I.C.E. Raids Across the Country: Urgently Needed—Massive Opposition
January 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Wednesday, January 10, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents staged pre-dawn raids on about one hundred 7-Eleven stores in eighteen states and Washington D.C. According to several press reports, twenty-one people, all of them 7-Eleven employees, were arrested. They face “removal from the country”—deportation.
“Show Me Your Papers”
In Los Angeles’s Koreatown, seven ICE agents poured out of unmarked cars, went into a store, prevented other people from entering, and waited for customers to leave. Then they demanded that the cashier show them a valid green card—and served notice to the owner that he had three days to turn over papers documenting the immigration status of every employee. Scenes like this played out from Portland, Oregon to Miami, Florida.
These were the largest immigration raids launched on workplaces under the Trump/Pence regime. And these fascists promise that this is only the beginning. A leading ICE official told the Associated Press that Wednesday’s raids are “the first of many”, and “a harbinger of what’s to come.” The head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations told a reporter, “This is what we’re gearing up for this year and what you’re going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters. It’s not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry—big, medium, and small”.
Twenty-one people had their lives devastated, in an instant. They showed up for work early in the morning and quickly found themselves arrested. They have been torn from their homes, their families and friends. They have been effectively “disappeared” from the lives they were leading. They may already be on their way back to countries far away, with no means of communicating with loved ones left behind. Whatever resources they may have built up in this country are beyond their reach; the places they called home are inaccessible to them.
The day after these centrally orchestrated raids, the Washington Post reported that the monster heading up this fascist regime asked, "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?"—this contemptible racist pig is referring to masses of people from Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations. The Post continued that Trump “suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway”—a northern European country that is overwhelmingly white.
And the Trump/Pence fascists are telling us this is just the beginning. Ninety-eight stores raided, twenty-one people arrested—and the aim is to terrorize millions—and to let them know you could be next.
First, they are coming for the immigrants. What are you going to do?
Refuse Fascism’s web site posted this urgent message that needs to be taken up and spread far and wide:
“This cannot go down without a response, and immigrant communities cannot be left to stand alone. Refuse Fascism in LA is putting out a call to people everywhere: go to your local 7-Elevens and put up the NO! Poster up around the neighborhood of the 7 Eleven. EVERYONE can do this, print up posters put them up and go into the 7-Eleven and introduce ourselves to the employees… AND step up our work to drive out this fascist regime.”
Revolution/revcom.us will continue to report on these important developments.
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