As you’re painfully aware, Trump’s ICE is rapidly morphing into a national police-state — targeting legal immigrants as well as the undocumented, some of them awaiting their asylum hearings, others working with approved green cards. Many have been hardworking members of their communities for decades.
Soon, 10,000 more ICE agents will join the ranks of this federal police force — covering their faces with masks, wearing no identification badges, and driving unmarked cars — taking people from their homes and jobs and sending them to crowded and unsanitary prison camps like Florida’s new “Alligator Alcatraz” or to prisons in other countries.
How can we fight this? The Trump regime is threatening sanctuary cities and towns with loss of federal revenue. Some states, such as New Hampshire, have passed laws making it illegal for cities and towns to provide sanctuary for immigrants and others.
But the Trump regime cannot prevent us from joining together with other citizens to become a Sanctuary Community — providing assistance to families whose lives and well-being are threatened by Trump’s federal police.
Sanctuary Communities — which are being organized around the country — simply announce themselves publicly and take steps such as:
- monitoring and documenting ICE raids,
- establishing an early-warning system to announce where ICE is making arrests,
- witnessing and videotaping arrests and disappearances,
- providing information to national and state media,
- meeting with state and town officials to oppose local law enforcement collusion with ICE,
- speaking with community groups, houses of worship, libraries, hospitals and clinics, veterans groups, schools, and colleges about ICE mistreatment of citizens and immigrants,
- raising funds for emergency assistance, and
- joining other Sanctuary Communities across the nation to stand against the proliferation of police-state tactics that do not represent our shared values as Americans.
Taking a stand against Trump’s emerging police state is not just about immigration and community. It’s a stand against fascism.
The courts alone cannot thwart fascist rule. The media alone cannot do it. But large numbers of American citizens rising up to oppose this police state can. Sanctuary Communities provide a means of protecting the rule of law and salvaging our democracy.
It’s not complicated to organize a Sanctuary Community. As I said, they’re being organized all over America. They don’t require national coordination or national leadership.
You can start one by reaching out to friends and neighbors. Together, you announce you have formed such a community and will take necessary steps to resist the demise of human rights and democratic principles.
Doing this is not without risk. The Trump regime has been willing to trample on civil rights and civil liberties in pursuit of its goals. Some Americans who have sought to protect vulnerable people have been arrested.
But if there was ever a time for citizen action, it is now.