Street roots., July 06, 2018, Page 9, Image 9

Street Roots • July 6-12, 2018
News
Page 10
What would it take to
ABOLISH
lllil®
J
A sign
■,/
7 T » '
•
PHO TO BY KA1A SANO
taped to a window o f the U.S. Im m igration a n d Customs Enforcement office in Southwest Portland before the office reopened Tuesday.
— Abolish ICE?
There’s a movement afoot to abolish ICE,
but how do we get there, a n d w hat do we do in the meantime?
BY EM ILY GREEN
S E N IO R STAFF REPO RTER
“ Æ bolish ICE.” It’s the rallying cry and
j > end goal emanating from Occupy ICE
JL ^dem onstrations in Portland, San
Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, San
Diego, Los Angeles and Detroit, as well as
protests and rallies against Trump
administration immigration policies across
the country.
Orégon lawmakers have joined the
burgeoning movement, also calling for an
end to U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
On its surface, the demand seems futile
under a presidential administration more
interested in ramping ICE up than shutting
ICE down, but U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer
(D-Ore.) explains that’s not the point.
On June 28, Blumenauer announced he
was joining Rep. MarkPocan (D-Wis.) in
introducing legislation that would dismantle
ICE and establish a commission that would
make recommendations on its replacement,
a more “humane and service-oriented
system.”
“I’m not stupid. I understand the
Republicans aren’t going to let it pass, and if
it did, Donald Trump would veto it,” he told
Street Roots.
To actually abolish ICE, he Said, “it’s
going to require a new president and a
better Congress.”
While the country may have to wait for a
new president, the face of Congress may
change in November, and Blumenauer said
that could put lawmakers “in a much better
position to hold ICE accountable.”
But that doesn’t mean his ill-fated bill is
pointless.
“We need to put down a marker,” he said.
“We need to have people think about an
alternative, and we need to have people
think about what’s happened with an agency
that looks like it’s just kind of spun out of
control.”
Blumenauer was visibly shaken during a
press conference following his visit to
Sheridan Federal Correctional Facility on"
Juné 16, where he met with immigrant and
asylum seeking men who are detained
there.
After listening to the detainees’ stories -
one man’s house was set on fire because
he’s Christian, another was shot by the
cartel - Blumenauer said he was convinced
many of the men were fleeing “very
dangerous situations.”
For Oregon Rep. Diego Hernandez
(D-East Portland), Abolish ICE is not about
the “nuts and bolts” of dismantling the
organization.
“As simplistic as Abolish ICE, as a
hashtag, as a movement, can be,” he said,
“as far as the values go, you’re going to find
commonalities in our values, and from there
is where you can start building systems that
have those values and goals as center.”
Hernandez and other state lawmakers,
Sen. Michael Dembrow and Reps. Sheri
Malstrom and Rob Nosse, together called
for an end of ICE on the steps of Portland
City Hall on June 24.
Hernandez said he’s been focused on
issues facing immigrants most his life.
He was a freshman in high school during
the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and
said he experienced the ensuing racism. It
was also the Sept. 11 attacks that paved the
way to ICE’s formation.
ICE was created under the Homeland
Security Act of 2003, which was passed in
responseto the threat of terrorism. The act
completely revamped U.S. immigration
enforcement as part of a federal law
enforcement overhaul. The Department of
Homeland Security absorbed 22 federal
agencies, including ICE’s predecessor,
Immigration and Naturalization Services,
which had been overseen by the
Department of Justice.
Ultimately, a system that lumped
terrorism and immigration into the same
See ICE, page i 1