One day, in the future, this entire system of tiered passports and immigration restrictions and second-class citizenship will be gone, a relic of the past, and the phrase “Immigration is a human right, moving is a human right” will seem as quaint and obvious as “Aparteid is bad” in an old sci-fi episode
caption by @/ashleytheebarroness on tiktok: People reach for the Gestapo comparison because it sounds extreme and foreign. It lets white Americans pretend this kind of policing came from somewhere else. But ICE looks closer to slave patrols because that’s our history. Local enforcement. Racialized suspicion. Vague authority. Taking people first, justifying it later. Gestapo is a warning. Slave patrols are a mirror.
You know I hadn’t made this exact connection at first but something in my gut told me that people comparing ice to the gestapo didn’t quite feel right. This comparison does fit a lot better.
If you are in the US and have any Democratic senators or representatives, it is critical to call them and demand that no spending bill be passed without reining in ICE abuses. Here are Robert Reich’s key points on that:
Please call your representative and senators today and tell them not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it (1) disarms ICE agents, (2) prevents them from targeting people based on their race, language, or accent, and (3) stipulates that agents who harm civilians are liable under criminal and civil laws.
To reach your representative or senator, call the U.S. Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them the state and city where you live. They will connect you to any member’s office.
None of this feels like enough, but it is better than doing nothing. Being silent means consenting to what is happening now, and the even worse things that seem to be coming next.
Let this - January 2026 - be a turning point and not just another step down this hateful and immoral path.
Congress voted to cut healthcare for millions of Americans to instead give ICE an $80B slush fund as part of trumps “big beautiful bill”
but at this scale of funding who knows how accurate it will be.
I looked at *one* contract which was for 6 months of printer paper at their New Orleans field office (which is their major deportation hub for multiple states) and they purchased enough paper for 90,000 sheets of paper per day. They oversee facilities with capacity for 2000 people, so they would need to print 45 sheets for every single detainee every single day to use that much paper.
The contract was awarded to a small “woman owned” business in Los Angeles (it’s owed by a husband and wife, the wife is a dentistry professor at UCLA so ofc listed as owner for contract award purposes).
They also have $500k contracts with dept of war for carbon paper and I know government spending is sloppy but this is just so sus.
