Created as part of the Homeland Security Act; ICE began in 2003. Currently, if separated from the federal government, it’s estimated that ICE would rank 13th in the world as a militarized army. And now as people are beginning to challenge the legitimacy of militarized and masked police in neighborhoods, smashing car windows, brutally accosting men, women and children one has to wonder who still supports this and why?
Have we not had enough violence? Why have we allowed, without conscience or dignified care, families severed and human beings detained in deplorable conditions? Is our hatred of people who are different so great that we’re willing to see an escalation in inhumanity? Three shots to the head of an unarmed woman and no one is in custody. A Black father and citizen killed by an off-duty agent because he celebrated New Year’s Eve. Are the screams of the children not reaching our ears? Who are you: the ones who cheer these obscene acts? Who are you: the silent ones?
We have another opportunity to reel in this rogue organization. An appropriations package to further inflate ICE’s budget is being considered by Congress. It must pass with 60 votes. If Republicans hold to their capitulation to this administration, there would still be a need for seven Democrats to support the increase to ICE. Democrats must not support this increased funding. We can and must make that clear. The January 30th deadline to stop this vote is looming. We have time to bring it to an end.
This is when ordinary citizens must become extraordinary. This is when the silent must speak.
Frederick Douglas famously reflected, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.
Demand legislators vote against increasing ICE funding. And while you’re at it call for ICE to be abolished.
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Graphic by Just Seeds
let kindness win 
So important to be said, we ordinary need to become extraordinary.
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