What you can do to stop ICE's mayhem
ICE and Border Patrol agents must be reined in. I’ll tell you how in a moment.
Since Renee Good’s death, clashes between ICE and the
residents of Minneapolis have escalated. On Wednesday night, an ICE agent shot
and wounded someone who, ICE claimed, was fleeing arrest.
(Sure, just like Good supposedly was trying to run them over
when she turned her car away from them and said, moments before an agent fired
three bullets into her chest and head, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at
you.”)
I’ve always loved Minneapolis. Its people have midwestern
common sense. They also have a deep sense of fairness and justice.
On Wednesday, Trump threatened that
if Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota didn’t stop the protesters, whom he
referred to as “insurrectionists,” he would “institute the INSURRECTION ACT …
and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great
State.”
Let’s be clear. The problem is not the protesters. It’s the
armed thugs who are shooting and murdering them. (Trump seems capable of seeing
a similar dynamic playing out in Iran and vows to protect the protesters there,
but not in America.)
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“There are four kinds of people who join the armed forces: those from a traditional military family, true patriots who want to serve their country, those with no other prospects who need a job, and psychotics who just want to kill people."The armed services do a pretty decent job of screening out the fourth group, but that group is now the prime recruitment pool for ICE. Racists, haters, gun nuts, and cage fighting fans who want to shoot anyone the least bit different from them. They are becoming America’s Gestapo. That is no exaggeration. We’re slipping into Nazi Germany.”
He’s exactly right.
ICE is reportedly investing
$100 million in what it calls “wartime recruitment” of 10,000 new agents, in
addition to the 20,000 already employed.
It has lowered its recruitment standards to meet the
deportation targets set by Stephen Miller (Trump’s deputy chief of staff for
promoting bigotry and nativism), thereby increasing the numbers of untrained
and dangerous agents on the streets.
ICE’s recruitment is aimed at gun and military enthusiasts
and people who listen to right-wing radio, have gone to Ultimate Fighting
Championship fights or shopped for guns and tactical gear, live near military
bases, and attend NASCAR races.
It’s seeking recruits who are willing to perform their “sacred duty” and “defend the homeland” by
repelling “foreign
invaders.”
If I had my way, ICE would be abolished and Border Patrol
agents sent back to the border. But this isn’t going to happen under Trump and
his Republican lapdogs in Congress. Too many Democrats are almost as spineless
when it comes abolishing ICE.
But Congress can still take action to rein in ICE. At the
very least, it must disarm ICE.
The Trump regime is allowing ICE officers to use lethal
force in self-defense. But we’ve seen how readily ICE and Border Patrol agents
claim self-defense when they’re shooting our compatriots.
How do we disarm ICE?
Congress is now considering the appropriations bill for the
Department of Homeland Security, whose funding runs out at the end of January.
Please demand — call your members of Congress and tell
them in no uncertain terms — that the DHS spending bill prohibit ICE and Border
Patrol agents from carrying guns and that it unambiguously declare that agents
do not have absolute immunity under the law if they harm
civilians.
Do this as soon as you can.
Rep. Rosa
DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee (and an
old friend), said Tuesday that
she’s seeking to put limits on ICE in the DHS spending bill. “I am looking for
policy riders in the Homeland Security bill to [be] able to rein in ICE.” House
Minority Leader Hakeem
Jeffries said Wednesday that Democrats will oppose the bill unless
Republicans agree to new rules governing ICE officers. “ICE cannot conduct
itself as if it’s above the law.”
There is no reason for ICE agents to be armed. If they are
shot at — and there’s no record of this ever actually happening — they could
readily summon state or local police to protect their safety.
ICE was designed to be mainly an investigative agency, not a
militarized arm of the presidency. ICE agents are not adequately trained to use
deadly force.
In addition, ICE agents prowling our streets in unmarked
cars, wearing masks, clad in body armor and carrying long guns, are a clear
provocation to violence — both by them and by otherwise law-abiding residents
of our towns and cities who feel they must stop their brutality.
Trump, Vance, and Miller want to provoke
violent confrontations so they can justify even more oppression — including
invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to call in the regular
military. “I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said in October, referring to the
act, “and the courts wouldn’t get involved, nobody would get involved, and I
could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, I can send anybody I wanted.”
Please: tell your members of Congress not to vote for the
DHS spending bill unless it stipulates that ICE be disarmed.
Also tell them that the bill must restrict ICE and Border
Patrol’s ability to conduct dragnet arrest operations and target people based
on their race, language or accent. And the bill must clarify that ICE
agents are liable under civil and criminal law if they harm
civilians.
The Trump regime is telling agents they have “absolute
immunity” from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits if they kill or maim or
otherwise hurt civilians. “That guy is protected by absolute immunity,” JD
Vance said of the ICE agent who killed Renee Good. “He was doing his job.”
DHS went so far as to post a clip of
Stephen Miller saying, “You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one —
no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or
domestic insurrectionist — can prevent you from fulfilling your legal
obligations and duties.”
Rubbish. There’s no such absolute immunity under the law.
Regardless of what the FBI concludes, I hope and expect the state of Minnesota
will open a criminal investigation of the agent who murdered Renee Good and, on
the basis of the evidence uncovered, prosecute him for murder under state law.
It would be useful for Congress to make it crystal clear in
the DHS spending bill now under consideration that ICE agents do not enjoy
absolute legal immunity.
Please call your representative and senators today and
tell them not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it (1) disarms ICE
agents, (2) prevents them from targeting people based on their race, language,
or accent, and (3) stipulates that agents who harm civilians are liable under
criminal and civil laws.
To reach your representative or senator, call the U.S.
Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them the state
and city where you live. They will connect you to any member’s office.
