My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation.
The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. Jews, like me and you, have been saying this phrase consistently from the temple to the Passover Seder. Too often, whether spoken in English, Hebrew, or not at all, the meaning of these words is left unheard. It is imperative now more than ever than American Jews and Jewish Americans not forget our obligation to protect the stranger in our midst.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
In the last nine months, ICE has marched through our streets armed, masked, and in full tactical gear. Armed state agents going door to door searching for people based on their race/ethnicity, as they have admitted to the courts that they are doing and SCOTUS has ruled as legal, should be a terrifying prospect to Jews especially.
Human beings, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, people with worth outside of their relation to others, have been brutally arrested in their homes, workplaces, places of worship, and the grocery stores. They have been thrown into unmarked vans by individuals refusing to identify themselves or comply with the law. When citizens like NYC comptroller Brad Lander try to protect undocumented individuals, inform them of their rights, or even non-violently confront law enforcement, they, too, are thrown to the ground and brutalized. Or, in the case of more than 170 U.S. citizens, detained and beaten. ICE has also gone after their political opponents like Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and broadly refused to comply with judicial orders.
When repatriated South Koreans were able to share their story after the ICE raid on their facility early this year, they spoke about horrific conditions, packed pods, malnutrition, and racial epithets from guards. It is difficult to speak to the conditions of other ICE facilities domestically and internationally because many of them have refused to allow journalists or elected officials to audit them.
In March and April of this year, ICE sent nearly 300 immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador named CECOT. The vast majority of these immigrants do not have criminal records and had never been to El Salvador and after arriving may never wish to return. The dehumanizing conditions of starvation and overcrowding are the tip of the Iceberg.
I would like to note that while my appeal is based in comparisons to recent Jewish history and Jewish tradition, if you dear reader were able to watch jack booted thugs snatch your neighbors from their homes, drag mothers from their children, and steal cancer patients from their doctors, I have nothing for you. I have no words to comfort or to stir to action. A view of the world that misses the injustice that won’t happen to you lacks empathy. I am bereft of the ability to convince others of the humanity of those that look slightly different than them.
I also feel that any argument about migrants being vital to the economy, which data suggests they clearly are, the fact that being undocumented is a civil violation and not a criminal one, or committing crimes at a lower rate than native citizens, misses the core of the issue: no one deserves to be treated like this. There is nothing a group could do that they should have these horrors inflicted upon them. If people’s humanity is conditional on their actions, you have already dehumanized them.
The current ICE kidnappings are an extension of the violent systems Americans have gleefully cheered for. Domestically law enforcement has terrorized Black and brown communities. Internationally, the military and the CIA have established prisons in both Iraq, the most notable of which being Abi Ghrab, and Cuba in which detainees were arbitrarily kidnapped and tortured. Poor U.S. teenagers wearing flak jackets and carrying rifles brutally arresting someone with darker skin than them for basically no reason is only a problem when it’s in our neighborhoods.
Joan Baez, an American songwriter and activist, is credited with the phrase “Action is the antidote to despair.” She is right. There are many actions that you can do to help to protect those around you. The greatest right and responsibility that you have as an American is to participate in the great American tradition of civil disobedience. This can be a variety of things for all people, but public protests and volunteering with immigrant rights groups are a great start.
One of the most impactful things you can do is simply filming ICE whenever and wherever you see them. You have an absolute first amendment right to film government officials in public and recording their actions removes their ability to control the narrative. Above all, do something, and then if that doesn’t help, do something else. It doesn’t matter why you choose to help whether out of altruism, spite, or just general disaffection with the government. It only matters that you’re there and helping.
Beyond the personal responsibility each of us has to act to help stop those around us from experiencing harm and violence from the state, the actions of ICE represent a dire turn for the American republic. While democratic aspects like the rule of law, due process, and a reasonable expectation of privacy have been degrading, ICE’s enforcement may transgress each fully. This massive and sudden norms shift is a stark reminder that if we are unwilling to fight to protect our rights they will be taken from us.
