The editorial board is the official opinion of The Georgetown Voice. The editorial board operates independently of the Voice’s newsroom and the General Board. The board’s editorials reflect the majority opinion of the editorial board’s members, who are listed on the masthead.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) murdered two civilians in Minneapolis last month. An untold number of people, including children as young as five, have been abducted from U.S. streets and deported. Immigration agents armed with assault rifles and wartime tactical gear have stormed into homes and schools across the country. The American government has ripped parents away from their children and deployed tear gas outside elementary schools.
ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have escalated their encroachment on human rights under the Trump administration. This editorial board believes that pushing back against the mass deployment of federal agents is a moral imperative for Georgetown students and all Americans.
The stated goal of ICE under the Trump administration is to target “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.” However, substantial evidence indicates no link between immigration status and crime, with some studies even finding a negative correlation. Thus, we must conclude that ICE’s mere existence is a reflection of American xenophobia rather than a response to any genuine security threat. Regardless, ICE’s stated goal is undercut by its practice, with virtually no distinction between criminal and noncriminal immigrant detention.
Make no mistake, ICE is serving both as an extension of American racial policing and as a secret police, acting on the political whims of a fascist regime and the personal vindictiveness of its egotistical leader.
Directly or indirectly, this will affect you. It is our collective social responsibility to respond to it. These are the stakes, and though you may not realize it yet, President Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and every other right-wing sycophant certainly do. If we want to protect any semblance of democracy in the U.S., we must act.
Many Georgetown classes encourage students to explore social and political issues, but access to the classroom is itself a privileged position. We do not use the term privilege in a pejorative way. While on campus, many of us can avoid physical contact with ICE and its actions with minimal effort. The ability to think critically and learn about pressing contemporary issues in a safe environment is important, but it does not substitute the active resistance necessitated by the present moment. For those who are secure, it becomes crucial to demand that personal safety is not a privilege.
At this moment, it is also necessary to remember that not all of our peers are secure. Many students face the impacts of ICE’s crackdown in various ways—whether their own status in this country is threatened, they have family members who have been kidnapped or are living in fear, or they are at risk of being racially profiled on the streets. We owe our efforts to the broader movement, but as Georgetown students, we should also feel responsible to our peers—and that includes fellow students, on-campus workers, and our local Georgetown and D.C. communities.
If you are a U.S. citizen, white, or privileged in other ways, use that privilege to support those who lack it. This can include sharing information about raids and ICE presence through Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid’s hotline at 202-335-1183, or physically and financially supporting immigrant workers and businesses currently under threat in our neighborhood.
Students must also organize on our campus and beyond. Join campus advocacy groups and clubs that work with and for vulnerable populations, such as the Georgetown Coalition for Workers’ Rights and Hoyas for Immigrant Rights. Engage in D.C. by assisting in ICE watch groups, mutual aid, and community organizing. If long-term club commitments are not possible, going to a protest only requires a few hours of free time. Additionally, solidarity means checking in on your friends and advocating for your peers so they don’t carry the weight of activism alone.
Collective action is necessary to fight this organization. When resisting any institution, but especially those with the amount of power possessed by the state, power is in numbers. The editorial board recognizes that students’ ambitions lead them to a wide range of passions and interests, but we believe that, more than ever, we must prioritize collective organization.
Ultimately, the end goal must be the abolition of ICE and DHS as a whole. At just two decades old, DHS has consistently been tyrannical, designed to skirt accountability and impede Constitutional rights. Abolition is a daunting yet vital goal that will not happen overnight. Until then, we must prioritize supporting our community members, especially those whose personal safety is jeopardized by ICE.
Georgetown’s Jesuit education teaches its students that a better world is possible through caring for each and every person. This editorial board believes that abolishing ICE is essential to providing that care and creating that better world.
We must be direct and courageous in this moment. Miller, Trump, Greg Bovino, and all of those involved in ICE’s tyranny are counting on us to ignore what they are doing. They want us to fear our own neighbors, especially those who might not speak the same language or share the same skin color as we do. They are employing violence in a desperate attempt to stave off resistance, hoping we will turn to hate instead of seeing our collective humanity. We cannot appease their violent intimidation tactics. It is our collective responsibility to join together in renewed resistance and community support. Our futures depend on it.
