“CPS will continue to protect our students and their families in alignment with the Illinois TRUST Act and Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance,” one school official said.
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates called the situation “unprecedented” at a news conference Friday afternoon.
Who the fuck works at ICE and thinks the new policies are ok?
That’s overly reductive. There are people working at ICE because they see how racist and authoritarian it is and they want to be part of changing that system.
I’ll happily admit that ICE is pretty fucking attractive to racist authoritatians but leaning too far into generalizations will give you a very black and white view of the world that doesn’t reflect reality.
I’m married to someone who was on a green card for a long time. Believe me when I say that in over 90% of our encounters with ICE, we were treated with arrogance and hostility. And she’s a hardworking professional who toes the line and complies with every rule, and her case couldn’t have been simple: spouse of a native-born American. It didn’t matter to those swine. They were there because they know they could bully people who couldn’t answer back.
There are also people that work for the police because they want to positively change their community. There’s a reason that ACAB is still true, despite that fact.
Nope. ICE it’s a byproduct of 9/11, and is racism and xenophobia wrapped in a burning flag of patriotism.
F U C K
ICE
Probably a decent chunk… but the more dangerous portion is those who legitimately believe in the system. Under a normal administration we’d rightfully object to a public servant that refused to carry out their duties.
If a Dem had just won and said “We’re going to make sure asylum seekers are all given temporary accommodations in motels until we can process them” and some conservation asshat said “Yer nuh muh presuden” and simply refused to carry out the order we’d rightfully be pissed off that some individual administrator was trying to singlehandedly undermine the electoral will.
This is a fucking complex situation because most people working in government have an understanding of this (which is normally good) and just want to make the implementation of policies that they may not fully agree with as efficient and kind as possible.
Much like MLK’s sentiment, the majority of atrocities carried out under the Trump admin will be done by relatively unobjectionable people who are just trying to locally minimize harm. Someone liberal might stay in ICE and comply with these orders because they believe they can take small actions to make the implementation of school raids less cruel and, genuinely, they’re probably right.
We’re in a weird fucking situation and we’re all about to learn how we’d have acted if we lived in 1930s Germany. Will we be the cruel ideologue who actively causes harm? Will we resign in protest and become essentially irrelevant? Will we try to work within the system to prevent small cruelties while supporting large cruelties (i.e. Schindler)? Will we apathetically continue to support the economic system of cruelty? Etc…
This is going to be a cruel four years.
We’re in a weird fucking situation and we’re all about to learn how we’d have acted if we lived in 1930s Germany. Will we be the cruel ideologue who actively causes harm? Will we resign in protest and become essentially irrelevant? Will we try to work within the system to prevent small cruelties while supporting large cruelties (i.e. Schindler)? Will we apathetically continue to support the economic system of cruelty? Etc…
You’re right. The best thing to do, though, is resist. Simple disobedience will slow their plans. There’s so much power in simply not cooperating and being a nuisance. If you haven’t read it already, the OSS (precursor to the CIA) has a great guide in simple sabotage for everyday people (Simple Sabotage Field Manual) that when done can stymie them. This was written back in the '40s during WWII to help occupied countries resist.
And I agree that there are some people in ICE trying to lessen harm. To that, I say that we should find them and support them and give them whatever aid. That goes for anyone who works in the federal government. A low level person at State can “accidentally” approve changes to trans people’s documents. An office worker at DoE can ask annoying questions and derail meetings. It’s little acts of sabotage that when added up can bring this to a screeching halt.
