BREAKING: (THREAD) Today, in a historic lawsuit on behalf of @MigrantJustice and membership, we sued ICE for its continued pattern of targeting immigrant activists. It’s an example of egregious federal law enforcement and if you didn’t believe in ABOLISH ICE before, buckle up /1 
Migrant Justice is a labor rights advocacy org in Vermont. Following the footsteps of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez of the UFW + Chicano movement, along with @ciw, they are the lifeline to the immigrant community + the gold standard for labor organizing in New England /2
Of course the federal government, which famously infiltrated the Chicano movement and UFW, would not let a group of immigrant activists, let alone immigrant *labor* activists, mobilize. Over the course of four years and ongoing, ICE engaged in a brutally destructive campaign /3
ICE specifically targeted MJ leaders and organizers when they arrested over two dozen members, none of whom had serious criminal records or were enforcement priorities. When making arrests they would repeatedly jeer at their membership in, and activism with, MJ /4
ICE got this information from the DMV who forwarded “south of the border names” and were made “honorary ICE officers.” They bragged when they arrested “a famous person,” MJs lead spokesperson, because they had let Migrant Justice know he was “next” /5
To do so, ICE enlisted a confidential informant, WHOM IVE MET. Text messages reveal an ongoing relationship with an ICE agent. The informant made overtures about ICEs targeting, looking for people who were “outspoken,” and referring disparagingly to its leadership /6
Real COINTELPRO Hours, the surveillance goes even further: internal documents reveal that they were monitoring all of the leaderships social media and one leader’s email was hacked hours before her arrest. They were even monitoring their lawyer, the venerable @matt_cam /7
This isn’t legitimate law enforcement, it’s vendetta. Targeted specifically for their First Amendment protected speech and association, they are still being surveilled. It’s particularly pernicious because it’s at the crux of two historic issues: immigration and labor /8
ICE’s larger war against immigrant activists, such as Ravi Ragbir of @NewSanctuaryNYC, Manuel Durán, Daniela Vargas, and others, is drawn into particular focus here when it intersects with historic labor advocacy for migrant workers, whose lives are not unlike feudal serfdom /9
That MJ would have the temerity to organize not only labor, but *migrant* labor, to obtain basic dignities on behalf of the country’s most vulnerable bloc was untenable for federal law enforcement. The parallels to the FBIs infiltration of the UFW/Chicano movement is striking /10
It’s why our lawsuit, with @aclu_vt @NILC_org @NCLEJustice @theCCR is so important. It seeks to vindicate those targeted and condemned for their First Amendment-protected advocacy, enjoin the government from further harm, + protect the voices of immigrants across the country /fin
