ICE Out! National Shutdown

In support of today's National Shutdown, I'm not going to work (ha) or shop today. This country is in serious need of an ICE breaker. Whatever your feelings on immigration (I'm the son of immigrants, and have had countless immigrant friends, classmates, neighbors, and colleagues), it's clear that putting masked, jackbooted thugs on the ground in American cities, on the streets of Minneapolis and elsewhere, is not what the people want.

The majority of immigrants in this country, documented or otherwise, are not violent criminals. The agencies involved in rounding them up appear to deny their very humanity, however, and we have cases like:

• Maher Tarabishi, a Texas man whose detention may have caused his chronically ill son's death, and who was denied temporary releases to see his son on his hospital deathbed and to attend the funeral
• Milagros Solis Portillo, a California woman who suffered a medical episode when she was detained, then was forcibly removed from the hospital and transferred to Indiana
• Harol Alvarado Rodriguez, a New Jersey man grabbed on his way to work and transferred to four immigration detention centers in four different states since December

Then there are those who have died in ICE detention. And who can talk about ICE and death without mentioning American citizens Alex Pretty, and Renée Good (both from Minnesota), and Keith Porter, Jr. (from California)? But then American citizens have their heads in the sand if they think they're automatically safe from this administration.

Slowing or stopping immigration, and repatriating immigrants already here, should not result in death, serious injury, or separation of young children from their parents. It should not result in people being disappeared. Peacefully protesting these reprehensible and inhuman actions should not result in death. Citizen, documented resident, or undocumented, we are all human and we all demand to be treated as such.

Last year's Oscar winner for best international feature film, "Ainda Estou Aqui" ("I'm Still Here"), and this year's Golden Globe winner for best foreign language film (and Oscar nominee for best picture and best international feature film), "O Agente Secreto" ("The Secret Agent"), are both Brazilian films set during the military dictatorship in that country (where my parents were from). Brazil suffered that dictatorship (not its first) for over 20 years before returning to democratic civilian rule. Brazilian citizens were detained, tortured, killed, disappeared. And Brazil is hardly unique. Bullies and assholes have always existed, and sadly probably always will. Doesn't mean we stand silently by or make excuses for them.