ICE Leaving? Not Exactly.

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: the north star shining behind a loon with the words RESIST (by Jack Brinatte)

This morning Border Czar Homan says they are ending Operation Metro Surge. This is good news!  I hope some of us here in Minnesota will take a short victory lap or dance in the streets a little.

HOWEVER. 

There is no doubt in my mind that ICE operations will continue in Minnesota. They're just ending the surge, not their horrible, extra-legal, and inhumane work. In fact, I find it sort of ominous that they are implying that they've secured the help of local authorities. My hot take is that that just means fewer agents, more cops. Which sucks in a different kind of way because cops do have actual authority to arrest us for "obstructing" them. I still say that there are more of us then there are of them, so let them try. We can still film them. We can still blow our whistles. As far as I am aware, the first amendment still exists in this country. And, as we know from George Floyd, we can film cops just as easily as we can film ICE.

I do think that the bad guys are hoping that we'll stop feeding our neighbors in hiding, force them to come out to grocery shop or go to work, and then kidnap them. Tim Waltz has been very loud about the "economic impact" the Operation Metro Surge has been having on local shops and businesses, which is true--but, and I love you, Tim, I really do, but $$ being spent in Minnesota is not actually the crisis. Businesses struggling is just the consequence of the crisis. I'm sorry Target is feeling the pressure of our constant protests to their weak response to the 4th amendment, but, you know, they CAN DO something about it. It's the people who are being kidnapped and sent to concentration camps that are the core of the crisis. The real crisis is that NONE OF THIS SHOULD BE HAPPENING. There is a due process for immigration and EVERYONE deserves due process and humane treatment, full stop. No one should be (as someone was the other day) arrested while trying to appear in court for their immigration status hearing!  That is a literal perversion of justice. And we should not stand for it. Even if we go down with this ship.

The bad guys have fully misjudged this movement if they think that the good people of Minnesota are going to just be like, "Oh, you're leaving? Ope, well, I guess I'll just stop caring about my neighbors, then!" 

They have lit a fire in this state that I don't think is going to be easily extinguished. I don't even know that this announcement will change a single day in our lives. I'll be headed off to mutual aid work in a couple of hours, then school patrol after that, and singing at 6:30 pm tonight. I suspect that will be what my tomorrow looks like, too. 

Comments

[elainegrey]

Thank you so much for your posts about this.

[kore]

//cheers you on

[sabotabby]

i saw the announcement and immediately hopped on here to see what was really happening.

I think it is a victory and you should be proud, but also, yeah, there's that dangerous point when small concessions can kill momentum rather than light bigger fires.

[dreamshark]

I don't think it's Target that Walz was worried about - it's the small local businesses like restaurants and mercados and day care centers that are struggling and in some cases closing their doors. I didn't hear his entire speech but I heard the part where he talked about providing state grants to small businesses that have been devastated by this invasion. This is not about caring about "dollars being spent" more than about people - it's about people's lives and livelihoods. And he was making the same point you are; the invasion may be winding down (maybe) but the aftermath is just beginning and we need to keep caring about each other and working together to recover.

The business about "cooperation with local authorities" is not about police. DHS has made it abundantly clear that they have absolutely no interest in cooperating with local or state police. This issue is a whole tempest in a teapot about the precise details of how Hennepin County notifies DHS agencies when they are about to release someone from jail who is wanted by ICE or CBP - which is something they already do! Trump and his Border Czar have decided to demand changes to the process (which I think conflict with state law) as a contingency for ending the surge. This is presumably to save face and let Trump believe that he has won a huge negotiating victory. They must have come to some compromise on the details, since "ending the surge" is suddenly a done deal and Trump is declaring victory.

As you say, now is not the time to give up the work we are all doing. People are still afraid to leave their homes and still need help with food and rent. Federal agents are still out there terrorizing people and trying to make their heinous daily arrest quotas. And on Capitol Hill, Republicans are now trying to use the supposed "end to the surge" to justify their refusal to compel federal agents to comply with local laws, not to mention the Bill of Rights.

Meanwhile... have any agents actually left Minnesota yet? Not that I've heard.

[house_wren]

Thanks for these posts.
& for being You.