ICE should be crushed; ideals frozen in the past

Greg Leonov.

Greg Leonov.

Imagine waking up one morning to an obnoxious knocking at your door. As you open it to see what the hell is going on, you get handcuffed, then whisked away to an unfamiliar location for some sort of processing. Your only crime: not having a stamp of approval by authorities allowing you to live in the place you call home.

Imagine having some complications to your health, and getting taken into custody for the same fake crimes by a forceful group of militant law enforcement individuals tasked with restricting the movement of those not stamped with permission to travel across an arbitrary line on the ground. Now, picture these power-hungry federal agents denying you your medication and mobility devices.

These situations just happened to two community members in Portland, Oregon – itself a sanctuary state prohibiting state law enforcement from exerting any sort of energy to capture those who have not been able to jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to gain “citizenship” or documentation “allowing” individuals to work where they live.

Actions carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are counter to Oregon’s laws and the values that members of our community hold. The oppressive Trump regime may be a crew of dysfunctional cronies, but I ask that they contain that dysfunction to the White House, and fuck off when it comes to people living their lives and working day-to-day to provide a decent life for their families.

ICE actions should be condemned by the state of Oregon and all activity and presence of members of this organization should be banned from within state lines as long as they are working in capacity as ICE agents, because it must take a special type of person to pursue employment that requires one to tear apart families and terrorize minority groups simply because their papers aren’t in order. “Undocumented” immigrants, especially DACA recipients, work legitimate jobs, and pay taxes. They contribute their share of work just like any citizen, and just want to live their lives.

Ideas like “citizenship” and “national identity” are constructed fictions designed to separate people. This often makes one group think it is better than the other, and that group decides to demonstrate its superiority, sometimes in violent ways, like the rise of “alt-right” groups that would more accurately be described as Nazi radicals leading a sort of insurgency that is penetrating the halls of power at a federal level. The best example is Stephen Bannon, former editor-in-chief of a fake news website, who was recently booted from the National Security Council.

Bannon is an individual obsessed with war, and a serious hatred of Islam. He is motivated by a crusading mentality to confirm the idea that U.S. culture is rooted in Christian values. In truth, the U.S. is not rooted in any religious movement. Bannon and many conservatives I encounter seem to be forgetting that the U.S. is rooted on the idea of separation of church and state.

When a regime that empowers racists and violent nationalist comes to power, it is time for the people to seriously assess their values and lifestyles, because in a democratic state like the U.S., the left is just as responsible as the “alt-right” for bringing Trump to power.

The media gave him a platform and more free attention than he could have ever asked for. By giving him and his message so much coverage, they legitimized him and basically handed him the election.

His disconnect and disassociation to the daily struggles of “the common man” is best illustrated by the way he has “drained the swamp.” He named Mike Flynn, a man on the payroll of the Turkish and Russian governments, both oppressive nations, as his presidential national security adviser; we all remember what happened to him. Trump picked Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General. Sessions has a history of pursuing civil rights workers and basically trying to suppress African Americans from voting.

Trump handed control of the EPA to someone who denies the dangers of global warming. He gave control of the education department to AMWAY billionaire Betsy DeVos, who is obsessed with intertwining Christianity and education.

The list of methods Trump’s administration is using to undermine the needs of the people on this land can go on and on, but when it comes to protecting ourselves and members of the community, the people of this state should take a stand and vocalize our values and mobilize to bury and choke the modern-day fascist movement(s) and not allow people pushing these ideologies to have a platform to preach hate and oppression of those culturally different than them.

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