“DHS illegally arrested me. Please help.” This message was sent by Ellie Aghayeva who is a current Columbia University student. She was unlawfully detained today. The ICE agents forced their way into her residence without a warrant and claimed they were looking for a missing person. Ellie has not had any associations with the DHS prior to this incident. The University’s Acting President Claire Shipman says the incident was frightening and fast-moving. Ellie herself says she is in complete shock over what happened and needs time to process everything. Six in ten Americans do not agree with what ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is doing. On the political side, 91% of Democrats and 66% of Independents also disapprove, while 73% of Republicans support ICE. ICE is a federal law agency under the department of homeland security; they deport undocumented immigrants. More recently, in Minnesota, there was an ICE out protest at Target locations. Target might be a strange place to have a protest but it is the location where immigration enforcement activity is increasing. These people are protesting to require federal agents to need arrest warrants to be able to enter the stores.
Due to the implementation of ICE, there has been an increase in fatal shootings from ICE and numerous businesses closing. Unnecessary arrests and assault against law-abiding citizens have been committed as well. These victims have immigrated to the United States of America in hopes of having a second chance at life. But ICE has been taking away these opportunities. Which is why protests have been happening to directly address ICE and those enforcing it. According to the GGSC (Greater Good Science Center – Berkeley), immigration and ICE has been one of the leading issues affecting education and schools. Deporting undocumented immigrants is why our education is affected. By deporting immigrants to their country, their friends or classmates aren’t going to act like nothing went wrong. Their lives are going to change completely. The atmosphere in which they are learning becomes more gloomy, making learning seem even more depressing. Also, parents and children would become more afraid to go to school. Which is why it is important we get our points across using these ICE protests. We need to make sure that our education isn’t affected by ICE or anything valuable to us, relationships and mental health.
According to ICE, “Congress granted ICE a unique combination of civil and criminal authorities to better protect national security and public safety in answer to the tragic events on 9/11.” With this context, it is understandable to see actions being taken to respond to the tragedies that happened on 9/11. To ICE, they see their actions as promoting security and safety by controlling borders and immigration. However, it is very evident that they are going too far with their methods to enforce immigration laws.
“Columbia has shown herself to be a collaborator to ICE. Students are terrified,” Okporo said, a candidate for the New York City Council. “We want to build a safe community, but Columbia has refused to ensure that students and the larger community feel a sense of safety.” As a result of the ICE protests in Columbia University, they were forced to change course and start protecting international students rather than reporting them to the federal government. The detention of an international student has also led to the agreement of a settlement to decrease financial dependence on international students. Is there anyone who still supports ICE even after seeing how they enforce immigration laws? Mainly those who support ICE are Republicans. They believe in nationality and power. They want to keep the country the way it is, without immigrants. They believe these immigrants that ICE has been detaining are criminals. But, TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University) reports that 73.6% of people in ICE detention have not committed any criminal offenses.
As ICE continues to go through with their violent methods, protests by activists will continue to occur. They will demand change to ICE and even abolition. There are also legal issues that could be made against ICE. Boycotts, “ICE out” marches and strikes may impact businesses and schools if ICE keeps doing what they’re doing. In the future, it can be predicted that there is a possibility of change to ICE and perhaps immigration laws. It’s important that we make sure this topic gets the publicity it needs.
