The Rebellion Begins: Cities and States Revolt Against Trump’s ICE Crackdown
It’s not just protests—Democratic officials nationwide are blocking Trump’s ICE crackdown and pushing back against his assault on democracy and decency
Cliff’s Note: After my piece on countries enforcing law we aren’t that have been democracies less time than Bon Jovi’s existed, I wanted to share positive things happening in the fight vs. ICE evil…This piece first appeared at Jonathan Larsen’s Substack. He’s a veteran of CNN & ABC who executive produced Up with Chris Hayes. You can subscribe to his Substack here.
by Jonathan Larsen
Members of Congress return next week and there will be more pressure to make a deal to renew funding for the Department of Homeland (sic) Security (DHS). This will be magical pressure because only Democrats will feel it.
The question is, will they still be feeling pressure from the people?
On Wednesday, the DHS ordered agents to start imprisoning refugees—who entered legally because “refugee”—even if they’ve already begun the application process for a green card. They will be held in cages for the entire duration of the application process to ensure they’re not making the U.S. economy more productive or lowering the crime rate by being out there committing fewer crimes than Americans.
And they’re going to be vetted.
Advocacy groups say we’re talking about an estimated 100,000 people. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons claims that the law now suddenly requires ICE to vet them all.
This requires DHS to take the affirmative actions of locating, arresting, and taking the alien [sic] into custody
Lyons presumably wrote this after giving ChatGPT a prompt to be fascist and politically incorrect. And of course now affirmative action is okay.
And refugees aren’t the only you’re-shitting-me class of human Trump is caging.
Because if there’s one thing we can be sure of about Trump and the ladies, it’s that he does not like it when they get pregnant. I mean, he’s been burned before…
So, shockingly but not surprisingly, we’re finding out in court about Trump officials abusing pregnant people and new mothers in federal custody.
Separated from infants who are still nursing. Pregnant women housed in cramped and shoddy ICE cages.
Legal filings reveal multiple miscarriages of justice and also the other kind.
Pres. Joe Biden implemented policies to limit detention of women who are pregnant or nursing. But ICE won’t tell us whether they aborted that policy. Which is weird because I’m pretty sure they’re asking us for money right now.
Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manriquez reports that ICE is raiding dormitories at the Dilley, TX, family-friendly concentration camp. How come?
As Allison Gill explained, kids imprisoned there had written letters—not to be confused with diaries!—about their imprisonment. And ICE, apparently, was hunting for and confiscating the letters after hunting for and confiscating the kids.
Also, the Justice Department admitted Wednesday that it’s violated immigration and detainee court orders at least 52 times. Just in New Jersey, replacing The Sopranos as the state’s number-one crime family.
Here’s how Americans are fighting back
Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) on Tuesday signed a new state law that prohibits local agreements to help out federal immigration predators.
That’s what Maine did last month. And New Mexico earlier this month. And New York is about to do.
Democrats who run cities are also de-ICE-ing their streets. According to the Washington Post, mayors in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland and Seattle are restricting where and how ICE and CBP can operate there.
In some cities, local police are monitoring the activities of these dangerous gangs.
The Public Rights Project is helping dozens—plural—of cities draft local immigration laws immune to federal legal challenges.
Prosecutors in about a dozen cities and counties—including Austin, Dallas, Tucson, and Virginia’s Arlington and Fairfax counties—are warning they’ll prosecute criminal gang members. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, has reminded these rampaging gangs publicly that they can be prosecuted because their sexual predator president lacks the power to pardon them in states or cities.
Of course, judges have been on the front lines—metaphorically speaking—all along. And on Wednesday, one judge broke through to strike behind enemy lines.
In Minneapolis, federal Judge Laura Provinzino had ordered ICE to return an undocumented immigrant’s documents—after ICE released him—because he’s been pursuing legal status for years. ICE didn’t do it.
So Provinzino found Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Isihara in civil contempt and punished him with a fine of $500. EVERY DAY, until the documents are returned.
Isihara, by the way, is a Defense Department JAG,1 on loan to the Justice Department, and told Provinzino that DHS has saddled him with 130 cases in just the past month. Dude, quit-yer whining and quit your job. I mean, ICE is hiring!
NOT JUST DEMOCRATS
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)—absolutely not pictured above—asked DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to keep her stinkin’ concentration camps out of Mississippi. One camp, anyway.
Apparently Wicker thinks the local infrastructure and social services aren’t sufficient to support a concentration camp with 8500 prisoners. Even with the robust economy and rampant development inspired by the low, low taxes of Mississippi!
And apparently someone explained to Noem just how Mississippi, Mississippi actually is, so she agreed. But it’s not just Republican politicians pushing back.
The New York Times spoke to a whole bunch of Trump supporters who never thought he’d ship scary people to warehouses in their town. The administration is planning a new concentration camp in Surprise, AZ, and Trump’s voters there aren’t happy about it.
Local cheerleading gym owner Stacy Bradley is happy that Trump is hurting the right people, but she’s upset that a new concentration camp will be next door to her gym. Surprise!
Councilman Chris Judd said DHS isn’t telling the town jack about caging people not named Jack. He said, “Not having any information coming from the feds as to what we need to do or what’s going to happen is very frustrating.” Sure, but then it wouldn’t be a Surprise.
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NOT ALL DEMOCRATS
There’s a good object lesson for xenophobic Democrats playing out in North Carolina.
State Rep. Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg County) provided the one vote Republicans needed to pass a state bill forcing local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, overriding the veto of Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC). In a floor speech, Cunningham said immigrants must “adapt to the culture of the country they wish to live in.”
The culture of the country they want to live in is one of accepting immigrants, and Cunningham and Trump should adapt to that culture of the country they wish to live in tout fucking suite. Point being, now Cunningham’s being primaried.
Because immigrants aren’t a threat. Are all you congressional Democrats paying attention?
CONTEXT FOR REFORMING DHS Author and newsletterer Andrea Pitzer writes that it’s dangerous to reform DHS. Her argument is very much worth sharing widely.
“[W]hat Democratic leadership is calling for runs the risk of making the overall Trump project on immigration permanent,” Pitzer argues:
History offers many examples of someone hoping to do a good thing by limiting the reach of another person’s malicious actions, while accidentally winding up contributing [to] the greater harm by institutionalizing it. This can happen through validating a program’s legitimacy by not arguing directly against it. It can happen by reinforcing the bureaucracy of a bad system. And it can happen by accidentally reforming an abomination just enough so that it passes legal or political muster and can continue to exist.
In short, any reform short of pulling this evil up by the roots is just putting lipstick on a pig. Only the pig is Hitler. So, y’know, don’t give pigs billions of dollars worth of lipstick.
Note: There have been a few edits to Jonathan’s original piece for brevity or to adhere to BAM’s style
Apparently ICE has always violated people’s constitutional rights, long before trump. It isn’t salvageable. Even if we get rid of it, these people should be prosecuted and disgraced.
The description here of what is happening to pregnant women, new mothers, and their babies is frighteningly similar to what happened to the young girls who were raped and impregnated by the Epstein criminals. Add to that the reports of the rapes being committed by renegade ICE agents. When are these monsters going to be stopped???