Illinois enacted a law. Do you think terrorists obey laws? DO you think those pretending to be ICE obey the laws? Nope. They are still here. The families are still afraid to go get groceries. They are still afraid to do something like go out to get holiday gifts. They DO feel safe dropping kids off/picking them up from childcare/school. This makes it easy to fight back against ICE/those pretending to be ICE.
Why would such “officers” be afraid of being doxed or exposed? Why would they be afraid of identifying themselves properly? It is simply that they are breaking the law by not providing due process and carrying extrajudicial acts.
Exactly! Local and state police forces don’t wear masks. Why do ICE not want to be identified? Could it be that they are using tactics banned for local and state police?
Police officers have been known to tape over their name tags, and have you ever been around when the Civil Disturbance Unit or SWAT team shows up? With their gas masks on they're very hard to identify.
It is encouraging to learn that there is real and meaningful pushback against authoritarian tactics that are now advancing in our country. The question is whether we can hold back the tide until these fascists can be removed from office. I am very concerned that Trump and his billionaire tech allies will block every escape hatch we have and lock our freedoms, one by one, into a dark, airless closet and throw away the key. I feel like David Copperfield in the face of the murderous Mr. Murdock.
These ‘David and Goliath’ themes in literature exist for a reason because we are again living them in real time at this moment in our history. We’re NOT the weak and puny people they would have us believe, but we have been surprised by our government’s aggressively repressive tactics.
We cannot let the momentum of the evil which stands before us and around us prevail. We just cannot…and if we truly stand together, it won’t. Happy endings are carefully crafted by master writers and doers. It’s time for each of us to pick up our lives and write a new chapter for ourselves.
We are the ‘hero’s journey’. We are David Copperfield and David the shepherd. We are Victor Frankel, and Elie Wiesel. We are Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. We are every person who ever thirsted for justice and liberty for all. We are Americans.
Ellen, it's easier to fight back than you realize. It's the small ways. It's smiling at someone. Can you get their groceries if they are afraid to go to the store? Can you help them get last-minute holiday gifts? It's the donations to legit charities as well. (I beg of people not to donate to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army.)
They aren't ICE agents if they have no ID... they are mercenaires or proud boys or overweight goons trying to make a fast buck and/or they have an extreme violent streak and want to get paid to terrorize.... wish our local police would/could arrest them and charge them with violent kidnapping...make them prove who they are
How do we know the people with whom the armed, masked marauders abscond are violent criminal illegal aliens? In a democracy we MUST have oversight to determine exactly who has been taken. Who is in all those prisons and detention facilities? ICE is lawless and by law, therefore, it’s leaders must be arrested and their masked and vigilante troopers disbanded.
I'm sure you know and were being rhetorical, but let it be repeated anyway: we know the vast majority of people being picked up are NOT violent criminal aliens.
Thanks Steven : Grateful to the states enacting laws but then again who in this administration are going to obey them. This practice of gestapo roundups was formulated and scripted by Stephen Miller and his ilk. Right out of the Nuremberg laws. Round up the undesirables , the black and brown folks along with the dissenters to keep American safe. Yes then gets those alleged "enemies from within" and "vermin" dispatched with. Whats next ? the Einsatzgruppen force.?? Just to round up the left overs. How many concentration camps does the US have now. Three or four hundred?? The masked gestapo agents purpose is to prevent their children from recognizing their dads. How does it feel been a goon squad brute all day then coming home to your little child , and what do you tell them when they ask. How was your day daddy?? Sleep well you brute.
Thank You Steven ...It is beyond the beyond that we actually have to make laws for this . I would have thought that what they have been doing is against the law anyway. I live in Florida but I am a NYC girl . I live there part of the time still. I hope that the NYC police force 34,000 strong will see ICE as the threat that they are. If they do, ICE will have it's hands full. If they go into the subway good luck to them..lost in america..
Never say irreparable. I firmly believe we will have the upper hand in all of this. Not only the moral high ground but enforcement to back it up. These lawless, angry, racist men will suffer from moral injury one day, PTSD in the middle of the night when they cannot sleep for what they have done.
I love DHS's depiction of ICE officers as "“heroic law enforcement officers.” If you look at the DHS page "the worst of the worst" you find 608 names, all with prior convictions. At least some of them, possibly most, were still serving their sentences, so the heroism involved taking them to the van, cuffed, from jail. They WERE bad dudes, but since deportation is pretty standard after a criminal conviction, this means ICE wasn't really doing its job at grabbing at the time of release. those who had served their sentences.
There is no record at all I can find of how many arrests of violent criminals involved any heroism at all.
ICE has detained "hundreds of thousands" (there is no exact figure because ICE only releases monthly totals), estimates are 7% were "violent" criminals, and apparently 608 were really violent. It is hard to find actual data because of so many different time frames being reported. But it looks like, as everyone knows, a huge number have no criminal record at all.
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” - Frederick Douglass
Keep it up.
Exactly.
Tyrants also meet their limits when force is applied. Adolf Hitler is an example. Another man with a strange hair fetish.
Helpful Information so early too. Thank you
Grateful states are enacting laws.
Why aren’t there more,I wonder?
I think there are 23 Democrat Governors states
and
16 Trifecta: State Democrat held governor and both house and Senate Legislatures
We need those states to step up!
By the way I love New York’s Acronym “MELT”
MELT ICE 👏👏
“Mandating End of Lawless Tactics,” known as the MELT Act.
Keep the pressure on!
💙🇺🇸💙
Yes Lauren;
I understand
My hope is the mid terms will allow us to take back the House and the Senate and impeach Trump and begin to restore a true viable Justice System.
But in the meantime we need to keep the pressure on Congress
https://open.substack.com/pub/avee1/p/congress-must-pass-federal-identification?r=v5mzk&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=post_stats
Illinois enacted a law. Do you think terrorists obey laws? DO you think those pretending to be ICE obey the laws? Nope. They are still here. The families are still afraid to go get groceries. They are still afraid to do something like go out to get holiday gifts. They DO feel safe dropping kids off/picking them up from childcare/school. This makes it easy to fight back against ICE/those pretending to be ICE.
Why would such “officers” be afraid of being doxed or exposed? Why would they be afraid of identifying themselves properly? It is simply that they are breaking the law by not providing due process and carrying extrajudicial acts.
Exactly! Local and state police forces don’t wear masks. Why do ICE not want to be identified? Could it be that they are using tactics banned for local and state police?
Police officers have been known to tape over their name tags, and have you ever been around when the Civil Disturbance Unit or SWAT team shows up? With their gas masks on they're very hard to identify.
Yes, but these forces are a tiny minority of the ICE gangs, and rarely deployed.
Paul, I hope you're not being serious. Because who knows what some sicko might do to their family and their place of living.
It is encouraging to learn that there is real and meaningful pushback against authoritarian tactics that are now advancing in our country. The question is whether we can hold back the tide until these fascists can be removed from office. I am very concerned that Trump and his billionaire tech allies will block every escape hatch we have and lock our freedoms, one by one, into a dark, airless closet and throw away the key. I feel like David Copperfield in the face of the murderous Mr. Murdock.
These ‘David and Goliath’ themes in literature exist for a reason because we are again living them in real time at this moment in our history. We’re NOT the weak and puny people they would have us believe, but we have been surprised by our government’s aggressively repressive tactics.
We cannot let the momentum of the evil which stands before us and around us prevail. We just cannot…and if we truly stand together, it won’t. Happy endings are carefully crafted by master writers and doers. It’s time for each of us to pick up our lives and write a new chapter for ourselves.
We are the ‘hero’s journey’. We are David Copperfield and David the shepherd. We are Victor Frankel, and Elie Wiesel. We are Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. We are every person who ever thirsted for justice and liberty for all. We are Americans.
Ellen, it's easier to fight back than you realize. It's the small ways. It's smiling at someone. Can you get their groceries if they are afraid to go to the store? Can you help them get last-minute holiday gifts? It's the donations to legit charities as well. (I beg of people not to donate to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army.)
They aren't ICE agents if they have no ID... they are mercenaires or proud boys or overweight goons trying to make a fast buck and/or they have an extreme violent streak and want to get paid to terrorize.... wish our local police would/could arrest them and charge them with violent kidnapping...make them prove who they are
How do we know the people with whom the armed, masked marauders abscond are violent criminal illegal aliens? In a democracy we MUST have oversight to determine exactly who has been taken. Who is in all those prisons and detention facilities? ICE is lawless and by law, therefore, it’s leaders must be arrested and their masked and vigilante troopers disbanded.
I'm sure you know and were being rhetorical, but let it be repeated anyway: we know the vast majority of people being picked up are NOT violent criminal aliens.
Yes, let it be repeated. But really, we don’t know nuttin. nada. zero. zip.
Bravo, California!
This is a huge issue and I’m so glad you addressed it. I’ve seen kids in the train concourse who are up to no good wearing these masks now.
That this can be occurring daily on the streets of the US continues to be an outrage. The midterms cannot come too soon.
Thanks Steven : Grateful to the states enacting laws but then again who in this administration are going to obey them. This practice of gestapo roundups was formulated and scripted by Stephen Miller and his ilk. Right out of the Nuremberg laws. Round up the undesirables , the black and brown folks along with the dissenters to keep American safe. Yes then gets those alleged "enemies from within" and "vermin" dispatched with. Whats next ? the Einsatzgruppen force.?? Just to round up the left overs. How many concentration camps does the US have now. Three or four hundred?? The masked gestapo agents purpose is to prevent their children from recognizing their dads. How does it feel been a goon squad brute all day then coming home to your little child , and what do you tell them when they ask. How was your day daddy?? Sleep well you brute.
Thank You Steven ...It is beyond the beyond that we actually have to make laws for this . I would have thought that what they have been doing is against the law anyway. I live in Florida but I am a NYC girl . I live there part of the time still. I hope that the NYC police force 34,000 strong will see ICE as the threat that they are. If they do, ICE will have it's hands full. If they go into the subway good luck to them..lost in america..
Never say irreparable. I firmly believe we will have the upper hand in all of this. Not only the moral high ground but enforcement to back it up. These lawless, angry, racist men will suffer from moral injury one day, PTSD in the middle of the night when they cannot sleep for what they have done.
great explanation.
Maine, too!
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/12/15/maine-law-enforcement-will-not-make-dangerous-promises-with-ice-gov-janet-mills/?copylink=true
(We're only 1.3M people - and more trees than any other state, but still, I think it counts.)
I love DHS's depiction of ICE officers as "“heroic law enforcement officers.” If you look at the DHS page "the worst of the worst" you find 608 names, all with prior convictions. At least some of them, possibly most, were still serving their sentences, so the heroism involved taking them to the van, cuffed, from jail. They WERE bad dudes, but since deportation is pretty standard after a criminal conviction, this means ICE wasn't really doing its job at grabbing at the time of release. those who had served their sentences.
There is no record at all I can find of how many arrests of violent criminals involved any heroism at all.
ICE has detained "hundreds of thousands" (there is no exact figure because ICE only releases monthly totals), estimates are 7% were "violent" criminals, and apparently 608 were really violent. It is hard to find actual data because of so many different time frames being reported. But it looks like, as everyone knows, a huge number have no criminal record at all.
I feel SO much safer on the streets--not.
🎭No masks! No tyrants! No evil dressed up like democracy!