In light of recent immigration policies made by the Trump administration such as their “zero-tolerance” policy, the hashtag #AbolishICE has become popular among certain social media spheres. However, abolishing ICE will not provide a solution for the travesties that have been forced upon undocumented immigrants, and instead, a focus should be placed upon abolishing the racist and violent policies of the Trump administration which have caused this outrage.
The Trump administration has made their stance on immigration very clear, but no policy has been more horrible than their “zero-tolerance” policy, which calls for the prosecution of all illegal entry referrals. Under this policy, all children who are traveling with adults who are referred for prosecution are turned over to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, which places them into shelters or foster care as the child’s immigration case is ongoing.
Several accounts from immigrant families, however, state that their children are being put up for adoption against their wishes. These claims are supported by several factors. According to E. Kay Trimberger, Ph.D., a professor of women’s and gender studies at Sonoma State University, parents and children, upon being separated, were given different identification numbers with no record kept of their relationship. Additionally, no plans have been developed as to how to reunite separated families.
Richard Hudson, an official with U.S. customs and Border Protection, states that 658 children were separated from their parents under the jurisdiction of the “zero-tolerance” policy from May 6 to May 19 alone.
This policy was ended as of a June 20 executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump, who promised to keep families together while still finding a way to detain adult undocumented immigrants. However, even though this policy was ended, the damage that was done to these families is devastating. As parents weave through mounds of bureaucratic red tape to attempt to get their children back, their own fate looms, uncertain, above their heads.
“The administration has repeatedly said people shouldn’t be crossing illegally, they should be going to the port,” said Joanna Williams, who works for a Catholic cross-border non-profit group called the Kino Border Initiative, and other local aid groups, “But the reality is that people are standing at the port and they’re being made to wait there.”
Many of the families who have been detained are fleeing gang violence and poverty in Central America, seeking asylum in the U.S.. Jennifer Podkul, director of policy for Kids in Need of Defense, said that a United Nations Convention “specifically states asylum seekers should not be criminally prosecuted for entering without documentation because those fleeing persecution often do not have time/ability to get proper authorization before they are forced to flee.”
All of this begs the question: what can we do about this? Backlash and outrage at these policies and the agencies that enforce them have produced a wave of protests sprouting a new slogan: #AbolishICE. This slogan, while well-intended, misses one crucial fact: ICE was not the agency separating children from their parents at the border; that was U.S. Border Control officers.
ICE does, however, conduct workplace raids and deport undocumented immigrants. ICE also is responsible for stopping human traffickers, child pronographers and violent gang members. Under the Obama administration, ICE agents primarily targeted undocumented immigrants who committed crimes, not asylum seekers in search of a better life for themselves and their families.
For a long time, the relationship between ICE and law-abiding, taxpaying undocumented immigrants was a peaceful one. One such case is the story of Marta Rodriguez, a mother of six who fled Honduras to escape a violent relationship. She requested political asylum, settled in New Carrollton, Md., and had a legal work life since 2009. She checked in with the local ICE office as they requested, maintaining a peaceful relationship for almost a decade. Under Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, however, she was arrested during her ICE check-in, detained, and deported.
So why has ICE changed? The answer is simple: since Trump became president, ICE has increased the number and frequency of raids. They have been ordered to enact racist and violent policies under the Trump administration.
The solution to this problem, therefore, is not to abolish ICE, but to abolish the racist policies that have been enacted by President Trump and his administration. To abolish the agency would only cause a new beast to grow back in its place, possibly more ugly and more hated than before.
Therefore, there is only one solution to this problem: do not get rid of the agency, but instead remove the president whose policies fuel racism, hatred, and violence and expel the lawmakers who support him.
