By Chief Ismat
Charlotte, North Carolina, u.s.a. – Over four days last week, federal officers with the u.s. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 1,300 colonized people (people of color) across the country. In North Carolina, 24 people were arrested across three cities in their latest operation on Monday.
The people who were arrested were part of targeted enforcement operations and arrests in Mecklenburg County, based on the “illegal” residence.
Due to colonialism, Indigenous people of Turtle Island (the original name of the americas) were pushed off their land. Nowadays, due to colonial violence and looting, many Indigenous people return to their ancestral colonized land of the u.s.a. But the colonial laws and government falsely accuse them of being “illegal” immigrants or residents.
Twelve were arrested in the city of Charlotte, three in Greensboro, and nine in Raleigh. Although ICE targeted only 20 people during the arrest, four others were arrested as “collateral” arrests, which is when they accidentally find immigrants who are not the original targets but are still swept up during the raids.
Six of those arrests were charged with a felony – reentry after deportation. These people were in the U.S. “illegally” with a criminal record, were arrested, then released into the community to be free until their re-capture, instead of transferring them to federal custody.
The fact that these people were released out of custody by the police has led to fighting between local police and the federal ICE agents.
Disagreements between the police and ICE
During another press conference, ICE officers criticized the North Carolina police for not cooperating fully with ICE.
Previously, ICE has criticized Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden for not cooperating (or using their words, “honoring ICE agents”) with ICE agents saying, “those policies put politics before public safety and release criminals back into communities where they are free to re-offend.”
Federal officials believe that with the help of local law enforcement, it will be easier to hold onto individuals and bring them to ‘justice’ federally through ICE. Which is what they said in a memo, but on the other hand, Sheriff McFadden of the North Carolina police stated that “I was elected with a clear mandate to stop honoring voluntary ICE detainers.”
ICE said in a press release that the cooperation of local police is essential to “protecting public safety,” but that Mecklenburg County is among those that did not ‘honor’ ICE agents or wanted to assist them.
“If you bring me a signed document by a judge, a federal warrant, I will hold him, so that is the practice we should follow,” McFadden said.
A North Carolina bill requiring all sheriff’s agencies to comply with ICE “detainer” requests was passed but vetoed by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper in August.
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Even if they fight with one another, ICE and the police both do not bring public safety. They are the ones who bring terror and violence to colonized committees either through deportations, or through everyday colonial violence and arrests.
Black Hammer Organization believes that all colonial law enforcement, including ICE, is harmful and exists to exploit the poor and working class colonized masses. Both must be destroyed for us to live safely and happily. We believe in the strength of the masses and that the U.S. should not exist. ICE is a threat to us and our non-documented comrades.
Black Hammer Organization’s latest project, Hammer City, will return the land to its rightful Indigenous owners, and it will be a place for colonized people to live with no rent, no cops, no Coronavirus, and no colonizers. If you, too, want to end the violence and injustice from the police and from ICE, join or donate to Black Hammer and help us build a world where nobody lives at the expense of another.
Land back!
