{"id":8983,"date":"2018-06-27T10:54:18","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T17:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=8983"},"modified":"2018-06-27T10:54:18","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T17:54:18","slug":"from-occupyice-encampments-to-the-campaign-trail-call-grows-to-abolish-unaccountable-and-inhumane-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/06\/27\/from-occupyice-encampments-to-the-campaign-trail-call-grows-to-abolish-unaccountable-and-inhumane-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"From #OccupyICE Encampments to the Campaign Trail, Call Grows to Abolish &#8216;Unaccountable and Inhumane&#8217; Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"field-wrapper-attribution\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-article-date field--type-datestamp field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\"><span class=\"pb-timestamp\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">June 26, 2018\u00a0<\/span><\/span>by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Common Dreams<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-subtitle field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div>\n<h4>&#8220;It is not an accident that Donald Trump can use ICE and CBP as tools of unconstitutional illegal behavior: it is part of the structural flaw of the agencies themselves.&#8221;<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"field-wrapper-authors\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"grouping-prefix\">by\u00a0<span class=\"pb-byline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/julia-conley-staff-writer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Julia Conley, staff writer<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"shr_canvas2\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app-id=\"6840204\" data-app-id-name=\"headline_above_content\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"From #OccupyICE Encampments to the Campaign Trail, Call Grows to Abolish 'Unaccountable and Inhumane' Agency\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2018\/06\/26\/occupyice-encampments-campaign-trail-call-grows-abolish-unaccountable-and-inhumane\" data-summary=\"\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope shareaholic-share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui shr-no-print shareaholic-flat shareaholic- shareaholic-block shareaholic-horizontal  shareaholic-mini\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-animation-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading shareaholic-custom\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"ng-binding ng-scope\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-button-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"image-caption-container image-caption-container-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"caption-processed\" title=\"Immigrant rights advocates and others participate in a demonstration against the Trump administration's family separation policy on June 1, 2018 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/sites\/default\/files\/users\/user20550\/gettyimages-96606318211.jpg\" alt=\"Immigrant rights advocates and others participate in a demonstration against the Trump administration's family separation policy on June 1, 2018 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)\" width=\"955\" height=\"500\" \/><em><span class=\"image-caption\">Immigrant rights advocates and others participate in a demonstration against the Trump administration&#8217;s family separation policy on June 1, 2018 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As calls to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached the halls of Congress this week, with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) calling to abolish the agency that&#8217;s enforced the Trump administration&#8217;s family separation policy, direct actions aimed at shutting down ICE&#8217;s facilities are spreading across the country.<\/p>\n<p>With outrage growing this month over the Trump administration&#8217;s &#8220;zero tolerance&#8221; immigration policy, demonstrators in Portland, Oregon\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OccupyICEPDX\">congregated\u00a0<\/a>outside ICE&#8217;s facility in their city on June 17 to hold a candlelight vigil. Many protesters have remained outside the building ever since, blocking the entrance in an effort to keep deportation trials from proceeding.<\/p>\n<p>In the weeks that have followed, similar actions have cropped up at ICE&#8217;s offices in several other cities across the country.<\/p>\n<p>More than 30 protesters temporarily\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wxyz.com\/news\/protesters-temporarily-shut-down-ice-office\">shut dow<\/a>n ICE&#8217;s operations in Detroit on Monday, with plans to stay at the agency&#8217;s field office until June 30.<\/p>\n<p>Over the weekend, the #OccupyICE movement came to Los Angeles, with demonstrators blocking the agency&#8217;s vans from leaving its driveway.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters in New York began their #OccupyICE demonstration last week, forcing all of Monday&#8217;s planned immigration hearings to be postponed.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8220;Make no mistake, ICE is a white supremacist organization following the orders of a white supremacist administration, and the intent of these policies is to discourage all nonwhite immigration&#8230;and to preserve the power of the rapidly shrinking white majority,&#8221; said Occupy ICE PDX in a statement to other activists last week. &#8220;It is not only possible to imagine a world without ICE, an organization which has only existed for the last 15 years, but necessary and our duty to make it a reality.&#8221;<\/div>\n<p>As<em>\u00a0Common Dreams<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2018\/06\/25\/heeding-immigrant-rights-activists-demands-democratic-lawmaker-joins-growing-call\">reported<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, Pocan introduced legislation to abolish ICE, accusing the agency of &#8220;tearing apart families and ripping at the moral fabric of our nation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The proposal was another sign that more Americans are refusing to tolerate the separation of families,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2018\/05\/10\/you-watch-too-much-movies-watch-ice-refuse-produce-warrant-then-barge-home-guns%20\">raids<\/a>\u00a0by ICE agents that leave families and communities reeling, and the agency&#8217;s targeting of immigrants with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2018\/06\/26\/%20https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2017\/02\/15\/freedaniel-community-united-outrage-after-ice-detains-dreamer-no-criminal-record\">no criminal records<\/a>\u00a0and people whose\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2018\/06\/06\/terrorizing-immigrant-community-continues-ice-arrest-pizza-delivery-man-sends-shock\">green card applications<\/a>\u00a0are underway.<\/p>\n<p>ICE was<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/history\">\u00a0formed<\/a>\u00a0in 2003, ostensibly to &#8220;protect national security and strengthen public safety.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As Cynthia Nixon, who is running in New York&#8217;s Democratic primary for governor, told &#8220;The View&#8221; last week, ICE is far from fulfilling its claimed mission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we need to abolish ICE; that seems really clear. ICE is relatively new, it came in after September 11,&#8221; Nixon told Joy Behar. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been handling immigration and customs for a long time here. We don&#8217;t need ICE, and they have strayed so far from the interests of the American people and the interests of humanity. We need to abolish it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At least 19 Democratic challengers have also called for ICE to be abolished,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/daily\/intelligencer\/2018\/06\/abolish-ice-the-roots-of-the-lefts-new-immigration-call.html\">according to<\/a>\u00a0<em>New York<\/em>\u00a0magazine, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez making the proposal a signature issue of her campaign in the Democratic primary in New York&#8217;s 14th Congressional district.<\/p>\n<p>In his campaign for Florida&#8217;s 27th district, progressive Democrat Matt Haggman made the issue the focus of a campaign ad.<\/p>\n<p>Zephyr Teachout, Democratic candidate for Attorney General in New York, wrote about ICE&#8217;s &#8220;lawlessness&#8221; in an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2018\/jun\/25\/ice-tool-illegality-abolish-zephyr-teachout\">editorial<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<em>The Guardian.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is not an accident that Donald Trump can use ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as tools of unconstitutional illegal behavior: it is part of the structural flaw of the agencies themselves,&#8221; wrote Teachout. &#8220;ICE undermines what we aspire to be as Americans, and is an unaccountable and inhumane political tool, treating all immigrants as national security threats&#8230;ICE and CBP are so politicized that they are not credible as law enforcement agencies, and so deeply connected with illegal behavior that they are no longer credible as self-governing agencies. Instead, they have become tools of arbitrary power and cruelty; the opposite of law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"field-wrapper-copyright-cond\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-copyright field--type-text field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\"><em>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 26, 2018\u00a0by Common Dreams &#8220;It is not an accident that Donald Trump can use ICE and CBP as tools of unconstitutional illegal behavior: it is part of the structural flaw of the agencies themselves.&#8221; by\u00a0Julia Conley, staff writer Immigrant rights advocates and others participate in a demonstration against the&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/06\/27\/from-occupyice-encampments-to-the-campaign-trail-call-grows-to-abolish-unaccountable-and-inhumane-agency\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8983"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8984,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8983\/revisions\/8984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}