Protesters call for the abolition of ICE in California. Photo: Pedro Rios/AFSC Pedro Rios / AFSC
WASHINGTON DC (January 14, 2021) Today, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) – a Quaker organization that has worked for more than a century for peace and justice across the globe – delivered over 44,000 petition signatures to Congress demanding the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Every person has the right to live without fear of being separated from their community, and to be treated with dignity and respect,” said Kristin Kumpf, AFSC’s Director of Human Migration and Mobility. “ICE’s very mission means that it tears apart families, destabilizes communities, and makes us all less safe. That’s why we are calling on Congress to defund and dismantle the agency.”
Over the past year, ICE has jailed tens of thousands of immigrants in detention centers—where COVID-19 cases have surged amid unsanitary conditions and inadequate health care. Just a few months ago, a whistleblower report revealed that nonconsensual hysterectomies were being performed on people detained at a for-profit ICE facility in Georgia. And over the summer, ICE agents were deployed against people taking part in peaceful protests for racial justice across the country. Community organizations, religious institutions, and even members of Congress have been speaking up in favor of abolishing ICE.
“ICE operates as the principle instrument towards criminalizing and persecuting working class migrant workers and communities,” said Benjamin Prado of AFSC’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program. “Their surveillance, questioning, and detention tactics constitute a policy of state terror with far reaching and long lasting consequences for working families, and the destabilization of entire communities. In San Diego we support the efforts to organize community self-defense patrols to counter ongoing ICE terror.”
AFSC is taking a two-pronged approach to abolishing ICE. First, they are pressuring Congress directly to defund and dismantle ICE. Second, they are working at the local level to keep ICE out of communities through sanctuary policies, working to end detention contracts, accompanying those facing deportation, and documenting ICE abuses.
“The Biden administration and the 117th Congress are uniquely positioned to dismantle this racist and oppressive institution,” said Tori Bateman, Policy Advocacy Coordinator for AFSC. “The 44,000 people who signed this petition want policies that support our communities rather than tearing them apart. It is our responsibility to both our values and our communities to demand an end to this injustice.”
# # #
The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, we nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social systems.