Last Tuesday, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) descended on Martha's Vineyard island, the place Erudite Partner and I sporadically call home. (No, we weren't there.)
This island off Cape Cod is a complicated place. In winter a tough population of about 20,000 -- white New Englanders, members of the indigenous Wampanoag tribe, Black descendants of slavery, Brazilian/Azorean migrants, and so many others -- work to scratch out a living and prepare for the summer influx of 100,000 beach-seeking tourists. It's not an easy place, though it offers a residence to many well-off people, such the Obamas, to give one famous example.
It's no surprise that ICE assumed they could find some out-status migrants in the construction and hospitality workforce. In this, Martha's Vineyard is simply normal for contemporary America.
The MVTimes reports that the ICE raid did not seem particularly targeted. Agents stopped work vans seemingly randomly.
Thiago Alves, owner of Rhode Island–based L&R Electrical Services, said his workers were stopped by ICE on Tuesday morning on the Vineyard, but were sent on their way after they showed their paperwork.
Alves said that agents were stopping all work trucks, and that his business did not appear to be singled out: “It’s nothing against us.”
Local immigration advocates responded:
The immigrant community on the Island has been reeling from the recent detentions, many calling out of work. There have been reports of empty lumberyards and construction sites, as well as housecleaners calling out.
“Everybody is so scared,” said Meiroka Nunes, a community organizer from Brazil who has lived on the Island for more than two decades. She has heard from one Brazilian whose husband was detained on Tuesday, and whose wife has not been able to reach him.
Nunes said that she worries about the mental health of Island immigrants who fear they or their family members will be deported. She noted that it’s especially scary on the Vineyard, because there is nowhere to run.
Meanwhile, some Islanders pushed back during the raid:
One West Tisbury resident personally confronted federal agents in the field, demanding answers while recording a video that has gone viral.
Charlie Giordano, 58, used his phone to document the presence of the federal agents arresting people — some of whom live and work among us — to stand up for what Giordano believes is right at a time when legitimate fear can paralyze some from speaking out.
“I don’t care for injustice. I don’t care for bullies. I think words are who you want to be, and actions are who you are,” Giordano said in an interview with The MV Times. “Everyone says they would’ve stood up to the Nazis back in the day. This is your chance. We have to safeguard democracy and prevent tyranny.
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The Martha's Vineyard raid set off a vigorous back and forth on island social media. The Trump regime does have defenders among the islanders, though these were swamped in the last election.
One writer offered a reminder to most all:
To all my island neighbors making sure our due process rights are protected—thank you.
To all my other neighbors who think due process doesn’t exist because of someone’s immigration status, I’d like to remind you: unless you’re a member of the Wampanoag Tribe, we’re all wash-ashores—I don’t care how many generations you’ve been here.
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It was heartening to read the responses of the Reverend Stephen Harding, Rector at Grace Episcopal Church. as recorded in the MVTimes. This is our church on the island.
“We cannot be silent. If we are silent, we are complicit,” he said, noting that he was only speaking for himself and not others that signed [a religious leaders'] letter. He said that he was disturbed over how the federal agency conducted the arrests, particularly agents that covered their faces. “To do this, in this manner, is shameful. There is no honor. This masked, undercover stuff — they look like bums to me,” Harding said. “If you are going to pull someone out of their car to arrest them, have the integrity to show your face. There is no honor at all in being a bully.”
Harding also said that it didn’t appear that the agents had probable cause to make these arrests.
“It seems there is no probable cause except that they weren’t white,” Harding said. “The idea that anyone can be stopped, pulled over and detained. That is not good. I’m not a constitutional lawyer, but I don’t think that’s legal.”
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Attorney Jay Kuo has offered an insightful discussion of why Trump's minions wear those masks:
Asked by CNN why officers have opted to use masks when detaining students, a DHS spokesman said this:
“When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as police while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers.”
In other words, they don‘t want to be doxxed.
Traditionally, agents have donned facial coverings only when the arrest is of some major kingpin or mob boss, where violent retaliation is a real danger. DHS has now taken that same logic and extended it to every official action, on the grounds that the “woke mob” will seek revenge.
... The sort of folks who affirmatively want to become ICE and CBP agents, especially under the leadership of ghouls like Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, are nowadays often not true patriots wishing to protect the country.
Far-right militia groups share one thing in common with the DHS agents who are fanning out to detain immigrants: They love to wear face coverings...
The reason fascist zealots don face coverings is so that they can continue to exist anonymously in civil society and not get “canceled” (for example, fired from their jobs or have their businesses boycotted) for their white nationalist hate.
Part of fighting back
against the Trump fascists will be to outlaw masks on legitimate law enforcement
officers except in very limited circumstances.
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