I am sharing other people’s words today because I am too angry to be articulate.

The first are from Canadian scholar and author of Border And Rule, Harsha Walia:

“I've been part of movements calling for the abolition of ICE since 2003, so of course its meaningful when a position that was seemingly fringe is gaining traction and more people are organizing against the tragic and horrific violence of ICE unfolding.

And, yet, like most things that gain popular legitimacy, it can mean incomplete or distorted understandings, so three things:

1. ICE is a relatively new enforcement apparatus (2003, post 9/11). It has become the most visible terrorizing arm of immigration enforcement, but the calls to Abolish ICE can't be separated from the calls to end all detentions and all deportations, including at the border where Border Patrol operates. Did you know that over 17,600 (!!!) federal, state & other government agencies in the US can have enforcement jurisdiction against migrants?!? It's not just ICE, it's a whole apparatus to be dismantled.

2. ICE kidnappings draw from centuries of ongoing anti-Black and anti-Indigenous kidnappings as a method of eliminating Indigenous people and controlling Black people. Some of the earliest border militias in the US swelled their ranks from slave patrols. Calling for the abolition of ICE requires a grounding in the Black abolitionist tradition and understanding that it's impossible to think about the politics of migration outside of especially anti-Black racial carceral logics & settler colonial violence.

3. I am forever dying on this hill: technologies of border violence are increasingly externalized and are out of our sight in the so-called imperial core. ICE violence is horrific (as is CBSA etc), and people should mobilize against these ghouls wherever we are are, and also keep in mind that imperial immigration enforcement is actually largely being externalized or outsourced to countries in the periphery. For example, championed through successive US govt agreements especially Obama, Mexico now deports more Central Americans than the US does. Border imperialism and migration agreements are now a cornerstone of all imperial soft power and this is not a solely "domestic immigration" issue.

Which is to say that abolish ICE cannot and must not be separated from abolishing all bordering regimes, abolition of all policing, and ending all imperialism."

The next is from Margaret Killjoy, and her latest newsletter, titled, They’re going to sell you the lie of Provocateurs, which I recommend reading in its entirety:

Social movements are at their strongest when the rowdier elements and the more peaceful elements act in solidarity with one another. When massive crowds march around holding signs, it doesn’t change much. When a few isolated people break windows, it doesn’t change much. But when the massive crowds refuse to let the radical actors be picked off and isolated, suddenly you have a social movement with real power.

I hope more and more people get closer to the realization that abolition is the only way forward. I have seen it happen over the years. I have watched people who once scoffed at abolitionists come to the realization that abolishing prisons, police, and ICE is a non-negotiable liberatory horizon. I have seen the wool fall from people’s eyes as they shed old myths about the police being here to “protect and serve,” or all the myths about prisons keeping us safe. I hope that as the year goes on, more people unlearn the copaganda we’ve been fed a steady diet of. A good place to start is the work of Mariame Kaba, Andrea Ritchie, and Interrupting Criminalization.

ICE kidnapped several people in my neighborhood this week. Rafael is a gardener who was taken from the steps of his own home in Silverlake, seen here in this video. This GoFundMe is for his legal fees.