Abel, age 8, fled El Salvador with his grandmother because gangsters threatened to kill him if she didn’t pay a monthly fee. ICE officials took him from her at the border and soon deported her. Abel – now considered “unaccompanied” – was so terrified he could hardly speak.
This story was reported by a lawyer who describes herself as “devastated by my inability to alleviate the suffering.” Multiply it by 3000 and you will understand why angry masses in the US and elsewhere are taking to the streets in growing numbers.
You’ll also understand the call to “Abolish ICE!” It sounds radical or even revolutionary. But it’s not.
The US Department of “Homeland Security,” formed in 2003, merged and reorganized the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs Service. One of the new agencies was the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Trump administration’s openly fascist family-separation policy is now so unpopular that 19 ICE agents are calling for change. They say that Customs enforcement is increasingly handicapped by its connection with brutal anti-immigrant policies. In the US and elsewhere, it’s hard for them to get anyone to cooperate.
To “Abolish ICE” would mean again separating the policing of customs and immigration. Instead of ICE, it would be the hated “Migra” carrying out fascist deportations.
Communists insist that the working-class is one international family. “La clase obrera no tiene frontera.” Communist revolution will destroy borders.
Since the 19th century, communists have been accused of “destroying the family.” In a sense we will. In communism we will all collectively share responsibility for the well-being of everyone of every age, instead of leaving that to the “family.”
But it’s capitalism-imperialism, not communism, that tears children from their parents and grandparents. It’s capitalism-imperialism, not communism, that forces workers migrate.
We don’t “demand reforms” from the vile capitalist rulers. We organize masses for revolution to make our communist slogans a reality:
No borders! No nations! Everyone welcome everywhere! From all according to ability and commitment—to all according to need!
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