The activists at Families For Freedom sent out
this email on June 22. We’re reposting their important message in full as a
reminder that the immigrant rights movement now has the initiative and we can’t
afford to let it slip away. (You can contribute to FFF here.)—TPOI
editor.
Keep the Heat On
June 22, 2018
In angered response to the images
and recordings of children and babies torn from their parents at the border,
the media and political discourse on immigration has leapt forward in the past
two weeks. We have seen previously marginalized analysis enter the mainstream,
with cable news pundits making connections between family separation,
residential schools and slavery, commentators discussing the inextricable links
between the immigration and criminal punishment systems, and political
candidates running with #AbolishICE in their platforms.
The blinders are lifting but
those who have been on the front lines have seen this coming. However, being
right is only meaningful if it both motivates and directs action. As more
people grow more confident calling for the abolition of ICE, we need to ensure
that our efforts are in alignment and focused about our objectives just as we
have been about ending the separation of families. Our goal is freedom, point
blank and unequivocal. This means ending all forms of detention, including the
electronic shackles.
We are clear about our goals and
actions. Families for Freedom maintains two mottos that inform our strategy:
Name the Oppressor, and Make Them Bleed.
We are laser focused on the two ghouls that have led the Trump
administration’s acceleration of the detention and deportation system: Stephen
Miller and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. They are the ones pushing the buttons
on the present terror. They are organized and they have detailed
plans to carry out their program of ethnic cleansing in pursuit of a
white country. We know what kind of people they are: white supremacists with clear
and unambiguous
histories. Targeting them directly means also targeting the networks that
support them and that have been
critical to their growth, including the fascist anti-immigrant
foundations NumbersUSA, Center for Immigration Studies, and FAIR. These groups
can be fought. Sessions can
be brought down.
There is no question that the
current nightmare predates Trump, that the legal and carceral apparatus
inherited by these goons was built and maintained by Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
But as long as Sessions and Miller are close to power, our most urgent task is
taking them out.
As the folks at Grassroots
Leadership pointed
out yesterday, it is also a matter of stripping them of their tools.The
mechanism Sessions employed to separate children from their families is the
criminalization of immigration—specifically the prosecution of all migrants
arrested crossing the southern border. Almost half of all federal criminal
prosecutions in 2017 were for the crime of crossing the border. This is a piece
of the many ways immigrants end up in the crosshairs of the detention and
deportation system: from the arrests of asylum seekers at the border to the
detention and deportation of long-time residents due to criminal convictions.
If the Democrats in Congress who believe themselves to be allies of immigrants
are serious about ending this violence, they need to bring about the end of the
prosecution of illegal entries. They also need to bring about the removal of
Steven Miller, seeing that “those who are appointed, can be disappointed.”
With the targets and the horizons
defined, the actions we take to make ‘em bleed in the short term have more
clarity. As Bayard Rustin said: “The only weapon we have is our bodies and we
need to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn.” The recent actions in
Portland, D.C., New York, and all the others exemplify this.
Families for Freedom remains
strong in the call to end the criminalization of immigration, to abolish ICE,
and to destroy the detention and deportation machine. To end business as usual
we need to step outside our comfort zones and take action. Below are just a
couple of things that you can do right away and there will be more as things
unfold, so stay vigilant and see you in the streets!
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