Target: Kristi Noem, Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Goal: Deescalate tensions with protesters and with minority residents impacted by ICE campaigns.
A second American – an ICU nurse for veterans – has been shot dead during ICE’s widespread campaign in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The development comes just a day after an FBI agent assigned to the case of Renee Nicole Good (the last ICE shooting fatality) reportedly resigned due to the focus of the investigation being shifted from the ICE agent who conducted the shooting to Good herself. The incident also follows increasing condemnation for the aggressive tactics agents have allegedly used against peaceful protesters, from pepper spray attacks to attacks against property to unlawful and abusive detainments.
Several high-profile instances involving detainees have also called the methods used during so-called immigration crackdowns – which have thus far only targeted supposed blue states and regions – into question. A man was dragged out of his house in his underwear and in cold weather by agents and later released without apology. Another man – the father of an active-duty military member – was reportedly tackled in his yard, hauled away, and denied visits with his family or with legal counsel for weeks. In other controversial events, children as young as five years old have been taken from their schools, their family’s property, and even plucked off the streets and sent hundreds of miles away from home. An image of a terrified and crying child in ICE custody recently made headlines. Further, numerous anecdotal reports have detailed lawful American citizens being approached by ICE and commanded to “show their papers,” simply because these individuals are minorities. And a news report recently uncovered the many incidents where ICE agents have allegedly stalked individuals at their homes and even entered homes in the absence of a proper warrant.
Meanwhile, the funds keep growing (making the ICE budget greater than all other law enforcement agencies combined), the ICE training mandates keep shrinking, and the inflammatory rhetoric continues from an administration that, ironically enough, accuses others of inciting an insurrection. Sign the petition below to demand these supposed leaders stop their invasion of American cities.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Noem,
Capturing the worst-of-the-worst criminals is a frequent refrain of this administration to justify its ICE campaigns in almost exclusively Democratic cities and states. Yet to date, 75.000 individuals with no criminal record to speak of have been detained, from elderly parents of U.S. military members to five-year-old children. Meanwhile, lawful protesters and individuals merely standing watch have recounted harassment, assaults, and detainments by the hundreds. In just one instance, a woman detailed a harrowing experience in which a friend and she were surrounded by agents, manhandled, heckled with chilling statements such as “Haven’t y’all learned yet?”, taken to a detainment facility more akin to a holding pen, subjected to verbal berating both against themselves and against the “lesbian bitch” who had just been shot, and forced to witness the inhumane treatment of detainees before they were finally released.
The administration is reportedly worried about “losing control” of its immigration messaging. With well over half of Americans unequivocally stating that ICE campaigns are making cities less safe and with yet another deadly incident now on the books, that control is gone. You have become the domestic terrorists. If you want to save face and save your future career, you will end these campaigns of intimidation at once and focus on a thoughtful policy where you work hand-in-hand with state and local officials and with communities. And most of all, you will ensure that training for these agents prioritizes quality over quantity and that body cam footage be required and released for investigative purposes.
The Department of Homeland Security needs to begin living up to its name instead of undermining its core mission and destroying lives in the process.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Germar Derron
