Layan Sima Fuleihan

Today I marched with New Yorkers to abolish ICE, get ICE out of our communities, and make NYC a true sanctuary city. Jessica Tisch must be fired, but the real onus is on the mayor, who was elected with the immigrant rights movement’s backing. The mayor must enforce his own Executive Order 13 and kick ICE out of our city: no ICE staging in public parking lots, no presence at Rikers. We can do far more to obstruct Trump’s rampaging paramilitaries.

Yesterday, I picked up my three boys from school. That same afternoon, an ICE agent shot another Bronx father, Oscar Belgal, in the neck while his five-year-old son sat in the car. This injustice sickens me. I can’t stop picturing my own children in that seat, and the trauma they would carry for the rest of their lives if this happened to them. ICE agents fired seven shots into Oscar’s car, putting in danger every parent picking up their child from school and every worker returning home. We cannot have masked men brandishing AR-15s running around our communities with a license to shoot whomever they deem a threat. That the killers of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti still have not been charged has sent a signal to ICE agents everywhere that they are above the law. For the protection of our neighbors, we must abolish ICE and kick every ICE agent out of our communities. This injustice reflects the betrayal of both establishment parties. Time and again, Democrats have failed to deliver meaningful immigration reform, leaving millions of workers vulnerable. Now Trump and his team of billionaire bigots feel empowered to unleash state-sanctioned violence on immigrant communities, threatening the rights and safety of us all. New York City calls itself a sanctuary city. In practice, our neighbors are still terrified to go to work, to buy groceries for their families, to pick up their children from school. ICE agents lurk in parking lots across the city, ready to round up immigrant workers, including the lot at 40 West 225th St., blocks from where agents fired seven rounds into Oscar’s car. We cannot accept a world where armed, rogue agents terrorize families and violently round up working people for deportation. We need immediate action to defund, abolish, and expel ICE from our cities. Ritchie Torres, who currently represents New York’s 15th Congressional District in the Bronx, has voted for pro-ICE legislation. This includes Trump’s draconian Laken Riley Act. Now, with this injustice unfolding in his own borough, he has exposed his cowardice by refusing to call for ICE’s abolition. Instead, he is asking for an “investigation” and for ICE to release footage of the shooting. To call these demands inadequate is an understatement. They are a betrayal of the Bronx. By bringing up Oscar’s past interactions with law enforcement, none of which justify shooting him and endangering his child, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch helped demonize him. Tisch and the NYPD are effectively running cover for the Trump administration, which works overtime to paint all immigrant workers as criminals. Jessica Tisch must be fired. But she is not the only one responsible for the city’s collaboration with ICE. The real onus is on the mayor, who was elected with the backing and support of the immigrant rights movement and must be held accountable. It is good the mayor has called to abolish ICE, but now he must fully enforce his own Executive Order 13 and kick every ICE agent out of our city. They shouldn’t be able to use any public parking lots as staging grounds. They shouldn’t be at Rikers. A lot more can be done to obstruct Trump’s rampaging paramilitaries. We won’t end ICE terror by relying on the same politicians who built the deportation machine and keep funding it. We need a mass movement powerful enough to dismantle it and win full, equal, and permanent rights for all immigrants. Immigrant workers keep this country running, not billionaires. The same billionaire class that has made super-profits from their exploitation is now turning around to intimidate and scapegoat them for the country’s problems. The tens of billions of dollars going to ICE need to be redirected to good jobs, our schools, our housing, and our healthcare. Full rights for all immigrants, now.