In less than a month ICE activities have been more visible than ever. By early February nearly 700 people were hunted down and sent to immigration prisons in several states throughout the country.
We must recognize this is not new immigration enforcement activity, but it is more rampant and visible than before.
During the Bush administration this deportation machine was built and under Obama grew exponentially, leaving the largest infrastructure of vanishing low-income immigrants of color from this country in the hands of the now fascist regime that took over this country last month.
These events are made to accomplish two goals: to convey to the fascist regime base that they were serious when they used our communities as scapegoats, and to infuse more fear in our communities so we give up and don’t organize against these attacks.
We should remember we still have basic rights: not opening the door without a warrant, not saying anything, not signing anything; but as undocumented communities we have seen how the law has been used against us to criminalize our communities and deny us access to due process.
Therefore, we need to go beyond knowing our rights, we must create community shields who understand the basics of how the criminal and immigration system work against us, how to interrupt them, and how to show up for each other when ICE comes to our doors or when local police handed us over immigration enforcement.
If our local city or county councils don’t want to end the collaboration between ICE and local police, we must create our own ICE Free Zones by building our community shields who protect every person targeted by immigration enforcement.
It’s time to resist. It’s time to stop ICE.
