Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dan DeWalt, an artisan and activist interested in democracy and the Constitution. He writes from South Newfane.
[A]sylum seekers legally come to the U.S. to escape persecution and likely death in their home countries. Upon arriving in some locations, mothers and children are locked into windowless, chilled rooms without sustaining food or water for days. Then the children are kidnapped, taken to undisclosed locations, and dispersed throughout the country without keeping track of where they go, all in the hope of destroying their and their parents lives, in order to send a “message” to other would-be asylum seekers to stay away from the land of the free and the brave.
When we finally learned about this kidnapping, torture and abuse, the judicial system took some steps to find those children and reunite them with their parents. This has helped some of those children find their parents again. And we are learning that many of them have been severely traumatized by the experience. Each one of them will suffer from the effects for the rest of their lives. On top of this, some number of thousands of children have been “lost” and the Trump administration tells us that it is just too complicated and expensive for federal workers to find them all. The nation is reacting with a collective (oh, just another outrage) yawn. So now, we are all criminals.
It doesn’t matter how much we have been buffeted by the slings and arrows of outrageous Trump actions; to become inured to child torture, kidnapping and disappearance is to be culpable. This administration is engaging in crimes against humanity every day. Its victims are parents and children, especially the children. Unless we are actively working to reverse this situation, every one of us is also guilty of these crimes. Our non-action makes us accessories after the fact.
It’s difficult to think of what we could do. But we could start by seeking out ICE agents at every opportunity. Engage them in a conversation. Ask them if they support kidnapping, abuse and disappearance of children by their organization. If you call the ICE field office responsible for Vermont, (781) 359-7511, you may get a message saying “mailbox full, goodbye.” So try another office. ICE should be busy fielding probing phone calls all day long. If we keep them busy trying to explain how these crimes against children are justified, they will have to think about their actions and have less time available to carry out their destructive work.
Rudy, an ICE agent in Arizona, (602) 200-2215, is willing to talk about this. As a child, he did migrant farm work with his parents. He has experienced and understands the debasing treatment that these workers face. He claims to have not witnessed any of the substandard detention practices that are being described in news reports. He also, as of Feb. 9, was not aware of the Trump administration’s recent statement saying that it is too expensive to bother finding all of the children who have been taken from their parents. It might be useful to give him a call and have a conversation. He clearly seems to be a humane individual, but he is not aware of the reported abuses that would be so alarming to a humane individual. He, and every other ICE employee need to be apprised of the facts and made to reconcile their personal morality with the reality of ICE abuses.
Rudy is one employee who was willing and interested to engage in thoughtful discussion. Let’s try to not demonize ICE agents and instead simply hold every one of them accountable for the actions of the Department of Homeland Security. If we ask hard questions without being abusive, we may be able to induce some doubt and reflection from these agents. If they are not aware of abuses, they must be made aware. If they defend the abuses, they must repeatedly hear clear arguments that make them rethink their position.
And even though their reactions thus far have been symbolic and feckless, it is still important to bombard our representatives in Congress about this same issue. It is all too easy for them to move on to the next big issue and allow unfinished business to lag and be forgotten. We can ensure that this issue stays in the forefront of politicians radar screens. We can ensure that ICE doesn’t get the notion that Americans support their abusive actions. We can ensure that ICE workers have to defend their organization every day and that they know that we are holding them personally accountable for their actions and the actions of the DHS.
Just because an issue is so large that it makes us feel powerless, doesn’t mean that we are powerless. Our power is in our numbers and that power isn’t wielded until all of our numbers start exercising it. We have a choice here. Take action and reach out to ICE and our representatives, or sit back and become criminals ourselves.
For a list of ICE field offices and representatives, visit www.ice.gov/contact/oce.
If we don’t engage about these crimes against humanity, then we all deserve to end up at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. If we don’t stand up to Trump, then we deserve to be his cellmate.
