BREAKING THE ICE

“ICE’s criminal power does not make us powerless criminals”

-- Banner dropped on Department of Homeland Security wall

An Occupy ICE camp set up shop last Thursday outside Tampa’s Department of Homeland Security office (Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a component of DHS).  It joins the growing list of Occupy ICE campaigns looking to abolish the agency in Oregon, New York, California, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan and Washington State.  The camp currently comprises around 15 tents stretching the full length of the front of the DHS building.  A memorial to victims of immigration enforcement violence of candles and flowers surrounds a tree, and many an icey pun seeks to cool participants down.  An impressively organised welcome centre is stocked with food, books and supplies, and the camp is by now well prepped for the Afghanistan-like conditions of wildly fluctuating Florida weather.  Maybe here we could also get a reputation for killing empires.

2017 saw a 76% spike in ICE arrests in Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands over the previous year, the highest percentage increase in the country, up to a total of 6,192.  During the first Obama term, the same region experienced over 10,000 arrests every year and over 15,000 during two of the years.  Trump may be ramping things back up, but it was a man in a blue tie who laid the recent groundwork.  Over 2.5 million people were kicked out of the U.S. during Obama’s time in office, more than the total number for the entire 20th century.  Earlier this year a coalition of activist and civil rights groups issued a travel warning for immigrants and people of colour thinking of going to Florida, recommending particular caution at Greyhound bus stations and airports.  The state is also notably dangerous because Customs and Border Protection (ICE’s sister agency) operates checkpoints and stings within 100 miles of borders and coasts -- something Florida has quite a lot of.

Locally, Hillsborough County -- along with every county that surrounds it and 13 others in the state -- have made agreements with ICE to hang on to immigrants in local jails even if they are not charged with a crime.  This gives ICE time to come snatch the person up, and pay the sheriff’s office for their trouble.  Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri helped ICE to draw up the plans in a way that wouldn’t get them sued for civil rights violations.  If he did a good enough job the program is intended to be rolled out nationwide. When they announced all this in January, the sheriffs probably didn’t expect such a collaboration to be the political flashpoint that it has now become.

The Tampa camp intends to stay open until ICE agents -- currently earning an average of $61,600 a year -- are out on their arses.  If it seems unreasonable to demand the closure of a government department, consider that ICE has only existed since March 2003; life, and many deportations, went on before it.  Getting rid of them would at least slow down a machine that is acting with increasing impunity and at this point even going after green card holders.  There are also multiple other agencies making freedom of movement difficult in this corner of planet Earth.  Upon realising that the agency isn’t yet even old enough to drive (other than buses into Mexico), it’s worth extending the thought process when considering the legitimacy of the relatively new phenomenon of mass control on immigration and borders in general.

As of earlier this week, trouble and tension at the encampment seems minimal, although police have been using low-level intimidation tactics such as making late evening visits for no particular reason.  Local officials are likely considering the current political landscape in light of the Trump administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy at the border, not to mention the agreements sheriffs have already made with ICE.  The camp is technically on a strip of grass just beyond the DHS perimeter, lowering excuses for eviction, but it is clearly “occupying” a place in the public eye that the state would rather do without.  Employees in the building work from 7 - 3 during the week, so on select days the campers are using early morning “soft block” tactics on the driveway -- this involves continuously walking across it rather than stopping, so as to allow migrants through to their appointments. 

The protesters are always looking for others to relieve them as people come and go according to their abilities.  The more people present and staying overnight, the less likely the camp is to be broken up.  Non-perishable food, offers of transport and conversations beyond a car horn honk are also welcome. The building and camp are located at 5524 W Cypress Street near the airport. A Facebook group is here.

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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK (ALMOST)

Here’s a postscript that shows the self-important mindset of some of the most powerful gatekeepers of our border system.  While at Tampa International Airport to catch a bus home from the camp, yer Radical Beat reporter was hit with a years trespassing warning for the crime of quickly and discreetly drying his feet in a quiet corner.  The situation could have easily snowballed into something more serious.  TIA is publicly owned by the county.  Tourists must be made to feel welcome (even as immigrants and local pedestrians are not) and god forbid that they see potential signs of poverty or bad weather here in magical funtime sunshine land.

We learned last year that masses converging on airports are politically feasible.  They deserve attention for their role in the deportation and border systems -- Miami International, for example, is one of the hubs used by Ice Air Operations.  This is to say nothing of the aviation industry's crimes on the climate and noise pollution.  Fuck the border, even if it’s located around an airport.