ICE are fucking nazis. That goes without saying. Many of the tactics used by the ICE are directly lifted from fascist Germany. But this isn’t German history, this is American history playing itself out again. Calling immigration an “infestation” is directly linked to the racist anti-immigrant sentiment that inspired the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), Immigration Act of 1891, the Geary Act, the Immigration Act of 1903, the Naturalization Act of 1906, the Immigration Act of 1907, the Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as Barred Zone Act), the Emergency Quota Act (1921), and the Immigration Act of 1924.
It is important to contextualize ICE within American contexts because otherwise it implies that this is a brand new phenomenon and, frankly, it isn’t. America was built on these kinds of institutions and continues to depend on them to this day. Americans don’t need to look across the Atlantic to understand what is happening. We have to be willing to take a real, good look at our own history.
Add to that the Alien Transfer Exit Program (2008) and The Consequence Delivery System (2011).
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