Organizers in Minneapolis are in a whirlwind right now. We are facing what appears to be — so far — the biggest deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cops in one city in the agency’s existence. The brutality and ubiquity of the agents have become central features of the city’s life, as have the massive networks of resistance and protection being built in opposition to them.
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As protests against President Donald Trump’s brutal crackdown on immigrants grow nationwide, Democrats in Congress are scrambling for a unified response to the violence brazenly displayed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. Voters are demanding a response to the most recent deployment in Minnesota, where residents and local leaders say federal immigration patrols are…
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Federal immigration agents have detained at least four children from Minnesota public schools over the past two weeks, including a 5-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who were both sent to Texas detention centers that have come under fire for grotesque conditions. Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, held a press conference on Wednesday to provide details of…
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Under Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gone on an explicitly fascist zag as it seeks to recruit 10,000 additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Robert Reich and others have detailed in recent weeks how ICE is now actively seeking to recruit extremist young men from gun shows, Ultimate Fight Club venues, rodeos, martial arts centers…
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In response to the January 7 ICE murder of Renee Good and the broader, untenable ICE terror campaign Trump unleashed on Minneapolis—and other major US cities—congressional Democrats are under increasing grassroots pressure to do something, anything, to fight back against the lawlessness and brazen violence of Trump’s deportation machine.
Democratic leadership, who yesterday refused to fund an upcoming DHS bill because it did not “do enough to rein in ICE,” have spent the past few weeks establishing their line in the sand. And what they appear to have settled on is a typical suite of pseudo-reforms, cosmetic PR and HR tweaks, body-worn cameras, and more money for “training,” all of which will do nothing to meaningfully alter the calculus for the Trump White House or ICE. Democrats are running through the motions of opposition in exchange for “guardrails” that will do little to nothing to address the central issues, while refusing to meaningfully tackle the source of ICE’s power—namely, its immunity from prosecution and obscene funding levels. Put another way: Democrats are responding to the killing of Renee Good by pushing reforms that would have done nothing to prevent the killing of Renee Good, and thus will do nothing to prevent future killings of other Renee Goods.
Democrats are running through the motions of opposition in exchange for “guardrails” that will do little to nothing to address the central issues, while refusing to meaningfully tackle the source of ICE’s power—namely, its immunity from prosecution and obscene funding levels.
The exact prescriptions offered by Democrats are difficult to pin down. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in particular, has remained vague about what his demands
There is a general strike on the horizon in Minneapolis. More than 50 Minnesota labor unions, nonprofits, and other community organizations have signed onto a January 23 Day of Action, which calls for a complete “economic blackout” in the state. “No work. No school. No shopping,” its posters declare. Some of Minnesota’s largest labor unions are leading the way…
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