The US immigration system is being militarized. Now is the time to stand up

The Guardian

3 days ago

On the Fourth of July, President Trump signed his sweeping signature domestic policy bill into law. He called it 'beautiful'. I would call it a grave and existential threat to our already precarious democracy.
Perhaps the biggest headline to emerge from this bill is that it tears giant holes into our social safety net to ensure our nation's wealthiest could benefit from additional tax breaks. But for those of us on the frontlines of the fight to protect immigrants' rights, it signaled the further entrenchment of an authoritarian regime being created on the backs of immigrants. Irrespective of our immigration status or views on immigration, we should all be concerned because we will all be affected: the sheer quantity of resources set aside for immigration enforcement will turbocharge the militarization of our country.
History has taught us that social justice movements can play a significant role in protecting democracies when they are at risk from authoritarian regimes. This bill should be a wakeup call for us all to step up in defense of our democracy before it is too late. Here is what we should anticipate.
The law hands over a staggering $170bn to the Department of Homeland Security to ramp up this administration's brutal immigration enforcement agenda. Among the direct beneficiaries of this largesse is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).
Even without these resources, Ice has already been responsible for outrageous and unconstitutional acts that are hacking away at our democracy. It is Ice agents in masks who are kidnapping our neighbors, snatching them off the streets, at courthouses or their workplaces, shoving them into SUVs, and taking them to detention centers. Many have been deported without even being given the right to go before a judge.
Ice agents are using unimaginably harsh tactics. They are violently smashing car windows, ripping parents away from their kids, and targeting children at school. The audacity of their lawlessness and cruelty – often on public display – is unprecedented.
The Trump administration has shown a willingness to crack down violently on those who speak out against its immigration policies. Even public officials have been caught in this dragnet, including California senator Alex Padilla, New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver, Newark mayor Ras Baraka, and New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander. Every one of these violent encounters has been caught on film.
With this new and massive infusion of resources now being handed over to the DHS and Ice, we will soon see many more abductions on our streets, more family separations, and more brutal crackdowns on dissenters. We are also likely to see the widespread militarization of our communities, consistent with what has already transpired in parts of California: heavily armed military officers in battle fatigues carrying out violent raids with the use of tear gas and rubber bullets; the storming of public venues such as MacArthur Park in Los Angeles for no reason other than to instill fear and intimidation; and government-sanctioned attempts to silence and intimidate public officials and activists through arrests, violence, criminal sanctions and prosecutions.
As scenes previewed by militarized Los Angeles become commonplace in cities across the country – in blue states, to make an example, and in red states eager to collude – many more Americans will perhaps come to realize the full impact of this bill and recognize that the same system that cages immigrants closes rural hospitals. The same ideology that justifies family separation does not flinch when taking away food from the hungry. A government that disappears immigrants to foreign torture prisons without a day in court cannot be trusted to uphold your rights either. The machine of state violence, once built, expands.
So, what are we to do? How do we move forward?
It is incumbent on all of us to double down and meet the moment with the urgency it demands. That means committing to doing what we can to protect the most vulnerable amongst us and hold public officials accountable. We must be loud in our opposition to the attacks on our democracy and actively exercise our freedoms to protect it. We must contact our members of Congress to demand that they uphold the rule of law and take on those actively working to undermine our system of checks and balances. We must join the protests and the growing movement of people from all walks of life who are actively fighting authoritarianism. We must do everything we can to support our immigrant friends, neighbors and community members whose lives are being torn apart by this administration.
Finally, we must also vigorously reject the paralyzing lure of fatalism – that the future will merely be an extension of our present rather than something we can build together. If our government can pour boundless resources into hurting people, there is nothing radical or unrealistic in insisting that those same resources could be used to better all of our lives.
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At the National Immigration Law Center, we will continue using every tool at our disposal to fight back against Trump's attacks on our communities. We are clear eyed about how we got here and what the stakes are. Just because this moment demands defense, it will not stop us from standing firm in the declaration that a pathway to a better world still exists.
What's giving me hope now is the number of people who are joining a rapidly growing movement fighting back against this administration's authoritarian plans. They include courageous immigrants who refuse to be silenced or dehumanized; retirees who are spending time being of service to impacted immigrants, engaging elected officials and/or attending rallies and town halls; courageous young people who refuse to accept the status quo and are putting their bodies on the line; and entire communities who are speaking out and doing everything possible to protect their neighbors.
All of us have a role in upholding justice and preserving our democracy. I'm heartened to see people from all walks of life determined to do their part and remain optimistic that this movement will get bigger and stronger over time.
Kica Matos is president of the National Immigration Law Center