I encountered the predatory immigration system in my own backyard when I co-organized a “12 Days of Christmas” fundraiser for people detained in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. With Indivisible Tacoma, we raised $4,000 for commissary accounts, a bail fund, and Christmas presents for the people being held there.
But the battle against racist, militant, corporate power structures can’t be won with charity. Current immigration policies keep brown communities oppressed and migrants in shackles. The current immigration system is a combination of systematic racism, the prison industrial complex, and corporate greed.
I have my eyes set on structural change when I am in Congress, including:
- Abolish ICE, which has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted to act humanely.
- Repeal federal laws prohibiting “unlawful entry” and “unlawful re-entry,” which are the grounds under which children are separated from their parents.
- Repeal Zero Tolerance, the excuse to imprison migrants.
- Repeal 8 U.S.C. § 1325 and 8 U.S.C. § 1326, the laws that criminalize migration and punish immigrant families.
- End Operation Streamline, the litigation system that allows mass hearings of multiple courtrooms of migrants at a time and convicts them all at once.
- Ban contracts between private sector and governmental agencies involved in immigration enforcement.
- Ban the use of the military for immigration control.
- Stop funding and training the Mexican government to arrest, detain, and deport Central American migrants on their way to the U.S. border.
- Prosecute human rights violations committed by ICE and CBP agents.
- Expand refugee programs that would improve housing conditions and mental health services during resettlement.
Thank you to Mijente for providing background for this policy.
