Congress this past year authorized $23 billion in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), with billions of that dedicated to detaining tens of thousands of immigrants at any given time.
Meanwhile, both of these federal immigration agencies have continued to operate within a culture of secrecy and violence. Just this past weekend, an official Twitter account, which CBP in West Texas operates, retweeted anti-immigrant messages from noted white supremacist Stephen Miller and liked homophobic messages targeting Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The social media account has now been shut down, but it doesn’t address the deep-rooted culture at these agencies, which continue to operate with impunity, knowing their billions never seem to be in question. But this past Monday, advocates rallied in the nation’s capital to say lawmakers must use upcoming budget negotiations to hold agencies accountable.
RELATED STORY: CBP promises probe after Texas account shares Miller tweets, homophobic slur targeting Buttigieg
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“I’m in Washington today to demand that Congress cut funds to ICE and CBP, so they stop dividing and hurting families like mine,” said Maria, a mother and leader with the American Friends Service Committee’s #Not1More Deportation project. “Congress is giving funds to ICE and CBP that negatively impact the lives of thousands of people, causing them great psychological trauma by separating parents, children, and partners. This is the trauma that myself and my children struggle with today.”
“Instead, Congress should use these resources to increase mental health services and combat bullying in schools,” Maria continued. “Thousands of young people die every year from this social phenomenon.”
“For decades, Congress has promised to pass legislation that helps immigrants, but year after year, they have passed budgets that fuel detention and deportation and systematically tear families and communities apart,” the Defund Hate Coalition said in an advisory earlier this week. The coalition said that due to a push from advocates and immigrant communities, Democrats’ budget proposals include a 26% reduction in detention beds. This is hugely significant.
But they say the budgets still increase funds for border militarization, affecting border communities who are already suffering under the thumb of anti-immigrant Republicans like Texas’ Greg Abbott and his racist Operation Lone Star border scheme.
“Congress must redirect billions of taxpayer dollars to support communities through education, housing, healthcare, transportation, reparations, and all areas of life that allow us to live dignified and collective lives,” the Defund Hate Coalition said Monday. “White supremacist violence is at the core of ICE and CBP’s mission and is in direct contradiction to the values thriving communities uphold.”
This was more than clear in the tweets shared by CBP’s west Texas account over the weekend, including one nonsensical lie from Miller that President Biden’s “eradication of our border means we are no longer a Republic—he’s ended nearly 250 years of constitutional government.” Yes, this lie is total dramatics from a hateful ghoul, but he’s a hateful ghoul embraced by federal employees within CBP.
“I am an essential worker; COVID hit me very hard because I saw friends and co-workers get sick and die,” said Make the Road New Jersey member Desiree in a statement received by Daily Kos. “And despite this hard time, news of raids conducted by ICE continued. My community lives in fear of being deported because once they are arrested, they are mistreated, locked up in jails, and separated from their families and friends.”
Desiree is among community members that visited the office of every single member of New Jersey’s congressional delegation to urge lawmakers to defund hate. “We know that Congress is in the process of negotiating and financing the federal budget, and we demand that they take action to defund these agencies of hate against our communities,” Desiree continued.
Lawmakers could also be focused on passing permanent immigration protections with the same urgency they use when giving CBP and ICE their multi-billion dollar checks.
“We have spent 10, 20, 30, or even 50 years contributing to the economy of this country and we are still forgotten,” said Margarita, another Make the Road New Jersey member. “We ask Congress to update the date of the Renewal of the Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929. This will allow a path to regularize their status for immigrants who have lived and contributed to this country for more than seven years. The time is now.”
The call to divest from federal immigration agencies is supported by a wide swath of organizations, including ACLU National, Amnesty International, and Southern Poverty Law Center (see the full list here).
Make the Road New Jersey noted in its statement that “a recent national poll conducted by the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California in San Diego found that a majority of voters do not trust Border Patrol and three-fourths believe agents should be held accountable when they commit civil and constitutional violations.” That poll said more than three-quarters of voters “believe that we need independent prosecutors to review cases involving border agents for possible obstruction of justice.”
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