Commentary by Jerry Lanson

From health care to higher education, scientific research to social policy, the Trump Administration in six short months has propelled this country sharply backwards.

Looking forward, however, the heart of the fight to preserve our democracy will rest on all our ability to expose and reject the increasingly lawless reach of the administration in enforcing its ever-harsher immigration “policies.” That fight will demand determined, unrelenting and united action. After June’s successful No Kings protests, the fight continued Thursday with nationwide rallies named after the “Good Trouble” stirred throughout his lifetime by former Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis.

Donald Trump’s Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) already has proven itself to be ruthless, both in the sweep of its arrests and its tactics. And it is gearing up to be much worse.

Already, ICE agents across the country are arresting far more completely law-abiding individuals than criminals. ICE agents are plucking them from streets, rounding them up at their workplaces, pulling them from immigration courthouses and even from their cars. They do so without warrants and without identifying themselves. With the blessing of an ideologically hard-right Supreme Court super-majority, the agency already has begun deporting some immigrants to distant countries known for torture. ICE also has arrested citizens, sometimes by mistake, sometimes because they allegedly get in the way. And it regularly separates parents from their children, many of whom were born in the United States.

The scale of these actions is about to explode. 

•A New York Times article titled, “ICE Set to Vastly Expand its Reach ...” noted that the budget of ICE will more than triple to $28 billion a year under the new GOP-driven budget law, making it “the highest funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.”

•The agency is set to hire as many as 10,000 new agents across the country. “You’re going to see immigration enforcement on a level you’ve never seen before,” Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told the NYT.

•The acting director of ICE, in an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, wrote that ICE may deport thousands of undocumented immigrants to countries other than their country of origin, doing so in as little as six hours after taking them into detention.

•In a separate article, the WaPo on Monday reported that ICE, according to its own internal memo, intends to deny all immigrants who arrived undocumented in the United States the right to a bond hearing. This means that some could remain behind bars for months or years as they fight deportation. The new Republican budget law provides funds for to more than double the number of prison beds for immigrants. 

•Nearly three-quarters of immigrants being detained – 72 percent – have not been convicted of any crime whatsoever Fortune reports. This figure, based on ICE’s own internal documents, continues to grow. 

•The brazenness of ICE operations also continues to escalate. In my hometown of Falmouth, Massachusetts, agents, some masked, took a man away in handcuffs at around 9 a.m. on Friday, July 11, in front of a highly popular and busy coffee shop. They were filmed disregarding requests that they identify themselves. When they took the man away, they left his car running on the street, according to witnesses. Falmouth police said they were not notified in advance.

In San Diego, a 71-year-old U.S. citizen was detained for 8 hours by ICE after she was handcuffed by agents at a federal immigration courthouse she had visited to observe ICE operations, ABC Local 7 News reported. ICE said Barbara Stone pushed an agent, but no charges were filed against her. Her phone was confiscated.

Such horrifying incidents continue to grow in number. The good news is that Americans are noticing. Their views on immigration and on Trump’s policies are now changing rapidly as some activists take specific action to document and slow ICE’s assault on American communities.

A study last week by the venerable Gallup polling organization found that a record-high 79% of Americans now say that immigration “is a good thing” for the country. Furthermore, the poll, taken June 2-26 and based on interviews with more than 1,400 people nationwide, found that only 35% approved of Trump’s immigration policies while 62% disapproved. That’s a remarkable shift from both the weeks before the election and the start of Trump’s term, when slight majorities favored his crackdown on immigrant “criminals.” The Gallup poll showed by far the biggest gap between approval and disapproval since Trump’s term began.

People are speaking out, too – on local government boards, in letters to newspapers, in protests around the country, in telephone calls to their election representatives and at gatherings.

On Tuesday, for example, The Boston Globe ran three letters critical of the ICE’s immigration actions.One ranunder the headline, “We will not be bystanders to ICE’s thuggery.” It started, “A counterforce has begun in communities of faith.”

That counterforce also has led to the formation of community organizations to support and inform immigrants. The newly formed Falmouth Immigrant Resource Coalition hands out cards and brochures in multiple languages to inform immigrants of their rights, prepare families should a loved one be detained, and connect them with longstanding immigrant organizations that can help with legal advice, counseling and more.

Still other organizations are springing up to bear witness to ICE arrests and record them on video. This may become particularly vital as the agency tries to deport immigrants rapidly to countries serving as offshore concentration camps.

Countering an increasingly aggressive, shadowy and well-financed federal agency is taxing and can seem scary. But it also is urgent. Speaking out for the rights of all matters. It takes a bit of courage. But with that courage comes renewed energy and hope.

Stay peaceful. But stand up and be counted by attending rallies like Good Trouble and No Kings.

Lanson’s column first appeared in his Substack, From the Grassroots.