Abolishing ICE Is a First Step Toward Abolishing Borders

Welcome to Interviews for Resistance. We’re now more than a year into the Trump administration, and activists have scored some important victories in those months. Yet there is always more to be done, and for many people, the question of where to focus and how to help remains. In this series, we talk with organizers, agitators and educators not only about how to resist but also about how to build a better world. Today’s interview is the 130th in the series. Click here for the most recent interview before this one.

ICE Ignores Immigrants’ Medical Needs In Detention Centers Until They Die

Between 2010 and 2012, eight people died from inadequate medical care while held in detention facilities operated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, according to a scathing report from three immigrant rights organizations.

The report, entitled Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignores Deaths in Detention, examined how ICE failed to comply with the agency’s own medical standards even after routine reviews identified violations of medical standards “as contributing factors in these deaths.” Inspections conducted before and after detainee deaths failed to acknowledge serious flaws. In all but one of the eight cases, facilities received passing ratings even when Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) inspections found they failed to meet proper medical care standards.

Despite Stated Aims, Obama's New ICE Policy Targets Immigrants for Minor Offenses

Four men in unmarked cars showed up at a local trailer park where many Latinos reside in the small Midwestern college town of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. It was 8 am one cool morning in October 2015, and José was getting ready to go to one of his three jobs. He heard a knock at the front door and when he opened it, the men came inside. They never showed him a warrant. They wanted to know his name, and then put him in handcuffs. José noticed the badge on one man's belt and guessed it was immigration enforcement, or "la migra."

How ICE Shields Its Financial Dealings With Private Prison Contractors From Public Scrutiny

The movement to put private prison contractors out of business won some amazing victories in 2015.  In the last two months, responding to organized action by California's Afrikan Black Coalition and campus Black Student Unions, the University of California announced it would be selling its $23 million stake in the private prison industry.  Just six months ago, in response to months of student protest, Columbia University became the first major university whose trustees have voted to divest from private prisons, selling off their shares of Corrections Corporation of America ("CCA").  In November, 2015, the City Council and Mayor of Gary, Indiana, refused to support the construction of a new immigrant detention facility proposed by the GEO Group.  As organized communities use financial tools to fight the private prison industry, Congressional legislators have followed, sponsoring legislation to end contractual incentives to detain immigrants in privately-operated facilities and to end the government's use of private prisons altogether.

Why Is This US-Born Citizen Being Detained by ICE?

Gerardo Gonzalez Jr. was born near Los Angeles and, as such, is a US citizen. The 23-year-old was arrested on a drug charge in December—and his world was turned upside down. Gonzalez is legally eligible for release on bail, but when his girlfriend attempted to post bail in January, they both learned that Gonzalez was placed on an immigration hold. Despite meeting the burden of providing evidence that he was born in the United States and holds citizenship, authorities have unconstitutionally held Gonzalez in jail for six months—only because an officer involved in Gonzalez’s arrest erroneously noted that he was born in Mexico.