Growing number of US veterans face arrest over ICE raid protests
Welcome to our news segment: TL;DR of Immigration News, for when the news is Too Long and you Didn’t Read it.
This is a weekly collection of immigration-related news stories. These bite-size summaries will keep you up to date without overwhelming your inbox.
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**Before we get into the news…**Did you know ICE’s budget will triple this fiscal year? That’s why Never Again Action needs to raise $54k (triple chai) to fund our response. As the attacks on our immigrant neighbors escalate, our solidarity must grow in equal measure. Learn more and donate to our 5786 Sukkah of Sanctuary fundraising campaign at this link.
Will you donate to the Jewish voice against ICE this High Holy Day season?
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“I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore”: They Got Stranded in Trump’s America
How to make a horrible thing even more horrible: the entire Trump administration encapsulated in one cruel policy.
They called it Project Homecoming. They told people they’d get a free flight out of the country, and $1,000 to land on their feet. For people like Pérez, whose husband had already been detained and deported, leaving her to try to raise two kids alone in Chicago, there was hardly any choice at all. But when she took the Trump Administration’s offer, Project Homecoming was revealed to be Project Nightmare.
After months of waiting, her plane tickets never arrived. Phone calls went unanswered. In a country with increasingly brutal crackdowns, especially in Chicago, Pérez feels unsafe everywhere she goes. She is just one of many thousands who have signed up for the program. Dozens of other people interviewed for this story experienced nearly identical failures.
Or perhaps the program was never meant to succeed.
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Zeteo reports that a private jet owned by Michael Dezer and his family, who are Israeli-American billionaires, is being used to transport immigrants to a “brutal prison” in the African kingdom of Eswatini. The family are longtime Trump allies, well-versed in the shell games of unethical wealth acquisition. It seems to be a short leap from these to the inhumane, brutal treatment of humans in the quest for exponential profit.
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Pope Leo tells US bishops to address Trump's immigration crackdown
On October 8, Pope Leo met with US bishops and social workers visiting him at the Vatican. He told them that they should firmly address how immigrants are being treated by the country’s hardline policies.
This follows comments made a couple weeks earlier, which drew the ire of Catholics who appear to care more about politics than their faith. This included the Pope saying that those who are in agreement with the current regime’s immigration policy are not “pro-life.”
El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters, "[The Pope] expressed his desire that the US Bishops' Conference would speak strongly on this issue… It means a lot to all of us to know of his personal desire that we continue to speak out.”
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Growing number of US veterans face arrest over ICE raid protests
Content warning: state violence
US military veterans have been facing arrest and injury protesting ICE raids. Marine veteran John Cerrone was arrested while protesting at an ICE detention center outside Chicago. He was held for nine hours alone in a cell with walls covered by blood, hair, and mucus. While behind bars he was visited by an ICE agent who boasted that he had shot Cerrone in the head with rubber bullets and insulted him using crude language.
“Their conduct was completely unprofessional,” Cerrone said. “The conduct of these agents was such that if it occurred in [the military]... they would be court-martialed.”
Jose Vasquez is a former US army staff sergeant who now serves as executive director of the progressive veterans’ organization Common Defense. He says of veterans like Cerrone that they “have stood up at ICE protests and faced arrest because we recognize a pattern of state-sanctioned abuse.” He added, “What drives many veterans into action is not only the injustice faced by immigrants and protesters, but also the larger threat to democracy rooted in government brutality and militarization. The disturbing escalation in arrests and violence signals that the basic freedoms we once swore to protest are under attack.”
Veterans like Nicholas Podjasek, who was born in Honduras, have cancelled appointments at the VA hospital out of fear of being detained. Podjasek said that he and many others are worried about being detained by ICE “because we are brown.”
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Costumed protesters in Portland defy description of the city as a 'war zone'
In response to the federal regime characterizing Portland as a “war zone,” escalating ICE presence, and attempts to call in the National Guard, protestors in Portland have been… dressing up as frogs, unicorns, and a variety of other larger-than-life mascots and doing silly dances.
As delightfully whimsical as this is, it’s also tactically brilliant, the absurdism of the actions pointing up the absurdity of the administration’s claims. Plus, fascists hate being laughed at. And not without its risks: ICE agents sprayed pepper spray into the mouth hole of one protestor in a frog costume, an action which has only inspired more protestors to don such costumes in solidarity.
And recently, the costumed characters have been joined in protest by naked bicyclists.
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Action items:
Support the community in Chicago:
- Donate to Illinois Coalition of Immigrants and Refugees.
- If you’re in Chicago and wish to report an ICE sighting or need assistance related to ICE detention, call 855-435-7693.
End Avelo Airlines’ deportation flights:
- Find actions near you at Stop Avelo and at Ground Avelo
- Maryland folks: sign this petition to the Governor
- Sign this pledge to boycott Avelo until they cancel their ICE contracts.
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Did you know ICE’s budget will triple this fiscal year? That’s why Never Again Action needs to raise $54k (triple chai) to fund our response. As the attacks on our immigrant neighbors escalate, our solidarity must grow in equal measure. Learn more and donate to our 5786 Sukkah of Sanctuary fundraising campaign at this link.
Will you donate to the Jewish voice against ICE this High Holy Day season?
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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for next week’s roundup, drop us a line at neveragainaction@gmail.com.