Let ICE Know They Are Not Welcome in Massachusetts
ICE processing and detention facility, Burlington, MA. Photo: Indivisible MA Coalition
Western Mass Delegation Plans First Participation in Ongoing Standout at ICE Facility in Burlington
Source: Indivisible Mass Coalition and Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice
On Wednesday December 10, from 11-1p.m., a delegation from Western Massachusetts will show up at the Burlington ICE Field Office to join with others from around the state in protesting ICE actions and the ICE presence in Massachusetts.
Bearing Witness @ ICE, a group committed to peaceful, nonviolent protest, has been holding standouts in front of the ICE Field Office in Burlington since last April, their numbers growing from two to now several hundred. December 10 will be the first time that a large group from Western Mass is organizing to participate. It is critical at this time, when nationwide resistance to ICE cruelty is growing, to show that the entire commonwealth is united in opposition.
The ICE facility in Burlington is one of the main centers in New England where people abducted by ICE are taken for processing. People are being kept overnight (sometimes for multiple days) in inhumane conditions, in spite of an agreement with the town of Burlington that no one would be detained there.
Individuals, faith organizations, and social justice groups have been witnessing and protesting outside the facility every week for more than 30 weeks.
Western Mass activists plan to show up in solidarity with those who have been detained, their loved ones, and those protesting so consistently in Burlington. Look HERE to register and for information on car pooling. And for more information about the ongoing protest, look here: https://indivisible-ma.org/bearing-witness-at-ice/.
I appreciate your efforts made pertaining to some of the bad behaviors, policies and conditions pertaining to ICE detentions. But to unilaterally be opposed to ICE overall is not practical or effective. In fact I think it works against your intentions to a great degree.
I don’t think you seriously want to suggest that there should be no immigration and custom policies do you? And if you believe that there should be some policies, then there must be some entity that can enforce those policies. The problem is not the concept of ICE itself, it’s the way that things are being done and that’s the specificity that needs to be brought forth to avoid creating undue resistance from the other side.
At this point, ICE is indefensible. We have bands of thugs in masks, without warrants or IDs, kidnapping people off the street, from their cars after smashing the car’s window, from daycares, from hospitals, from court houses, and even by invading homes by knocking the doors down. These thugs are called ICE and Border Patrol. At most 27% of people they take have any criminal record. Some are US citizens and some are children. And most have done everything they are legally required to, but are abducted anyway. They have abducted people who are at their final Green Card hearing, or who already have Green Cards.
They are sending people to countries they have never been to. They are putting people in concentration camps like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz. They are torturing and sexually assaulting people at these centers. They are putting children into unsafe, crowded, disease infested detention facilities without their parents and with no privacy. Detention centers are full of people packed into cages with a single toilet in the center, with raw sewage running over the concrete floors, with the lights on 24 hours a day, no beds, and with no medical attention.
This is completely against anything this country has stood for. The budget for ICE is larger than most countries’ GDPs. Furthermore, ICE thugs are pepper spraying peaceful protestors, and knocking people to the ground and then piling on top of them. They are shooting people with rubber bullets, including the clergy. They are breaking down people’s doors in large packs, with assault weapons pointed. They initially targeted Hispanic people, but they have branched out to include any person of color, and have attacked white people as well. No one will be safe if we let this continue.
When people are abducted without due process, it’s kidnapping. When they are sent to another country against their will, it’s human trafficking. When people are put in a prison with no way to get out, that’s a concentration camp.
Opposing ICE is essential. Abolishing ICE is necessary.
Years ago, when I was interpreting in the emergency room, I was with a young patient and her dad. She was seriously ill, and when she found out she was going to be hospitalized, she started crying and saying, “My sisters! My sisters! I’m never going to see them again!” I can still hear her voice and see her face. She and her sisters were all born here, but their parents were not. I cannot imagine the level of fear that this family and other ones I’ve worked with are now experiencing — all because they are trying to work hard to have a better life, free from poverty and violence.