ICE Is Functioning Like an Occupying Army. I Know Because I Served in One.

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) helicopters will undoubtedly be circling my neighborhood looking for roofers and landscapers this "Veterans Day," just as they have been for weeks. In the U.S., you're an easy mark when you have brown skin and your job demands that you labor out in the open. My town, located just outside of Chicago, has been crawling with ICE agents or soldiers (the terms deserve to be used interchangeably) for weeks now."

"These people remind me of the soldiers I patrolled with in Afghanistan, only the average ICE agent has less training than the average soldier. It seems like every neighborhood in the U.S. is now subject to an armed and potentially violent confrontation with federal troops. The U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan has come full circle. Similar to the way that I terrorized Afghan villages during my time in the military following 9/11, ICE has been terrorizing my town."

"When I was in the U.S. Army Rangers, we'd target high school and college-age Afghans. Most of the time, these kids were simply walking down the street, minding their own business, when they became subject to a search, an intimidating interrogation, or abduction. After a while, Afghans would alert their neighbors anytime our caravan of trucks entered a town - sometimes they would use whistles. Villagers would quickly disappear and it then felt like we were rolling through a ghost town."

ICE helicopters and agents patrol U.S. neighborhoods hunting roofers and landscapers, especially around Veterans Day. Brown-skinned outdoor workers are easy targets when laboring in public. A town outside Chicago has been filled with agents in military kit, unmarked trucks, semi-automatic weapons, and ski masks. Two mothers used whistles to guard a hail-damaged roof crew. The operations evoke wartime occupations, with agents likened to soldiers and described as less trained. Recollections of U.S. Army Ranger raids in Afghanistan include targeting young people, intimidating searches, and villagers hiding or sounding whistles, leaving towns feeling like ghost towns.

Read at Truthout