Abolish ICE

by Natascha Elena Uhlmann

An impassioned argument by a young Mexican American woman for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Abuses in detention centers. Detention of handicapped children. The silencing of activists. Each week, another attack on immigrant rights comes to light.

It’s going to be hard to say we didn’t know.

ICE has escalated a campaign that tears apart families and ruins lives. But this didn’t begin, and won’t end, with Donald Trump in the White House. The Obama administration deported record numbers of immigrants, wildly expanded the scope and capacities of ICE, and supported detention center quotas. Voting Democrat alone won’t save these children.

Immigration does not take place in a vacuum; each time the United States pushes through another exploitative trade deal or wreaks havoc on sovereign countries, we perpetuate migration flows fueled not by opportunity but by desperation. How long will we continue funding an agency premised upon the abuse and dehumanization of undocumented immigrants?

We need to abolish ICE. This concise, accessible book sets out the reasons why and the way it can be brought about.

Genres: Politics, Immigration, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2019

About the author

Natascha Elena Uhlmann is a writer and immigrant rights activist from Sonora, Mexico. Natascha Elena Uhlmann is a writer and activist from Sonora, Mexico. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Truthout, ReWire.News, and Teen Vogue. She is also the editor and translator of President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s book, A New Hope for Mexico

Reviews

[Ana Laura Mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who interacts with the topic of immigration on a daily basis - both at work and at home - I stray away from such literature. However, I devoured this entire book during my two hour flight. A great insight into the conditions the imperialist US creates that force migration, the racialization behind “illegality” and the need for the abolition of ICE.

“We’re here because you were there”

Notable book s/o to No More Deaths

[Isaac Murtha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, in many ways, a frustrating book. It is correct in its indictment of ICE— which is currently terrorizing the city of Minneapolis, my home. It lays out the crimes of ICE as an institution, and leaves me with a moral certainty that Ice must be disbanded and destroyed. Over and over again, this slim text shows that Ice facilitates sexual violence, death, and straight-up murder without making any American safer. ICE delenda est.

But the book is written in the language of leftist radicals— those same people already convinced that ICE must be destroyed. It is not a book designed to convince the non-believer— the person who needs to be convinced. It points to victories in D+50 districts as templates to follow, refusing to acknowledge that in most of the country, abolishing ICE remains a minority position. And it presents no workable roadmap for convincing the rest of the country that ICE must be abolished. Indeed, it encourages readers to stop looking at what is “realistic.” But how can it ask us to pursue the unrealistic when ICE agents are abducting and murdering right now in our neighborhoods? We need a realistic plan to protect our communities. In the past several months, ICE has surged into neighborhoods I’ve called home, and stolen men women and children from work, school, houses of worship and the steps of courthouses. Protestors against them (several of them acquaintances and friends of mine) have been charged with bogus crimes. Mrs. Good was murdered a mile from where I live. ICE must be destroyed, but there must be a concrete plan for how to get there. Otherwise, we are wasting our breath.

[Alex Welsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every American should read this

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every American ought to know the facts this book lays out so clearly, and with such detailed sources quoted in the footnotes. It is not responsible to say of immigrants of any type and from any country (though we know where the fingers are mostly pointed right now) that they "broke the law" or should just "get in line." Find out about what laws have been made, and when and why, and why " getting in line" is literally not possible. Find out about the legal option of claiming asylum and how those who exercise it now are being treated. Find out about how ICE, which is less than twenty years old, and CBP actually operate. If you can't cope with all the information in this book, try reading one person's story in The Line Becomes A River, by someone who worked in border enforcement.

[isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book and you should read it. It’s short! I really like understanding the history of how we ended up here and why things are the way they are, even when they’re so deeply awful. So good rec shoe (begrudgingly. this is also a callout to write your email already). Anyway. to vastly oversimplify the situation:
1. For the last 100+ years, the US has caused poverty, violence, and crime in Latin America (whether by direct political interference, devastating economic policies, or deporting criminals to places with power vacuums…). This results in ppl migrating to escape.
2. Current anti-immigrant and anti-hispanic sentiment is only the newest front in a long history of violence towards people of color in the US
3. Since the 1980s, immigration is no longer an administrative issue, but a matter of national security. Immigrants are criminals and thus don’t deserve rights
- Asylum seekers spend months to years in detention centers waiting for a court day
- Migrants are stripped of their belongings
- Widespread violence and rape in detention centers. Little medical care, very poor conditions
- No due process, very difficult to access legal counsel. Immigration bureaucracy is designed to be difficult, painful, and arbitrary
4. Policing the border more doesn’t stop ppl from crossing, it just results in them taking more dangerous paths and thus dying in the desert
5. ICE raids traumatize entire communities
6. Detaining ppl is lucrative, for prisons, for the tech companies carrying out surveillance, for businesses who can pay undocumented immigrants pennies without fear of retribution
7. Imagining a better future
- Migration should not be a crime. No human being should be illegal
- Abolish ICE: no reform can fix an institution whose sole purpose is to hunt and terrorize immigrants and their communities
- Basic human dignity for everyone (radical concept)
- What if the US acknowledged our role in inciting global violence for centuries and committed to righting our wrongs????

[Michelle Simoni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read this book for a while . I looked at 3 different book stores and struggled to find it where I just got it off the publishers site . This book is a MUST READ For Americans. A important note is this book was written in 2019, ice is in full force and has been more violent than ever, But they have always been violent and that is what this book highlights . As uhlmann says “there is power in knowing our history “ . Ice is Americas version of the Gestapo, and is so evil. I will suggest this book to all my friends . We need to fully understand what is going on, and we need to abolish ice . A quote that stuck with me in this book is : “abolishing an agency that hunts, assaults, and terrorizes human beings is not radical. Allowing it to continue is”. I will forever keep this book and share it with friends .

[halle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great, straight to the point and informative! Read this as a supplement to my research paper about undocumented immigrants labor market experiences.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading for any substantive discussion about immigration policy. Very easy, well-cited read that outlines how US intervention in Central America decades ago is tied to the state of affairs today. ("We are here, because you were there.") Unthinkable human rights abuses occur in ICE facilities, and the American taxpayer is footing the bill. People die of thirst in the Sonoran Desert, and border agents deliberately remove donations of water that could keep them alive. Everything about this is cruel. And it is all intentional.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Necessary reading for all in the United States. Our racist immigration and prison systems destroy the lives of black and brown people while corporations profit. Democratic and Republican Administrations both push anti-immigrant laws and regulations, costing the tax-payers billions every year. It's well past time to get rid of ICE.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Well-meaning analysts like to argue that immigration benefits the US economy: "They do the jobs we don't want to do!" While this is certainly true, it ultimately misses the point. The moment we assess a person's worth by their economic contribution, we uphold the binary between the deserving and the worthless. Rather than seeking to expand who fits in the first category, it would be better to abolish this dichotomy altogether. Those impacted by state violence deserve not just our scraps, but a seat at the table.”

“Fear is motivating. It’s easy to put a bloodthirsty monster into a cage. It’s a lot harder to cage a family seeking rescue. By accepting a national security framework for immigration, we concede that immigrants present a threat to our safety. Not only is this view dangerous, it flies in the face of US history. If anyone has been an aggressor on the global stage, it has been America.”

Yes, it’s really that bad. And yes, we’re all complicit

[Bex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important, poignant, and written for any audience. Great reading for those who are concerned, but unknowledgeable, about the ways that migrants are attacked by the US Government. Does an incredible job of pointing out how this system exists because of, and therefore upholds, white supremacy.

[Caitlin O · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear and concise. Well documented and cited. Especially cool to see many of my friends and most respected journalists cited—Katie Mettler, Ryan Devereaux, Manny Fernandez and Maria Sacchetti articles all got hat tips.

[Estelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

“not only is criminalizing the basic act of human movement violent, but it sets america up for a conversation it would likely prefer to avoid. the united states has no moral standing to put criminality on trial: no nation is more steeped in violence and dispossession.”

[Ian Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very concise, informative and stirring read.
Abolish ICE.

[Chelsey Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading

[Shouty · Rating 5 out of 5]

NECESSARY READING! ICE AIN'T EVEN THAT OLD AND WHAT DOES IT DO BESIDES TERRORIZE PEOPLE?!? WHY SHOULD CAPITAL MOVE MORE FREELY THAN HUMAN BEINGS?!

[Shruthika · Rating 4 out of 5]

very powerful, concise and timely - unfortunately there are always more horrors to learn about

[mat bullock-betts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a quick and accessible read that so eloquently interrogates the understanding of immigration to the United States from Mexico and Central America as a crisis brought on by "others." Instead, it offers the perspective that not only has land been stolen and borders moved to the south by force, but the governments of Anglo America and allies have always been severely implicated in the violence that would lead people to seek asylum or immigrate in the first place.