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An Attack on Our Communities
The Trump administration has launched attacks on people across the country it claims are criminals, with the goal of deporting one million people each year. The new Federal budget has $45 billion to build new privately run detention centers. The budget for ICE, the masked, heavily armed force that has been terrorizing people was tripled to $37.5 billion to hire 10,000 new ICE agents. This is a budget greater than almost all the militaries in the world.
ICE has carried out highly publicized and brutal raids across the country – at grocery stores, Home Depots and even elementary school graduations. People are swept up in raids, often disappeared from their families and friends for days or longer. They face the possibility of being sent to El Salvador, the “Alligator Alcatraz” camp in Florida or one of the many other concentration camps around the country.
The people who are targeted are part of our communities, our family members, friends, classmates and coworkers. The purpose is clear, to terrorize and instill fear among immigrants and get others to accept this indiscriminate use of military force in our communities.
The Real Criminals Are Those In Power
Those in power say the people they are abducting and imprisoning are responsible for much of the crime in the U.S. The reality is that the majority of those taken by ICE are not wanted for a criminal act and have never been convicted of a crime. Undocumented immigrants commit far fewer crimes per capita than native-born U.S. citizens. And, according to ICE’s data, around 91% of those deported this year had NO violent criminal record.
The real criminals are those who are in violation of their own laws. They are disrupting the process of people gaining legal status or citizenship. People who are attending immigration hearings are having their cases dismissed by government prosecutors and are being abducted by ICE as they leave the courts! Others who may or may not have legal status are being abducted and disappeared into the concentration camps around the country or deported.
Immigrants Are Part of Our Communities
Like other workers, immigrants are viewed as disposable when they are not needed by the capitalists. Of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, 8.3 million are employed. They are essential members of the U.S. working class, almost five percent of the workforce.
This attack on immigrant communities is not new. Trump’s attacks are purposely more vicious. He uses his authoritarian regime to terrorize people. Other presidents have carried out massive deportations or “removals”: Under Clinton, about 10 million people, in two terms in office; Bush, about two million people, in one term; Obama, aka the “deporter in chief,” about three million people in two terms; Biden about 2.8 million people, in one term.
Forced Migration
Throughout history people have moved across the planet for many reasons. Often it was for economic reasons – in search of better land or other resources or fleeing conflict. In recent times migration has been to the cities or to the industrialized capitalist countries.
Today the situation is dramatically different. More than 132 million people, many of them children were forced from their homes due to violence of different forms. The basis of this violence is rooted in the functioning of the global system of capitalism. The exploitation of natural resources, and the dictatorial regimes and wars that result, have displaced tens of millions of people. The U.S. supports about 75% of the dictators in the world. In addition, global warming has disrupted the environment. People can no longer survive by farming or herding. Forty million people were classified as climate refugees this past year.
Attacking refugees and other migrants is no solution. There is no solution within the system that has created this problem. Our futures are linked, regardless of our recent origins. Turning our backs on the persecution of people who are labeled as “illegal”means turning our backs on our own future. We are in this together. We cannot leave our lives in the hands of those who rule over us today.
Why Is This Happening? It’s Not Just Trump
The current attacks against migrants go far beyond Trump. In addition to the threat posed by the environmental crisis, the dominant position of the U.S. in the world economic system is being challenged. In their drive to maintain a high level of profits, the capitalists are preparing for the severe challenges that could lie ahead. They are getting huge tax breaks, while their government cuts social programs and government regulatory agencies.
Meanwhile, most people’s wages haven’t kept up with the rising cost of living. Around 17 million people will lose access to health insurance with the recent budget cuts. Young people have a harder time finding good paying jobs or are saddled with crippling college debt. They try to divert people’s attention from this by attacking immigrants – blaming them for crime, using social services and taking people’s jobs.
Blaming immigrants, like claiming certain cities are festering with crime, is a way to divide us. Building bigger walls, creating more dangerous borders, and more vicious immigration enforcement is a way to pretend there is an emergency when none really exists.
What They Want Us to Get Used To:
- Masked thugs grabbing people off the streets and disappearing them for days or longer.
- Shredding basic legal rights.
- Using deportation as a threat to those who are critical of their policies.
- Putting people in distant “detention centers” or sending them to countries other than their countries of origin like El Salvador or South Sudan.
For Those Who Are Not Targeted Today…
Some people might believe they are not impacted. But do we really believe that the same violations of our basic rights aren’t around the corner? What makes us think that the ICE detention facilities of today couldn’t be used to detain any of us for saying or writing the “wrong thing” tomorrow?
We Do Not Have to Cooperate With ICE
We cannot stand by and accept this campaign of terror. We must stand up for members of our communities who are under threat. First they target so-called criminal immigrants who are part of our communities, then entire families and people who have been here for decades.
To create a crisis in Los Angeles, an ICE raid was staged in a predominantly immigrant neighborhood, where resistance could be expected. Trump then overrode the authority of the Governor of California and called out the National Guard and a Marine regiment, supposedly to defend ICE. That established a precedent that Trump promised will be repeated in other cities that are resisting the actions of the ICE storm trooper brigades. Now the targets are on Washington D.C. and other cities, with Black mayors.
While resistance to this may seem small today, it exists in cities and towns across the country. People have stepped forward demanding and gaining the release of members of their communities.
The publicity and widespread demand forced the release of two students who were abducted because of their opposition to the genocide in Palestine. Mahmoud Khalil, who was active at Columbia University and Rümeysa Öztürk, a student at Tufts University, who had co-authored an opinion piece in a student newspaper opposing the genocide, were both abducted by ICE and disappeared for days in distant detention centers.
In lesser-known situations, people in towns across the country have succeeded in protecting their community members. Resistance is getting more organized, with networks in schools, workplaces, neighborhoods and at courthouses, to respond if ICE shows up. It is easy to set up a network of people who can contact others if ICE is seen on campus, in a neighborhood or outside a workplace. Then people go into action, notifying others and providing protection for those who are threatened.
We can all do this. No cooperation with ICE!
