NDLON: Reaction to Leak of Planned ICE Escalation

Los Angeles — In response to leaks of a planned escalation by the Trump administration, Pablo Alvarado, NDLON Executive Director, released the following statement:

“No one doubts that Donald Trump will do anything to stay in power. Nor that ICE is the rogue agency he uses to send political messages to opponents and allies alike. The question is why do local and federal Democratic officials continue to enable and fund them?

“In moments of persecution, we find out who our real allies are. Will local and federal Democrats enact policies that protect immigrants and reject collusion with ICE, or will we hear the usual rhetoric using immigration as a wedge issue for the next election?

“Mass deportation does not require that ICE directly arrests 11 million people. It’s a strategy of attrition centered on fear – on making lives miserable for non-white immigrants. It is at its core a racist agenda to reduce America’s non-white population. It is this despicable worldview that we saw in the streets of Charlottesville and that we see now in the Florida statehouse.

“Fortunately, there is a way forward. California has established a standard for localities that seek to reject family separation, a floor to emulate and surpass. Our task today is to ensure that our public official are advancing these local lines of defense, not making excuses, and not enabling or funding the racist worldview they purport to detest.”

###