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We Must Stop Being Good Germans
by Frank O'Gorman
The Gestapo have been raiding homes in East Hartford, Hartford, Danbury, New Haven and Wallingford for the past two years.

Today they call themselves Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents. This time they are not targeting Jews, queers and gypsies. Not yet.

They are targeting primarily working class Latino (and one Arab) immigrants whose only crime is fleeing political and economic oppression caused by years of US support of right-wing dictatorships in Latin America.

Their tactics are the same as in Germany: middle of the night raids ripping husbands and fathers from their screaming wives and children. The abductees are detained in out-of-state prisons far from family and legal counsel.

These Gestapo Raids are designed to terrorize whole communities and so they have.

On November 2, 2007, nine people were abducted by ICE from their homes in Parkville, Hartford. Read Hartford Courant article.

Immigrant Rights Organizations and allies have heroically marched and rallied and kept vigil outside federal courthouses for the past two years. We salute them.

Still, the raids continue.

It's time we all stopped being good Germans.*

Everyone who benefits from living in this country must stand in solidarity with our undocumented brothers and sisters as we
turn up the heat on ICE.

We must pressure mayors, city councils, state elected officials, Attorney General Blumenthal and Governor Rell to stop state and local police and the Department of Correction from cooperating in the Gestapo raids.

We must pressure Senators Dodd and Lieberman and Representatives Larson, DeLauro, Murphy, Courtney and Shays to demand in Washington an end to the ICE terror raids.

Stay tuned for further announcements.

It is especially troubling to realize that MIDDLE-CLASS WHITE CHRISTIANS are terrorizing WORKING-CLASS LATINO CHRISTIANS.
It is therefore the moral and religious imperative of white Christians to Shut Down the ICE Machine.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

*(The 'good Germans' were the citizens of Nazi Germany who, after 1945, claimed not to have supported the regime, even if they made no effort to oppose it. Today the term has been given a broader application, one which refers to people in any country who observe reprehensible things being done by their government but nevertheless remain silent and do not challenge or impede them.)

'ICE' Is NOT Welcome!

by Francisco L. Acevedo
Free People's Movement, Hartford
The latest Immigration and Customs Enforcement terror raids present us with a clear message: ICE has made it clear it will continue to conduct terror raids among working class immigrants in our communities.

We must make our message clear: the terrorist organization ICE has demonstrated that it is prepared to strike again, continue to split families apart, attempt to control us through fear and violence - We refuse to accept this kind of terror to continue!

Our sixth point in our 8-Point Program reads "We want an immediate end to the raids by 'la migra', police brutality and racism against people of color and all oppressed people in our communities."

ICE is NOT welcome in Hartford!

NO Human is ILLEGAL!
*************

All it takes
for evil to thrive
is for good people
to do
absolutely nothing.


 





CODE ORANGE: IMMIGRANTS UNDER ATTACK!

Emails Shed Light on Racist
Immigration Raids!

by Khalil Iskarous
Emails between the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CT State Police prior to the New Haven raids have been released to Unidad Latina en Accion and Junta for Progressive Action, thanks to the Yale Law Clinic. The raids horrified thousands in New Haven and across the state. In the exchange ICE invites the State Police to come "play", saying that they have 18 addresses, so it should be "great fun". The State Police reply is "sounds great". Some parts of the emails, however, are still under black magic marker.

These emails (.PDF) reveal the racist nature of the raids that are horrifying hundreds of thousands throughout the country. If victims of these raids were from Austria or Sweden, it's unlikely that Federal and State Police would be using the language of sport-- the language of hunting. This language is reserved for immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

But the racism extends far up the hierarchy to the government that plans the destruction of undocumented workers lives, and thrives in the context of a xenophobic national media.

The story was covered on the front page of the New Haven Register and in more detail in the Yale Daily News. A press conference on the racist raids and deportations is being planned by Unidad Latina en Accion.

STOP THE RACIST RAIDS! STOP THE DEPORTATIONS!

Will White People Watch as Trucks Carry Us Away?


by Cornell Lewis
We need to ask questions concerning allegiances from those claiming to be friends of black people. If we do not ask now, it is going to be too late for conversation later. When the tide of racism overflows the dams of social restraints and cascades into the valley of civilization, everything is swept away.

A perusal of history details graphically what happened to Jewish people when the Nazi Party came to power. People watched as Jews were taken away in trains, trucks and cars to horrible fates. If we believe such a series of events cannot happen in America-being taken away for death by racists- then blacks are fools.

I labor under no illusion about America, what she will and can do. Look at the lynching of blacks; laws designed to keep blacks powerless, slavery. Yes, it occurred right here in America, while SOME whites watched. I must admit SOME of our white abolitionist brothers spoke-out against racism and slavery, others kept silent.

Read Entire Blog Entry
 

Scapegoating as Immature Theology and Psychology
by Rev. Donna Schaper
Being "Alien" is bad enough. Being blamed for being alien is worse. Being blamed for your poverty is also pretty rotten. "It's your fault!" We scream this at others because we don't want to bear the "fault" of our own suffering. We don't know how to suffer. Having a demonic alien seems to pacify something in people.

Gays get a little different language beyond demonic alien: they are not normal, implying that normal is good. But the demonizing, externalizing, scapegoating pattern is the same. You can almost hear its hatred winding up, like a pitcher about to throw a fast ball. When the phrase "You people" comes out, watch out. When the phrase, "Them" comes out, duck. When the phrase "Not like ordinary people" shows up, put on your bullet proof vest or at least your helmet.

The OTHERIZING is the pattern that links the civil rights movement, the immigrant rights movement, the gay rights movement and many others. Those people, you people, the people not known as people but the ones known as them are the problem. We "normal" people no longer have a problem: we gave it to you to carry.

Some (White) folk want everything but the burden.

Read Entire Commentary (.PDF)

ICE's "Endgame" Plan for Immigrants

from ICE Office of Detention and Removal
"ENDGAME is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Detention and Removal multi-year strategic enforcement plan. It stresses the effective and efficient execution of the critical service DRO provides its partners and stakeholders to enforce the nation's immigration and naturalization laws. The DRO strategic plan sets in motion a cohesive enforcement program with a ten-year time horizon that will build the capacity to "remove all removable aliens," eliminate the backlog of unexecuted final order removal cases, and realize its vision."

Read the entire Endgame Plan (.PDF)


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