Before you oppose ICE you need to ask yourself, what do undocumented immigrants want: On why centering undocumented immigrants is essential in the abolish ICE movement

The ICE shooting of a white woman in Minneapolis last week was a clear reminder that state repression has always been a reality in this country whenever there is public opposition to government policies.

This reality of state repression might be foreign to those of us who carry a great deal more privilege, especially for white people. However, for BIPOC communities, queer and trans communities, dissidents and undocumented immigrant communities state violence and state repression have always been front and center.

ICE was created in 2003 and was the outgrowth of the US War on Terror after 9/11. Every US administration since ICE was created has been committed to funding ICE and allowing ICE to terrorize undocumented immigrants, by arresting them, detaining them and deporting them. The current administration has escalated the ICE terrorism on undocumented immigrants because they have $150 billion more in funding and because their base completely supports an anti-immigrant America First platform.

The ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning has forced the public to come to terms with ICE and state terrorism. However, a great deal of the responses to the ICE killing have in many ways hurt the movement to abolish ICE. I say this because many of the responses in the last few days have not centered undocumented immigrants. In fact, many of recent responses have centered whiteness, white anger and white privilege.

The national group 50501 (which I have critique previously) has now created a ICE Out for Good campaign that is happening now, January 10 and 11. You can see if the graphic here that “ICE is a danger to every American,” which takes the attention away from the fact that undocumented immigrants are the primary targets of ICE violence. Claiming that ICE is a danger to every American minimizes brutal history of ICE and how millions of immigrants have been arrested, detained, deported and brutalized by ICE since 2003.

The 50501 group even created a toolkit for this 2-day campaign, which you can find here. This toolkit does not center undocumented immigrants. This toolkit gives ideas for US citizens on what they can do, but it primarily excludes the most important part of this decades-long movement, which is based on the lived experiences of undocumented immigrants. How this toolkit is being used has already impacted Grand Rapids.

On Friday, I saw on the Individual Great Grand Rapids Facebook page some commentary about connecting with faith communities to urge them to push the ICE out for Good message that the 50501 group is pushing. I responded by saying this:

Cosecha GR has a Sanctuary team, so it would be great if you coordinated with them, as we have been talking to faith communities for years about offering sanctuary and taking a public stand against ICE. It is my contention that any group that wants to abolish ICE or at least oppose ICE is that they need to first go to Cosecha GR since they have been doing this work the longest in West MI and because they are the very people who are impacted by ICE terrorism in this community. Please talk with them before you doing anything. This is what immigrant solidarity looks like and white people acting like they know what they are doing is just another form of white supremacy.

I have yet to receive a response from the IGGR group from that post.

Later on Friday, I saw that someone else had live posted about 10 white people standing in front of the 517 Ottawa ICE office holding signs in protest of ICE. I wrote the following comment on that post:

Immigrants often have appointments at the 517 ICE office. GR Rapid Response to ICE will accompany them if requested, but immigrants will generally not feel comfortable with protests happening outside while the enter for their appointments. In fact, ICE will question immigrants coming to their appointments about the protest, which puts immigrants at greater risk of being detained. Please consider not protesting at the ICE office during business hours or joining GR Rapid Response work to monitor ICE activity from that office. This is what the immigrant community wants from us.

With this post I got a response which was something to the effect that if they stood across the street or just around the corner, would that be ok? I responded by saying that if immigrants can see you, which they would be able to because of where the ICE office is located, then it would still put immigrants in danger. This same person responded by saying that the ICE website says that immigrant appointments are only Tuesday – Thursday. I responded by saying that GR Rapid Response to ICE has done accompaniment for immigrants at this office every weekday. I also asked the question, Why would you trust anything that ICE says?

What was so frustrating about this interaction was that those holding signs in front of the ICE office wanted so bad to do this protest that they kept looking for any justification to allow them to still do it, even if it put immigrant lives at risk. The other aspect about those holding signs outside of the ICE office was that it was clear that it was all about making them feel better, but not about abolishing ICE. ICE doesn’t give a shit if you stand outside their office holding signs or chanting. They have the federal government, $150 billion in new funding and half the voting population behind them. On top of that ICE does not feel threatened by these kinds of protests.

So what does ICE feel threatened by? ICE is threatened when there are organized efforts in communities to resist ICE. Notice I did not say protest ICE, I said resist ICE. What Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE does is to resist ICE in the following ways after you go through a training:

• Responding to calls from immigrants when they see ICE.
• Provide accompaniment for immigrants to their appointments and court dates.
• Patrol multiple neighborhoods throughout the city to monitor ICE activity and mobilize people who have been trained to respond.
• Provide legal support for people who have been detained.
• Offer transportation, material support, financial support and other forms of Mutual Aid to immigrant families who have already been impacted by ICE violence.
• Offering Sanctuary for individuals and immigrant families that no longer feel safe where they live.
• Working on the sanctuary policy campaigns that Cosecha has been pushing for the past 12 months to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt.

This is what resistance to ICE looks like, where we are putting our bodies between ICE and those they are targeting and directly supporting immigrant families who have had someone arrested, detained or deported.

There are lots of groups who are protesting ICE now because of the ICE killing last Wednesday, which I totally get. However, the problem is that they are ignoring the work that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been doing since 2017. When groups ignore this work and this history they are disrespecting the work that has been done, along with the people who have invested a great deal and made sacrifices in support of affected communities, mostly because it has been about building relationships and developing trust with undocumented immigrants.

What is worse is when groups who want to center themselves while opposing ICE speak up. I they are not centering affected people AND not reaching out to them before they plan anything to ask – What can we do to support? – they are perpetuating white supremacy. This is happening in Grand Rapids right now and it needs to stop!

If you want to be in solidarity with the very people who are being terrorized by ICE – undocumented immigrants – then you should be following the lead of Movimiento Cosecha in the greater Grand Rapids area. If you are not an undocumented immigrant then you should join the work of GR Rapid Response to ICE, since they do exactly what Movimiento Cosecha asks them to do.

If you are working for immigrant justice in other communities, then you need to reach out to and build relationships with affected communities to find out what they want you to do. Stop practicing White Saviorism and center the lived experiences and voices of affected communities. This is what practicing solidarity looks like and this is how we build a movement to abolish ICE! Chinga La Migra!!!!