.@waltshaub has been great on Twitter but he couldn’t be more wrong in mistaking a hashtag from a substantive argument. #AbolishICE is a clear and necessary phrase for an agency that has gone largely rogue.
As a community organizer and now as a City Councilmember, many of us called for #AbolishICE in mid-2000s when we dealt with T. Don Hutto and the abusive deportation of a pregnant Philly Chinese businesswoman who miscarried twin fetuses after a violent deportation attempt.
ICE was awful under Obama too and DHS Head Jeh Johnson was unforgiving when we met with him to state that we would not back away from our Sanctuary City status.
As Straub notes, INS’s split (post 9/11) irresponsibly put a key function of immigration under DHS. It doesn’t belong there, and it needs to be totally overhauled as an agency. Hence #AbolishICE
I fully support a fedl agency that would defend people from human trafficking, snakeheads and extortionists, and modern slavery. That’s not ICE’s primary mission. So #AbolishICE and recreate that agency. Put deportations within context of due process with USCIS.
While it’s great that national level figures are finally waking up, this fight around immigration is going local. Cities like Philly are proud #SanctuaryCities and firmly asserting our municipal jurisdiction amidst these human rights abuses.
So stop with the behavior policing around #AbolishICE and let’s get a goddamn backbone about morality, justice and human rights.
