but there will be more attempts at removals and crowds will not be able to form at each one.

We will see more scenes of protest but stopping individual removals will not fix the problem at the centre of this heartless Tory government.

There must be political pressure applied now, cross-party backing to say that Scotland will not stand for this appalling practice being carried out here.

Whether you welcome immigration or not, dragging people from their beds - especially people who may have endured trauma - is needlessly cruel.

We cannot stand for it and we will not.