THREAD: Federal immigration authorities have been undermining social movements in violation of the #FirstAmendment for a long time, and it's gotten worse under this administration. What's happening with the #PortlandProtests is just the latest example.
The first targeted under this administration? Immigrant rights leaders. ICE began openly picking off activists for deportation within the first year of the Trump Administration. npr.org/2018/03/16/591…
Importantly, ICE wasn't just targeting individual activists-it was targeting the movements they represent. Consider ICE's operation against Ravi Ragbir & Jean Montrevil, leaders of @NewSanctuaryNYC, organizing faith communities to advance immigrant rights. theintercept.com/2018/01/19/ice…
Then there's the multi-year operation in which ICE and CBP targeted members of @MigrantJustice, which organizes for workers' and immigrants' rights in Vermont. Dozens were targeted for surveillance, detention, and deportation: theguardian.com/us-news/2018/n…
And there's the targeting of @ResistenciaNW and its leader Maru Mora Villalpando along with other activists in Seattle seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a…
It was only a matter of time. First they came for immigrants. U.S. citizens who advocated for immigrants were next.
There was the criminal prosecution of volunteers with @NoMoreDeaths for providing humanitarian assistance to people dying in the borderlands-a prosecution that came after @NoMoreDeaths posted videos of CBP agents destroying jugs of water in the desert. washingtonpost.com/news/post-nati…
Lawyers, journalists, organizers, and clergy along the border were targeted as well-dossiers were created, entry privileges were stripped, U.S. citizens were targeted and harassed by CBP, ICE HSI, and others. theintercept.com/2019/02/08/us-…
And now this deportation-fueled infrastructure is being used to disrupt other social movements. It's happened in the past (see @JuliaRoseKraut's new book on the history of immigration law and dissent) and will happen again unless we break the cycle.
We haven't done enough to hold federal immigration agencies accountable when they disappeared our immigrant leaders for speaking out about our inhumane immigration system. Maybe if we had, these agencies wouldn't feel like they had license to disappear protesters in Portland.
It's not too late. We can make sure our response to the latest #FirstAmendment violations by federal immigration agencies at the #PortlandProtests elevates all voices-including immigrants who were the first targeted and remain the most vulnerable for sounding the alarm.
