I wrote to you several days ago about the lawlessness of ICE and how that lawlessness threatens the confidence that Americans have in law enforcement and justice in out country, an issue that should be of tantamount importance to you as our “lawmakers”.
I’m urging you to vote against any funds to DHS until a number of issues are addressed:
First and foremost, Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller must leave their positions. Both have blatantly lied to the American public and have pushed ICE to adopt violently aggressive, unconstitutional and lawless practices while guaranteeing immunity - which does not exist. They must be called out and removed from office. The notion of quotas and racial/linguistic profiling – even if the Supreme Court balks on ruling it out – is un-American and wrong and I believe you know that. Again, it is up to you to call it out.
Secondly, both the tactics and targets of ICE are immoral and must be constrained. There are hundreds and hundreds of stories and videos out there. You don’t need me to tell you that they are not going after the worst of the worst, though their tactics would suggest that they are pursuing heavily armed, murderous criminals. Mostly, if there is any criminal history, it is the misdemeanor of entering the country without authorization – equivalent in dangerousness to a traffic ticket. A huge percentage have limited status while awaiting asylum judgements or in the limbo of TPS, which the president has tried to remove to make them instant “criminals”.
You know as well as I that many of these folks have been here for years and decades, have been tax-paying, contributing members of society (generally ineligible for any assistance from the system they support by their work and taxes). Many have spouses or children who are citizens and it is just a cruel disregard for human decency that would tear these families asunder.
Third, money must be diverted from “enforcement” to increasing the number of judges who can hear asylum and other immigration cases and those judges must be removed from the political demands of any administration and left to judge the merits of each case according to the law. It seems the administration has been firing judges who give due process to the immigrants before them and instead is pushing summary judgement, detention and deportation.
Fourth, detention facilities are substandard and often cruel and dangerous. Immigration officials seem to be playing a game of moving detainees, arrested without due process – often without the ability to contact family or legal help - from place to place to place with the apparent goal of out-pacing civil rights litigation. Congress must demand and perform oversight of detention and transport methods to insure that immigrants are fairly and humanely treated. No one should be detained who is still in legal process or has status, even if just temporary. If Congress is going to approve funds, it must take responsibility for what they’re used for. If people are detained, there must be transparency of where they are, why there were detained, and access given to family and lawyers.
Finally, the overriding issue at hand is that Congress has repeatedly failed to address immigration reform, of working out a way for people who have come here in good faith and contributed to the society to find a pathway to citizenship. Bipartisan efforts are hard to come by these days but it is absolutely your job as “lawmakers” to figure out how to work together and create a real, just, and moral solution to these issues. That’s what you’re there for. Lock yourselves in a room if you have to until you can come up with something that meets the urgency and demands of the moment, that respects human dignity, and doesn’t “other” the millions of people who, right now, seem to be hanging on by a thread. When the executive branch, the media or your colleagues describe foreign born citizens or immigrants as “trash” or “scum” or paint them all as “rapists and murderers and violent criminals”, you must speak up. That is half the job. Speak up! Do your work and figure out how to make real and just immigration reform!
