ICE re-invades Indy, the people turn on a dime

Over the last three days, immigrant rights organizers and volunteers across the state noticed a troubling uptick in ICE activity. Verified ICE-sightings from Indy Rapid Response cited disruptions in Lawrence, Speedway, Augusta, Beech Grove, and Greenwood. Meanwhile, No ICE Flights Indy! noted ICE deportation flights from the Indianapolis Airport increased from an average of three to 10 weekly flights over the past week.

Since the momentous forced-retreat of ICE in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, Trump’s militarized police force has moved away from large spectacles of brutality to operating in seemingly smaller units. With the termination of TPS status for people from Haiti and Burma on June 25, the concentration of ICE activity in immigrant-saturated areas of our city forecasts a new wave of attacks on our immigrant neighbors, one that compels all people of conscience to act.

Indy has stayed ready

Within six hours, organizers from a variety of groups—including Indy Resistance Indivisible, the Indianapolis branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Live Free Indiana, and Strong Neighbor—mobilized a show of force at Monument Circle to demand: No ICE in Indiana! Stop ICE Terror! The people responded just as rapidly, with community members dropping their commitments to protect our people.

At the rally, speakers highlighted these growing concerns in our city and emphasized the need to strengthen collaboration and create a united front against ICE in Indiana. Another organizer, Noah Leininger, cited the recent death of Pierre Damas Bel, the Haitian college student in Ohio who took his own life after losing TPS status and being subjected to humiliating police tactics like ankle monitoring.

United: Our tried-and-true tactic against our enemies

Long-time immigrant rights organizer Cecilia Gomez posed a challenge that, based on the attention she received, was taken very seriously:

“How long are we willing to live with this anxiety, with these ugly unmarked vans slinking through our streets? These thugs thrive off our fear, but they are nothing against us when we are organized–when we lose our fear. They are nothing against us when we unite. ICE and the State have taken advantage of our disarray. I see so many faces I know here, and that is beautiful for an emergency demonstration. But it is not enough. We need more people, we need more collaboration. This is not to downplay the importance of this action but to set our eyes on the real horizon: it is when we are in the thousands and hundreds of thousands that we turn the tide and beat back these thugs.”

They present immigration as a “single issues,” Gomez continued, just as they do with police brutality. For Gomez, that’s why she joined the organization she’s now a leading member of: “In the PSL we unite these struggles. Only when we are united can we defeat our enemies.”

Our enemies are united, we must be too!

It is well-documented that all aspects of “law enforcement” share the latest tactics they use to oppress us both domestically and internationally. Even more well documented is the routine lying they engage in to kill our people without it constituting “murder.” The IMPD recently claimed that Dalys Jett, a young father and college student, had shot and critically injured IMPD officers, forcing their hand in his murder. Recent footage revealed that no such shooting had occurred, and IMPD had shot Jett multiple times in the back as he fled. A petition for Dalys Jett is currently under way to call for justice.

As the words of Komal Kaur ended the night, protesters were reminded that these actions and the efforts against ICE terror are not done with the goal of making a nicer, more effective deportation system. The destabilization and chronic anxiety and depression that affects the entire community cannot be absolved with more professional ICE agents, or nicer prison cells. Immigrants deserve full and equal rights, with the dignity and respect that all citizens are afforded. The people are disgusted and outraged by the increase of ICE activity in Indiana, and will not be satisfied until ICE is abolished and their neighbors are protected and returned.

Read the full text of Umeed-Hope founder Komal Kaur’s speech here!

Featured photo: Recent anti-ICE rallies in Indianapolis. Credit: Indy Liberation Center.