Letter: ICE detentions chill freedom of speech and the right to dissent

The recent spate of ICE detentions are all the bad things rolled into one: racial profiling, lack of due process, suppression of free speech, religious intolerance, authoritarian state power, (and) failure to respect human dignity.

A holder of a legal and valid F-1 visa, Rumeysa Ozturk – hustled off a Somerville street by masked officers wearing black who refused to identify themselves to her – became a target of the Trump/Rubio purge because she wrote a letter to a student newspaper reminding an American university to stand up for and practice first amendment rights.

What about the gay make-up artist from Venezuela, Andry Hernandez Romero, also sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador? Even sometimes Trump supporter Joe Rogan says “It’s horrific. This is the thing, you know, measure it twice, cut it once. That’s not good for the cause. The cause is: Let’s get the gang members out. Everybody agrees. But let’s not (let) innocent gay hairdressers get lumped up with the gangs.”   

And most recently, a “US- born American citizen was being detained at the request of immigration authorities despite an advocate showing his US birth certificate in court and a county judge finding no reason for him to be considered an ‘illegal alien.’” Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez might have been the first citizen deported, but NPR reports the Trump administration is “actively exploring a proposal to detain US citizens and send them to El Salvador.” Decorated veterans are being deported.

These horrific scenes are what it looks like to “take America back.” We learned in the first Trump administration that “cruelty is the point.” These government practices are a kind of intellectual terrorism: ICE chills freedom of speech and the right to dissent, even the right to exist. So when the Burrillville Town Council considers a resolution “affirming our desire to cooperate with federal authorities” (as they did at their meeting March 12,) they are asking all of us to consent to those practices that represent the worst of America. In this case, we should consider ourselves and our neighbors lucky the TC decided to “keep their powder dry” and “not pull the trigger yet” rather than tell the ACLU they refused their request to pass a model ordinance.

Today, 6.1 percent of Burrillville residents are immigrants.  Our interlocking system of government – federal, state and local – was designed for the good of all of us as a whole and each of us (as) individuals. The Burrillville Democratic Town Committee wants to ensure that each person is afforded due process and dignified treatment. We stand against unconstitutional ICE detentions and the chilling effect they have (on) freedom (of) speech and all other civil rights. 

In this instance, we stand with Joe Rogan: “It’s horrific.  Let’s not.”

 The Burrillville Democratic Town Committee