"I've lost all faith in your ability to rise to the occasion. I don't see leaders, I see complacent followers doing their job. I don't care about ICE's legality of their actions. I don't care about fining ICE. I've started many drafts about my disappointment in our elects to protect citizens. Many deleted lines attempting to argue fine details of ICE's actions and the failures of our politicians rising to the task."
"Researching perceived failings of those elected and relating them to my perceived failing of addressing the ICE crisis. There's no point because these two must coexist. These elects and ICE are part of the same system. The existence of ICE is predicated on the existence of our mllquetoast politcos. If there was an actual counter-party or opposition leadership, that might have been able to prevent ICE from getting this far. Or existing at all."
"The same reason we have ICE is the same reason we have this healthcare system, as many people living homeless, as many people in prison, and why our environment/climate is being destroyed wholesale. Working from within the system to subvert or create meaningful change against that system will never work. While I am disappointed in our elected's ability to rise to the occasion, I am hopeful a new system of organizing is coming."
A deep loss of faith in elected leaders and complacency among officials undermines public protection. Immigration enforcement (ICE) and elected politicians function as mutually reinforcing components of a harmful system. The existence and power of ICE is depicted as predicated on weak, milquetoast politicians and the absence of strong opposition leadership. Attempts to reform or subvert the system from within are judged futile because the system's incentives preserve capital and cruelty. Historical patterns of self-preservation and blind deference to constitutional structures are cited as barriers to meaningful change. Hope remains for new organizing outside current institutions, and responsibility is placed on collective imagination and action to build a better tomorrow.
Read at Portland Mercury
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