Millions voted for this. Many celebrate it online. They treat the suffering of families as entertainment. They congratulate each other when a raid happens.
Fyi - This group is working to hold ice agents and collaborators accountable. If you witness excessive use of force or other illegal behavior by ice agents or have information about collaborators, please share it.
ICE agents are heavily armed, poorly trained and wear armor and related personal protective gear. They also operate as mobs.
Unless you are also heavily armed and wearing protective gear, and have the support of a much larger organized mob, don’t confront ICE agents with anything other than a camera with a telephoto lens, from a safe distance.
Smartphones are great, but video cameras with image-stabilizing telephoto lenses are even better. Parabolic and “shotgun” microphones are also great. We need the video and audio for the historical archives.
Hitler and the Nazis were really fanatics about recording their actions. Learn from them.
I'd like a more careful, informed response to Terry's question. They wear ICE "uniforms." But they may be just cosplayers. They wear masks. They don't give identifying info. They are committing assault, kidnapping. Even if they did identify themselves they're violating due process. They're violating federal and local laws. Why are they not subject to arrest by local law enforcement? It is the job of local law enforcement to protect their community isn't it?
The reason this keeps happening is because the system is built to let it happen. ICE does not answer to local departments. They do not follow the standards your city police follow. They operate under federal authority, which means they can move through a community in masks, refuse identification, and put people in unmarked vehicles while everyone else stands there trying to figure out if they are watching an arrest or a kidnapping.
Local police cannot arrest a federal agent who claims to be acting under federal authority. Even when the behavior looks like assault. Even when it looks like kidnapping. The courts have made it clear that federal officers have immunity from state-level interference while performing their “duties.” That immunity is vague and wide enough to hide all kinds of abuse, and local departments know it.
If a local officer tried to intervene, they would be accused of obstructing a federal operation. Their department could lose federal funding. The city could be sued. The officer could face charges. Everyone in the chain knows this. ICE knows it most of all.
So the agents act with complete confidence. They cover their faces. They refuse to identify themselves. They take people without explaining anything to the community watching. And there is no mechanism inside local law enforcement that can stop them in that moment.
If any regular person grabbed someone off the street and shoved them into an unmarked vehicle, they would be arrested immediately. The only difference here is the badge and the federal claim of authority. That is the whole story. The badge changes the rules. The federal claim shields whatever comes next.
This is why communities build their own protection networks. This is why people record. Why they document. Why they create rapid-response systems. Because local police cannot protect people from federal agencies, and the federal agencies have no interest in protecting the people they target.
The accountability we imagine should exist does not exist. The only accountability that appears at all is the one communities build for themselves.
Help protect future targets of ICE:
**Stop ICE Raids Alert Network**
https://stopice.net/
StopICE.net uses the alert system built into your phone to notify you of ICE raids in your area.
Fyi - This group is working to hold ice agents and collaborators accountable. If you witness excessive use of force or other illegal behavior by ice agents or have information about collaborators, please share it.
https://icelist.is/
The ICE List is an open journalistic project aimed at collecting and sharing information that can hold ICE members legally accountable.
ICE agents are heavily armed, poorly trained and wear armor and related personal protective gear. They also operate as mobs.
Unless you are also heavily armed and wearing protective gear, and have the support of a much larger organized mob, don’t confront ICE agents with anything other than a camera with a telephoto lens, from a safe distance.
Right. Agreed. I’m not advocating for anything other than community resilience and documenting their actions for everyone to witness.
Hopefully an engaged society will hold the bastards accountable sometime in the future.
Smartphones are great, but video cameras with image-stabilizing telephoto lenses are even better. Parabolic and “shotgun” microphones are also great. We need the video and audio for the historical archives.
Hitler and the Nazis were really fanatics about recording their actions. Learn from them.
Thank goodness for people like you, Cory.
The best thing that the neighborhoods and communities can have to counteract this strategy is showing what community really means.
ICE wants to pretend that people need them to do what they are doing.
Show them it is a lie.
What they are doing is destroying good lives and terrorizing great communities, for a lie.
They are bearing false witness against their neighbors for exactly the reason that it is so powerfully wrong.
Are you in Charlotte Cory? I am in Asheville, these thugs terrify me. Stay safe.
Why aren’t ICE agents facing arrest when they do violent acts against unarmed people?
It’s state-sanctioned violence.
I'd like a more careful, informed response to Terry's question. They wear ICE "uniforms." But they may be just cosplayers. They wear masks. They don't give identifying info. They are committing assault, kidnapping. Even if they did identify themselves they're violating due process. They're violating federal and local laws. Why are they not subject to arrest by local law enforcement? It is the job of local law enforcement to protect their community isn't it?
The reason this keeps happening is because the system is built to let it happen. ICE does not answer to local departments. They do not follow the standards your city police follow. They operate under federal authority, which means they can move through a community in masks, refuse identification, and put people in unmarked vehicles while everyone else stands there trying to figure out if they are watching an arrest or a kidnapping.
Local police cannot arrest a federal agent who claims to be acting under federal authority. Even when the behavior looks like assault. Even when it looks like kidnapping. The courts have made it clear that federal officers have immunity from state-level interference while performing their “duties.” That immunity is vague and wide enough to hide all kinds of abuse, and local departments know it.
If a local officer tried to intervene, they would be accused of obstructing a federal operation. Their department could lose federal funding. The city could be sued. The officer could face charges. Everyone in the chain knows this. ICE knows it most of all.
So the agents act with complete confidence. They cover their faces. They refuse to identify themselves. They take people without explaining anything to the community watching. And there is no mechanism inside local law enforcement that can stop them in that moment.
If any regular person grabbed someone off the street and shoved them into an unmarked vehicle, they would be arrested immediately. The only difference here is the badge and the federal claim of authority. That is the whole story. The badge changes the rules. The federal claim shields whatever comes next.
This is why communities build their own protection networks. This is why people record. Why they document. Why they create rapid-response systems. Because local police cannot protect people from federal agencies, and the federal agencies have no interest in protecting the people they target.
The accountability we imagine should exist does not exist. The only accountability that appears at all is the one communities build for themselves.
No, it’s not unless you’re dressed as a frog or a raccoon