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We Need to Pay Attention to Organizations Shutting Down ICE
Whether it’s a detention center or concentration camp, the goal is clear: disruption
Last week, a judge in Houston dismissed misdemeanor charges (contingent on community service) against five Jewish protesters with Never Again Action for blocking Emancipation Avenue near Casa Sunzal, a year-old Southwest Key nonprofit detention center that houses unaccompanied teenagers. The protesters, who had organized an Aug. 12 action in honor of Tisha B’Av, the Jewish holiday of mourning, could have received up to six months in jail.
Their dismissals come on the heels of a newly released report that found over 50,000 immigrants are currently in custody — 10% in detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 20% in state and county jails, and the rest in private-run detention centers. Under President DonaldTrump, ICE, as well as Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), have only grown in power and magnified their terrorist tactics. What’s more, widespread abuse in ICE facilities, according to a report by RAICES, continues.
Protesters physically block entrances and exits to buildings in order to temporarily shut them down.
While debates about whether detention centers should be called concentration camps ignite across social media, Never Again Action protesters focus on closing them. Though Never Again has spearheaded almost 40 events since June, mainstream news media outlets have largely ignored its achievements.
The aim of Never Again Action is straightforward — to disrupt the operation of ICE or corporations that have contracts with ICE. Protesters physically block entrances and exits to buildings in order to temporarily shut them down. It’s an effective tactic with historical roots in the civil rights movement and, more recently, the Dakota Access Pipeline protests by indigenous activists at Standing Rock and the Thirty Meter Telescope protests by native Hawaiians at Mauna Kea.
The organization takes its name from Never Again, the rallying cry that originated in the aftermath of the Holocaust, where some six million Jews perished at the…
