Ink Tea Stone Leaf

About two thousand students arrived outside the state capitol building in Salem, Oregon on Friday, to protest against the Trump administration and ICE. They walked out of their schools to make their voices heard, rather than quietly accept the unacceptable regime of an unaccountable, arbitrary secret police force abducting and brutalizing their neighbors, friends, and families. They stood up for their cultures, and they stood up in solidarity for one another. They made a great noise, and were not intimidated by those who tried to silence them.

Opposing the white nationalist agenda embodied by ICE is only one reason to stand up against the Trump administration, or to demand our state governments take the necessary steps to defend us. Trump’s tariffs and other economic policies are making life less affordable for all of us. His environmental policies are egregiously poisoning not only our own soil, water, and air, but the entire global environment. His cutting of vital aid programs has already caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. His corrupt practices have illegally increased his own wealth with public money on the order of billions of dollars. His suppression of the free press has made a mockery of the First Amendment. His despicable rhetoric has undermined the civil rights of the LGBTQ community. His Department of Justice has repeatedly violated the law to protect powerful people implicated in horrible crimes against women and children, including Trump himself. He is threatening to illegally seize control of this year’s elections, a direct and dire threat against the constitution and the heart of our democracy.

This morning I awoke to news that he has started a major war with Iran, an astonishing development for any supporter of his who sincerely believed that a vote for Trump was a vote against lawless, wasteful, murderous, and ruinous wars of choice. I’m not sure how many of those people there actually are, but I’ll bet they feel upset.

But for the students who protested on Friday, living under the threat of ICE’s deportations and detention camps is enough. Being told that their heritage is un-American, whether they are immigrants or indigenous, is enough. Being told that they cannot count on adults to honor the human rights of children and their families is enough.

I am incredibly proud of these principled and courageous young people, and I am glad to call them my neighbors. I join them in declaring that ICE is not welcome here, and in calling for its abolition—ICE has given America nothing except misery, tyranny, and terror.

ICE Out Now. Right Now.