ICE uses racial profiling and unlawful detention

Thank you for your careful, detailed reporting on the recent ICE raids and related law enforcement abuses across Sanpete County, and on the various community member responses.

As ICE’s statements have conflicted with those of other witnesses, and as some community members have understandable apprehensions about going on record, these serious and upsetting events are difficult to report on with clarity and certainty.

Based on the available statewide reporting so far, and on ongoing conversations with close friends and neighbors immediately impacted, I believe these ICE raids reveal some of the worst, and some of the best aspects of our community.

Given the well-established record of ICE’s thorough and ongoing violation of constitutional rights and basic safety nationwide, especially over the past couple years, it is indefensible that any of our local police departments would find it appropriate to enter into voluntary MOUs to collaborate with this lawless, rogue agency.

ICE began in the aftermath of 911, under a national state of exception that has, since then, allowed the agency to operate as a domestic paramilitary force, at a skyrocketing expense to U.S. taxpayers. (Who benefits from such massive detention and deportation operations? Not Sanpeters, but private detention and prison companies, for starters.)

This past year, their annual budget has gone from a steady $10 billion, to roughly triple that amount. With this bloated budget, and daily arrest quotas of 3,000 people–very often without warrants, charges, probable cause, or due process–ICE has, on a routine basis, irredeemably broken trust with the American people.

Nationally, dozens have died in ICE custody this year alone, and the agency continues to terrorize American communities through their sloppy, reckless operations. They have torn apart families, and bullied good, working people and law-abiding US residents.

Our local police departments are under no obligation to participate. (If, in reading this, you find yourself still searching for rationale to defend these violations of the constitution and basic human rights and dignity, please ask yourself why, and consider what personal reflection might be in order.)

We must do better than this. Both for the safety of the public, and of the officers, there’s critical need for law enforcement to establish and maintain basic trust with their service community. I say this as someone who counts many law enforcement officers (including a former ICE officer) among some of my closest and most respected friends and neighbors.

Racial profiling and unlawful detention are disgusting and have no place in our community. However, it has been encouraging to see local businesses, schools, and other individuals generously stepping forward to offer various forms of support and protection to those impacted.

I hope and pray we can all learn from both the harm and the good that has been done, take all necessary steps to rebuild public trust and prevent such violations from ever happening again, and apply these as lessons for how to better watch out and care for, rather than be driven against, each other as community members.

—English Brooks, Ephraim