In the 1939 play The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill, the “iceman” symbolizes a harsh truth that dispels illusions.
In our time, the ICE branch of the federal government, along with the Border Patrol, are hard at work dispelling illusions that we grew up with, such as the United States is a nation that welcomes immigrants, that it operates by the rule of law and that it respects constitutionally protected civil rights.
Instead, ICE and the Border Patrol are regularly, violently and with impunity trampling those expectations, aspirations and rights. This isn’t happening in far-flung places around the country. It’s happening right here in the Central Valley.
You’ve seen the videos and read the news reports. Let’s recount some of them here.
ICE and Border Patrol agents are using Gestapo-like tactics on suspected immigrants and citizens alike.
Masked ICE and Border Patrol agents in plain clothes are refusing to identify themselves while they arrest people.
They are cruising the streets in unmarked cars, racially profiling people, violently accosting them and “disappearing” their victims to undisclosed locations.
They are shooting peaceful protestors with chemical bullets and even with real bullets, then covering up their crimes.
They are tear-gassing nonviolent crowds that gather to video and record these atrocities.
ICE and Border Patrol have painfully zip-tied children while their parents are ripped away from them. They are beating mothers in front of their children.
They are body-slamming grandfathers and grandmothers to the ground, breaking bones and sending people to the hospital.
Detained people are suffering in miserable conditions and are even dying in custody of ICE private-contractor for-profit prisons.
Asylum seekers who gather to do day labor, who work in meatpacking houses, who are tending or harvesting crops, who are going to their asylum or naturalization hearings or who are trying to buy food or pick up their children from school are being swept up in this hateful, racist mania to deport dark people.
These assaults, which have all the aspects of a mass, indiscriminate, racist-based hate campaign, are nothing other than government-sponsored domestic terrorism.
It’s bad enough that nobody is being held accountable for ICE and Border Patrol criminality. It’s worse that in some parts of the country, local law enforcement is actually “serving and protecting” ICE and Border Patrol agents—rather than serving and protecting the local communities who pay their salaries.
This situation is an ugly betrayal and a grotesque inversion of priorities. It is an egregious breach of trust. It is unjustifiable, unacceptable and intolerable.
Kidnapping is a felony. Child abuse is a felony. Bashing people’s heads to the pavement under color of law is a wicked abuse of power. Shooting peaceful protesters in the head with pepper balls is lethally dangerous. Spraying people with mace can cause permanent eye damage. Detaining people without a warrant violates civil rights and due process. Using military-style tactics against unarmed civilians is unconstitutional. Having “law” officers violently attacking the public like this threatens the peace of the nation.
Fortunately, there are some places around the country where law enforcement leaders are standing up for their local communities and resisting Trump’s efforts to drag us all into a police state.
For example, the chief of police in New Orleans has said that their police department is going to protect the civil rights of immigrants in that city. Similarly, the Minneapolis police chief has gone on the record to say their police department will not coordinate and cooperate with ICE. And New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani has released a three-minute video, in Spanish, informing immigrants of their legal rights.
But words are not enough. Lawless ICEmen are not just “coming,” they are already here. According to reports, the Fresno Police Department actively “partners” with ICE and the Border Patrol.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice declares that a soldier’s duty is not to comply with illegal orders, but to disobey them. Just so, local law enforcement has a duty not to comply with or cooperate with ICE and Border Patrol violations of the law.
The responsibility for protecting civil rights doesn’t fall completely to local police and sheriffs. Courageous citizens around the country have mobilized to form “rapid response teams.” These teams of volunteers alert local communities of impending or active ICE and Border Patrol deportation raids. They videotape and document unlawful and brutal actions. What might have been done in secret is now exposed through social media to the light of day.
By fighting together for the civil rights of our immigrant neighbors, we preserve our democracy against those who want to destroy it. An added bonus: We can become “icemen” to Trump’s desire to crush all dissent and to turn the United States into a white nationalist authoritarian state.
