Another Jewish Response to ICE: Taking Reasonable Risks in the Face of a Rising Threat

In a Moment opinion piece last August, I wrote that as a Jewish son of an immigrant who was a Holocaust survivor, I feel a special obligation to support immigrants targeted by the Trump administration’s brutal, racist campaign against newcomers to the United States. I described practical steps that I had been taking and that I thought Jews—and all Americans—could take to push back against the administration’s cynical xenophobia and the violence unleashed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

I compared the experience of my mother and her parents, who survived World War II in occupied France under the protection of the French Resistance, with the challenges immigrants face today in the United States. Our situation isn’t as dire, I said, “at least not yet.” I wasn’t calling for every person to rush to the barricades. My aim was, simply, not to fall into the enabling role of the Vichy collaborators, so I joined advocacy groups, took part in protests and mentored immigrants.

Five months later, resistance here in the United States has become notably more dangerous, as the dark forces directed by the Trump administration have ratcheted up their violent tactics. The recent ICE killings in Minnesota of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, along with other high-profile episodes such as the detention of five-year-old Liam Ramos, underscore the mounting peril. 

But the national movement resisting the Trump administration’s cruel excesses is making progress. In response to massive street protests and bipartisan state and local political opposition—in Minnesota and around the nation—Trump has pledged to de-escalate ICE operations in Minneapolis. The fight is far from over, and terrible damage has been done, but now is the moment to step up resistance—nonviolently and sensibly, recognizing that there are real risks while trying to reduce those risks whenever possible.

We must act—before the slide toward persecution and autocracy further accelerates. Since I wrote my article in August, I have looked for additional ways to express my opposition to the Trump administration and take direct action, even if only on a modest scale. Here are some things I’ve tried, many of which are widely available to anyone willing to get involved.

Attend or organize a rapid-response training. Local protest groups where I live in New Jersey, including the one started by my wife and our next-door neighbor, are sponsoring one this Sunday, led by an experienced community organizer from Movimiento Cosecha. We’re expecting 300 people at a local Unitarian church. Attendees will learn how to protest ICE actions while minimizing the chances of physical conflict. (For example, if you are taking video on your cell phone, maintain a safe distance from law enforcement; back up if they move toward you, announcing that you are backing away.) A side benefit of such gatherings is the shared emotional satisfaction we and our neighbors experience. The activist saying has it that “this is what democracy looks like”; it is also what solidarity feels like.  

Volunteer with HIAS. Trained by the group originally known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, I’ve accompanied immigrants to government court and bureaucratic appointments. I’ve ferried a worried Central American mother and son to a judicial hearing in Queens, NY, and a woman from Afghanistan to a biometric check-in in Hackensack, NJ. These people and others told me they are just trying to follow the rules and gain a foothold in American society. I believe them. My presence in these instances is meant to deter ICE from snatching up these immigrants and deporting them before they have a chance to follow through on the procedures set out by U.S. law and regulations. Another goal is to provide hardworking people with the support and friendship they deserve. 

Participate in online mobilization and call your elected representatives. Groups like Indivisible and No Kings host massive, highly informative Zoom sessions every week where you can get guidance on lawmakers to call, legislation to support (or oppose) and upcoming in-person protests. Here in New Jersey, we scored a partial victory in January when thousands of activists bombarded the state legislature with phone calls, texts and in-person advocacy. My wife and I traveled to the Statehouse in Trenton for the first time to attend hearings and line hallways. Lawmakers passed three immigrant-protection bills, one of which former Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law. We’ll renew the fight for the other provisions in hopes that our new governor, Mikie Sherrill, will sign them.

Join vigils at ICE detention centers and oppose proposed new prison camps. We attend the vigils at Delaney Hall, the ICE jail in Newark operated by the private prison company Geo Group. These gatherings include Sunday morning prayer services, one of which was led by the cantor from our synagogue. We also provide grocery store gift cards, hot coffee and moral support to families waiting to visit relatives and friends. Many communities are mobilizing—on a bipartisan basis—to stop new detention facilities ICE is trying to open around the country. You can show up at town council meetings to make your voice heard, as residents of Roxbury, NJ, did recently. As it turned out, Roxbury’s all-Republican council unanimously passed an ordinance saying that the town is “not an appropriate municipality” for a detainee processing facility.

Mentor individual immigrants. As a volunteer with a New York organization called Resources, Opportunities, Connections, Community (ROCC), I’ve advised a young man from Guinea who is learning English, studying for the GED exam and taking steps with the help of pro bono counsel toward obtaining a green card. Toward that end, I recently became his court-appointed legal guardian. Given a chance, he’ll contribute the energy and initiative, not to mention tax dollars, that actually do make America great. His dream is to go to college and become an architect.

“In the end,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” It is time for good people, Jews and adherents of all faiths, to speak up and take action to protect the vulnerable among us, even if that requires taking considered risks. If not now, when?  

Paul Barrett, a former journalist with The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, is currently an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law. 

(Top image credit: Fibonacci Blue, CC BY 4.0)