Deport ICE from Cascadia

One day after a crowd of protesters defied a raid by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a Latino neighborhood of Minneapolis, and several days after another crowd shouting "Shame!" surrounded ICE agents attempting to detain people at two restaurants in San Diego, it's only a matter of time before a confrontation takes place somewhere in Cascadia, whether it's Portland, Seattle or Tacoma – home to the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC).

ICE has simultaneously demonstrated it wants to be an occupying army, a band of masked vigilantes, and a renegade police force with no need for due process or accountability.

Cascadia needs to resist ICE and demand its abolishment.

ICE agents routinely do not display badges or offer identification. They wear masks to hide their identities and often dress in street clothes that make them hard to distinguish from vigilante and militia groups such as the Proud Boys. On other occasions, as they did in Minneapolis, they dress in full tactical gear, giving the appearance of an occupying army.

Recent news reports indicate that the Trump administration is demanding an extremely high number of detentions from ICE without warrants – 3,000 per day. This isn't an effort to go after violent criminals or gang members. It's finding any excuse to detain and deport all immigrants without documentation. A quick look at the cases of people detained by ICE locally confirms this: a UW worker with a green card who decades ago served a 30-day sentence for minor embezzlement conviction, a trans woman from Mexico living in Portland seeking asylum who was detained for unspecified reasons, a union organizer in Washington with no criminal record who was seized after ICE smashed his car window.

ICE is also lurking in immigration courthouses and even arresting judges who have the decency to prevent these illegal and cruel seizures.

Thankfully, Washington and Oregon both have laws on the books that prevent local law enforcement from assisting in ICE's campaign of terror. Oregon first passed a sanctuary law in 1987 and strengthened its provisions in 2021, preventing local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement. Washington enacted similar restrictions on local law enforcement in 2019. But what those laws don't prevent, as Minneapolis is discovering, is local police engaging in crowd control or arresting anyone who physically resists an ICE agent.

What can you legally do to help defeat ICE? First, donate to an organization such as the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Write to your representatives and demand they support the abolition of ICE. Join the Asylum Seeker Solidarity Collective in Portland, which is working to peacefully assist immigrants and prevent detentions.

And what to do find yourself in a confrontation? I can't give you legal advice, but the ACLU of Northern California has good guide to what do during an encounter with ICE. Oh and it is ALWAYS good to follow the advice of those lovely YouTube attorneys who remind folks every Friday what to do if you're detained by any law enforcement officer: do not answer questions, claim your fifth amendment rights, ask to see an attorney, and then Shut the Fuck Up.

The rise of ICE as the US fascist regime's military police force makes it clear that Cascadia needs to talk about peaceful options for independence from the United States – the only sure way to end our region's troubled relationship with this occupying army.