As I observed these groups of masked folks wearing gear, in some cases declaring them as police, I wondered why they were hiding. Could it be they know there is no defense for their dastardly behavior toward thousands of law-abiding immigrants whose only crime is that they want to live in peace with freedom from political oppression, poverty and violence?
In every law enforcement jurisdiction in America, those who are responsible for policing wear badges with identifying information and we can see their faces. We know what they look like. We can tell who they are.
Catherine Meeks
Why are we, the American public, tolerating these masked bullies who are wearing sunglasses, and anything else that can help disguise them, and who refuse to identify themselves when grabbing people off the streets and hauling them away to unspecified locations.
Locations that are reported to have very bad conditions and that duly qualified elected officials have been prohibited from entering when they request to do so. Why are they hiding? When you’re doing what is right and not breaking laws of decency, there is no need to hide. Thus, it causes me to wonder what is being done to the folks being held in these facilities as well as what are the conditions of those facilities that make it necessary to be so secretive.
“When you’re doing what is right and not breaking laws of decency, there is no need to hide.”
Of course, I suppose there is a slight possibility they have nothing to hide but have been given a mandate by Stephen Miller and the anti-immigrant crew to terrorize us. If that is the case, they are doing a very good job. They have terrorized our immigrant communities, causing them to refuse to report to work, school and their other normal activities. While it would be frightening enough to have ICE show up dressed as normal law enforcement employees and identifying themselves and properly presenting paperwork or whatever is required of folks who are to be deported, but showing up as they do is far worse. They are showing up like vigilante squads who refuse to identify themselves and dressed like folks planning to do harm.
In light of the fact that a few days ago, someone showed up at the doors of two Minnesota legislators’ homes dressed like a police officer and driving a police car, with the intention of killing them, we should be concerned. He managed to kill Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and to seriously wound Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. As we navigate our daily paths while holding this tragedy in our head and hearts with the realization there is really little defense against such attacks, we do not need masked terrorizers running around behaving as ICE is presently doing.
Why are we tolerating this behavior? I realize we are protesting all across the land, and while I am grateful for the massive peaceful protests, we have to explore how we put a stop to these masked lawless enforcers grabbing people simply because their skin is brown and they look like “an undocumented person.”
“We cannot have an immigration policy that assumes anyone with brown skin is undocumented.”
This practice is grounded in systemic racism, and we cannot allow it to continue, and we certainly cannot afford to be too quiet about it. We cannot have an immigration policy that assumes anyone with brown skin is undocumented and therefore a candidate for deportation.
I am deeply disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court for its support of this racist practice as they have given this administration permission to begin deporting 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court should be ashamed of itself. This is the time to assert strong support for the rule of the law instead of encouraging deeper expressions of lawlessness.
We need to put an end to masked ICE agents and other immigration enforcers. Also, we need to work on having a sane and humane way to manage the massive number of immigrants who are in this country, and we need to work with the countries from which others continue to flee to figure out how to make their homelands more livable. Of course that will be challenging, but it is also humane and while the United States does not have the best track record in terms of being humane toward those who are designated as other, it is important to redeem ourselves by acting better than we have in the past.
While we have to continue to protest and to resist every one of the lawless and inhumane acts this administration imagines and implements, we have to stand against Project 2025 and we certainly have to stand against the dehumanizing ideology of Stephen Miller and his anti-immigration cohorts. Amid that, we have to take care of ourselves and one another and find a way for ICE to live by the same rules as other law-abiding enforcers of the laws. If they cannot do that, they need to be shut down and we need to find another way to manage deportation.
Terror is not a strategy. Terrorizing is not acceptable.
Catherine Meeks was given the President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement and Service Award in August 2022; was listed by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the 500 women to watch in Georgia in 2022; retired as the Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies at Mercer University; is a community and wellness activist and midwife to the soul; and the author of The Night Is Long, But Light Comes In The Morning, Meditations on Racial Healing, She previously served as founding executive director of Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing and currently serves as founder and executive director of the Turquoise and Lavender Institute for Transformation and Healing. She lives in Atlanta.
Related articles:
It’s time to name and prosecute Trump’s minions | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
What’s in a mask? | Opinion by Ginny Brown Daniel