Basic questions
ICE agents in Detroit are out of control. A few days after the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners passed a resolution expressing disapproval of the tactics of federal agents in our city and demanding that they adhere to basic standards of First Amendment and Due Process protections, chaos broke out as ICE invaded a neighborhood. A massive, militarized presence including Border Patrol, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals was engaged in an effort to apprehend Marcos Fabian Arita Bautista. The danger posed by Mr. Arita justifying all of this firepower appears to have been his plea of guilty in 2022 of driving an unregistered vehicle without proper insurance or title.
Friends, neighbors, and members of groups defending immigrant rights gathered to jeer at police and draw attention to their tactics. In the course of these interactions, Detroit Police arrived and used pepper spray on demonstrators, arresting two people.
This scene is being played out in communities across the country. As friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members are being cruelly snatched from our midst, people are finding ways to respond. From high school walkouts to the towing of federal vehicles illegally parked, people are resisting these uncontrolled assaults. Local police, shocked by behaviors of federal agents, are expressing increasing concern about being pulled into deportation efforts.
With the passage of the Trump Budget, the funding for arrest, detention, and brutalization of people without protections will increase. ICE will become the largest single federal law enforcement unit. Along with $45 billion for the “border wall,” another $45 Billion is set for detention facilities. All of this will greatly increase the capacity of Federal Agents to act without restraint and will require greater resistance on the part of those who respect the dignity of people and the right to live peaceful, productive lives.
Central to the unfolding of the struggles ahead is the decision to establish new concentration camps. There has been some media attention grabbed by Florida with its seizing of land for what Homeland Security is calling “Alligator Alcatraz.” The announcement was surrounded by the crass cruelties of this administration, complete with efforts of the Florida Republic party to sell T-shirts and beer koozies with images of alligators in ICE uniforms.
This decision is part of a long-standing assault on freedom and democracy by Florida Governor DeSantis. The Governor has a record of attacks on local, elected officials who attempt to uphold the Constitution and protect their communities.
While the Florida effort appears to be an especially inhume plan to expose people to dangerous conditions, it will be only one of many as states move to offer up land for development.
Much of this cruelty is designed to create spectacles to fuel the macho fantasies of the authoritarian base in this country. But so is the drive for profits. Currently, nearly 90% of the people in ICE custody are held in for-profit facilities. The largest beneficiaries are Geo Group and CoreCivic. According to a recent NPR report:
The two companies have announced the addition of more than 6,000 beds across the country — in Texas, Ohio, Nevada, Oklahoma, Mississippi, New Jersey and Michigan, among others. That includes reopening old prisons and jails, like the Delaney Hall facility owned by GEO Group in Newark, N.J. CoreCivic has indicated that it is preparing many of its idle facilities to be available quickly, though some communities have strongly opposed those plans.
Organizing our local communities to resist these expansions will be critical. The lessons of Stop Cop City and Stop Grayling National Guard expansion will be especially important in the coming months. The most basic questions of our responsibilities to each other, to the kinds of lives we want to live, and the kind of relationships we cherish are now before us.