Following the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota Jan. 7, demonstrations around the nation have taken place to protest the presence of ICE in cities. Suffolk University students and staff shared their perspectives on ICE presence in Boston and expressed fears for the future.
“I think everybody should be fearing what ICE is doing across the country because when we have a rogue agency like this, that is so comfortable with the harm that they’re causing people, that should be ringing an alarm bell to everyone,” said Joey Pisani, a sophomore political science major.
There has been a reported rise in brutality at the hands of ICE officers. Videos have surfaced on social media of officers using violent force to detain people on the streets. Recently, a Cuban immigrant was killed in an ICE detention center; a witness said he was killed by an ICE agent who pinned and choked him.
“We’re seeing specific racist, xenophobic attacks from this administration and in their strategy of carrying this out,” said Pisani, referencing the Trump administration’s defense of the ICE presence around the nation as well as the racial profiling tactics used by ICE agents when detaining people.
Trump has used strategies of demonizing immigrants to gain support for his deportation efforts, negatively depicting the countries from which many immigrants come, and asking why more immigrants do not come to the United States from Scandinavian countries.
A list of 75 countries was released Jan. 14 by the Trump administration that suspends the immigration visas from people in these countries, a pause that will begin Jan. 21.
“People are not coming to steal our jobs. People are not coming to harm us. That’s always been a narrative that’s existed since the 1800s, since the 1500s even, in the United States,” said Hannah Peoples, a junior history major.
Many students are not optimistic that the ICE presence in Boston and other major cities is coming to an end.
Jaenelle Bryant, a junior biology major, said, “I think it’s going to get worse and I think that means communities have to be that much more involved in opposing this effort.”
At Suffolk Law School, there is an Immigration Justice Clinic where students in their third year can participate in casework and seminars that teach them about immigration law. Students who are a part of this clinic participate in community work centered around providing legal guidance to immigrant communities and organizations around Boston.
“This year, just because of the increase in arrests and detention by ICE, we have primarily been focusing on helping people get released from detention centers,” said Ragini Shah, the clinic professor and founder of the Immigration Justice Clinic.
Since Shah began this clinic in 2007, the work and focus have shifted — especially recently as ICE activity has ramped up with greater numbers of people being detained and deported.
“A lot of what we’re doing is advising people on what it looks like to check in with ICE, rapid response when a person gets detained, trying to figure out where they are, trying to figure out if we can make an argument for their release,” said Shah. “And then the other side of it is that, other than the ICE activity, the [Trump] administration has also issued this new travel ban and paused all green card applications for people from 75 different countries and so that has meant that some of our existing clients, we actually can’t move forward on their case because the administration has said that they’re just not going to adjudicate applications from those places.”
For the immigrants that the clinic works with, there are concerns and fears that many have in common.
“I think the biggest fear is deportation, particularly to a place that’s not even their home country,” said Shah. “The reality is there’s not much we can do if the government decides to send people to these places.”
With strong opposition to ICE on Suffolk’s campus, students shared their perspectives on how they should demonstrate their resistance.
“College students for such a long time have been one of the first lines of resistance and led these resistance movements, particularly when it’s not easy to,” said Pisani.
Students know that resistance is the way they can make a lasting change, prompting many like Pisani and Bryant to advocate for resistance through whatever avenue is available to them. Pisani lists social media and messaging lawmakers as alternatives to attending a protest.
“ICE is not welcome. You can not come and take our neighbors and our friends, at least not without a fight,” said Bryant.
Many students felt that the privilege of white people in the community should be used to stand up for people of color who have been at a higher risk of being victims of recent ICE actions.
“If you’re not a person who is targeted in this situation, you need to stand up for your fellow students. You need to stand up for people you may not even know,” said Peoples.
Shah offers a different perspective on how people should advocate for reform.
“A lot of what the [Trump] administration is doing is not actually unlawful and they’re just maximizing their powers under the law so when we see people being deported to places that they’ve never lived, it’s outrageous, but it’s legally allowed,” said Shah. “My hope is that understanding that will make more people realize how urgent it is that the immigration laws are changed to be more humane.”
