ICE Defenders: People Stand Up and Institutions Follow Amidst Unprecedented Power Grab
Trigger Warning: ICE Detainment, Physical Violence
Citizenship is an active process rather than a passive privilege or a piece of paper.
This stark reality has never been more real for communities across the country with the flagrant violations people’s bodies and general well-being face as ICE terrorizes the people, regardless of their citizenship status.
Miranda Rights? Eh, a suggestion. Due Process? “That’s a liberal hoax.”
The chaos you are likely seeing on your feed, in the paper, or on your TV screen is manufactured by design – to isolate us, prompt a violent crackdown to rationalize their attack on basic human rights further, and dissuade people from standing up to rising authoritarianism.
Well, the people are standing up as local law enforcement and elected leaders fail at protecting people from state-sponsored kidnapping and deportations.
Protestors are trying to speak to the humanity of ICE and other law enforcement who are being propped up like toys and put into unnecessary danger just because of a wannabe dictator in Washington.
The power of the people often predates actions by institutions designed to protect us from attacks on the Constitution. For example, a federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked National Guard deployment in Chicago on October 10, the city stood up to say “NO KINGS”! “(The founders) would never believe that it would ever come to pass that one state militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution,” according to U.S. District Judge April Perry, invoking the words of Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 29.
Another example of an attempt to hold the federal government accountable manifests in the form of a lawsuit filed on October 6 against Trump, DHS, and ICE, and other enabling entities, accusing them of using "wanton and escalating violence" against protestors and journalists in a violation of their First Amendment rights during protests at Broadview Processing Facility just outside of Chicago.
A different judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on October 9, limiting the violence ICE can inflict. This suit was brought by a coalition of news outlets, media associations, and protestors, including the IL Press Association, Block Club Chicago, and the Chicago Headline Club, and outlines how federal agents have used indiscriminate force against civilians.
