Following is a statement from Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance
Well now we know. According to a majority of the U.S. Senate, and both of Ohio’s Senators, our tax dollars are just an ATM for ICE.
After everything. After they abducted Rümeysa Öztürk off the streets of Somerville, and Mahmoud Khalil from his home, for exercising their free speech. After they sent hundreds of innocent Venezuelans to a torture camp in El Salvador. After they illegally deported, and then maliciously prosecuted, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. After they invaded U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, and Columbus, and threatened to invade Cleveland. After they killed a record number of people in “civil” immigration jail and high-speed car chases, including the beloved teacher Dr. Linda Davis.
After criminals began to impersonate ICE agents by wearing masks, raping and robbing people, and ICE still refused to show their faces. After agents murdered Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti, and got away with it (so far). After assistant ICE field office director Samuel Saxon nearly murdered his partner in Cincinnati — an immigrant — and it came out that the police had been called to his place 22 times in 18 months, but he kept his job at ICE. He joined a long line of criminal agents who work for ICE and the Border Patrol and, ironically, is detained at the Butler County Jail, which is also an ICE detention center.
Shall I go on?
After Liam Conejo Ramos. After all the children with cancer whose parents were put in immigration jail or deported, and they had to go on TV to beg for a chance to see them. After all the children who don’t have cancer, but are struggling without their parents. After Wendy Hernandez was deported to Honduras without her toddler son, Orlin, despite begging ICE to let him come with her. Orlin was murdered by the man entrusted to care for him. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons had the audacity to accuse Ms. Hernandez of “abandoning” little Orlin to a ‘violent murderer.’ But no, ICE did that.
After everything I just laid out, the Senate voted this morning to give another $69.5B to immigration agencies, outside of the regular appropriations process. Both Senators Moreno and Husted voted in support of this gross misuse of the money we earned and gave them. Last year, they made ICE the largest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, effectively declaring civil immigration law the top priority for the U.S. government, and failing to implement any accountability measures or reforms.
The agency rushed to hire agents without fully checking their backgrounds or providing typical law enforcement training. It allowed these empowered agents to recklessly carry guns, wear masks and street clothes, travel in unmarked cars, and refuse to identify themselves while conducting street arrests of people who are only being charged with civil offenses. And when they killed someone, which happened a lot, people at the highest levels — from Headquarters to the Oval Office — rotely defended them as “heroes” and labeled their victims “domestic terrorists” without knowing any of the facts.
No other area of civil law is enforced with guns, masks, and unmarked cars on the streets of our communities. ICE is not arresting people for murder. They are looking into alleged paperwork violations, and often times they arrest people whose cases are still in process. What Senators Moreno and Husted did today does not have the blessing or back of this U.S. citizen. I’m tired of my tax dollars being treated like an ATM for priorities that aren’t mine. I want the government to focus on the dire needs right in front of us — safe and affordable housing; investment in all communities; a living wage for all; fairly funded public schools; more systems of public transit; accountable and professional police; and safety systems that do not start and end with police.
Our communities have real problems, and ICE has no role in fixing them. In fact, they are making things worse by taking our family members, friends, co-workers, volunteers, customers, and community members from us. Ohio will be a better place if we come together and work on the problems we share, instead of pandering to fear and funding agencies and policies that harm us.