John,

What we witnessed in Mississippi this week was not an attempt to make our communities safer or more secure: it was cruelty.

ICE conducted the largest single-state raid in U.S. history on Wednesday when it arrested nearly 700 people at their workplace. It then left dozens of children to come home from school with no parents. Infants and toddlers were left in daycares with no parent to pick them up. Children were crying and pleading with ICE officers to let their moms and dads come home.

What makes this all the more disturbing? ICE and the Trump administration decided these raids were appropriate just days after the most deadly targeted attack on immigrants and the Latinx community in U.S. history. People are being forced to simultaneously mourn and live in fear.

I have two words in response to all of this: abolish ICE. It’s time we put an end to this cruel, unhinged police force once and for all: sign our petition if you’re with me.

The thing about ICE is, the cruelty is truly the point. They detain first, ask questions later -- evident from the fact that they released 300 of the almost 700 people they detained in Mississippi.

This rogue, militarized force is not making any of us safer; on the contrary, they’re terrorizing and traumatizing children and families, and in some cases sentencing people to death when they detain or deport them.

Just this week, a Detroit man named Jimmy Aldaoud was found dead in the streets of Iraq. He was homeless and struggling to find the insulin he needed after ICE wrongly deported him to a country he never stepped foot in and did not know the predominant language spoken to get the help he desperately needed.

Jimmy’s blood is on ICE’s hands. The unforgettable trauma of young children whose parents were ripped away from them is on ICE’s hands. The blood of multiple immigrants, including children, while jailed in detention centers are on ICE’s hands.

It’s time to abolish ICE, John, before they hurt one more child, family, or community. Add your name to demand Congress act and put an end to this force of terror now >>

In solidarity,

-Yvette

Yvette Simpson, CEO
Democracy for America