From the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia (http://sanctuaryphiladelphia.org/):
Beginning on Sunday, we received a spike in calls from people all over the city who had family members arrested by ICE. In NorthEast, North, and South Philly, people scrambled to find their loved ones – feeling terrorized from ICE’s increased enforcement. In the majority of cases ICE did not knock on their door, but waited outside their home to snatch them. Yesterday, we learned this was ICE’s “Operation Safe City”, rounding up 498 immigrants across the country, 107 (21.5%) of them in Philadelphia alone. The operation specifically targeted Sanctuary Cities, a cruel retaliation against laws that have reduced deportations, kept families together, make all of us safer and build our city for all people – immigrants and native born alike.
Let’s be clear. ICE has no interest in ‘safety’. Their only goal is to deport as many people as possible, to reduce immigrants of color, and maintain white supremacy. There are 400 cities and counties across the country that have some restriction on police collaboration with ICE, and this has reduced deportations. ‘Operation Safe City’ is about retaliation. This began under Obama, but we see an escalation of tactics, and an unashamed brutality under the Trump Administration.
ICE is trying to demoralize our communities and to normalize terror as the state of our lives. ICE is trying to get immigrants to self-divide into the “good” and the “bad,” and pit us against each other, because we are easier to break when we are not united. ICE is trying to keep us from ever feeling safe. ICE is attacking these policies that were won by immigrants of color.
The Prophets teach us to see the world through the eyes of God. Rabbi Abraham Heschel explains that the Prophets show us that what to us may be a small injustice, to God is an abomination. In this prophetic rage, we embrace our stress, trauma, and anger. We embrace them as fully as we embrace the love, joy, faith, and wonder in our lives. We are going to use EVERY SINGLE PART OF BEING HUMAN in this fight.
And we remember our resilience and our history. “The Indonesian people created a language to unite 300+ tribes in the struggle against centuries of colonization. We rebuilt a genuine, if imperfect, democracy from the ashes of decades of a military dictatorship. My people survived riots. Mass killings. Displacements. Disappearances. My people know how to survive. My people know how to win.” -Cynthia Oka, NSM Community Organizer.
Let us come together to act: This operation highlights the urgency to push our local officials to do more to block ICE’s access to our city. The city needs to end ICE’s access to PARS, end any communication between ICE and Probation, the DA or courts. And the city needs to stop discriminatory towing. We will keep you posted on updates with each of these issues.
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