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Adam Russell Taylor writes in this week’s SojoMail that we may be sighing about terrible headlines, but our immigrant neighbors are living in terror: Last week the Trump administration announced Operation Midway Blitz, which extends the surge of ICE agents sent to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., into Chicago; additional ICE surges are happening in Boston and are planned for Memphis. This increased ICE activity follows an alarming Supreme Court shadow docket ruling that permits the administration to stop people on the basis of personal appearance, language, or type of employment. In other words, racial profiling is now explicitly permissible for immigration officials. If your life is proceeding basically as normal—school drop-offs, daily commutes, medical appointments, visits with grandchildren, stressful jobs, or the daily rhythms of life—it can be hard to remember the fear that many of our immigrant neighbors now feel. Despite my job leading a social justice organization, I’ll confess that I’m not immune from the temptation myself. While the administration often uses the pretense that they are apprehending violent offenders, only about half of those in ICE custody have been charged or convicted of any crime—violent or otherwise. This sense of terror is especially strong for undocumented people, but it also includes legal residents, folks who recently lost their Temporary Protected Status, and even citizens who reasonably fear that their activism or simply their appearance could make them targets of abduction and detention, often without due process. Try to imagine the terror of armed, masked agents ripping you out of your normal routine, at school drop-offs, daily commutes, medical appointments, visits with grandchildren, or your job—all places where people have been apprehended. The most vulnerable among us do not have the luxury of continuing as normal, and these increasingly cruel and aggressive tactics demand more from us than just sad sighs.
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