Making America White Again, Part II

THE IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT agency or force is yet another successful attempt to construct the name of an organization so as to yield a tough, cool sounding acronym "I.C.E". I know how it feels. In early 1991 the United States attacked and invaded the nation state of Kuwait, for the purpose of liberating it from the clutches of our true enemy, Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq. At the time I thought this war was entirely unnecessary, entirely a product of United States imperialistic aggression and greed for wealth and power, entirely a creation of a nefarious Bush administration policy. For that matter, I still believe all that. I was not alone in my steadfast belief, and millions of Americans proceeded to protest that war, which may have shortened it and limited its scope. Locally, in the college town where I lived, our anti-war group was well organized, met regularly, got together to organize and hold war protests on campus, becameclose, and,so we thought, needed a name. Using talent on loan from God, as Rush Limbaugh used to say, I came up with one: "Students Against Gulf Engagement", or, for short, "S.A.G.E". to this day, I am proud of that. So, I.C.E. it is. This brand new law enforcement agency is entirely the product of Trump, M.A.G.A., the Republican party, conservative America, the usual suspects. It is the result of the hatred of undocumented immigrants illegally living in the United States, of whom we all agree there are more than ten or eleven million. Generally speaking, the conservative position on these more than eleven million people is that they are criminals, law breakers, and should all be apprehended, incarcerated, and, by whatever due process is proper, perhaps a court hearing and formal decision rendering, deported. The progressive point of view is that most of them, indeed a huge percentage of them, are law abiding hard working people, mostly young families, who fled thier home country only out of desperation, fleeing vioence and poverty, and have assimiliated into American culture, and are collectively contributing tens of billions of dollars to the American economy each year, by working hard, wealth and prosperity, and paying taxes. In a nutshell, it can be said that, in a sense, both sides are correct. One approach, is utterly unworkable and impossible, and also harmful to the United States, that of deproting all eleven million of them. The other, of providing a pathway to citienship and work permits to the vast majority of them, to all of them with no criminal record, will guarantee continued or improved prosperity for the entire country, by giving it precisely what it most needs: workers. Half of all "American" farm workers are undocumented immigrants,living and workign in the U.S. illegally. Kik 'em all out, and the agricultural economy and therefore the entire economy and therefore the entire country collapses into chaos, probably crime and violence proliferating out of control. Everyone in the country has a smart phone, and loves to use it taking pictures and making movies. Everytime a gang of ICE agents approaches a harmless black or brown skinned American citizen on some American street and viciously brutalizes the citizen, which is happening more often every day,somebody is going to make a video of it,and the video is going to go viral. Trump's approval will keep going down, and his policies and supporters will attract ever inreasing opposition. We will all have to take sides on the issue of Trump's fascist Hitlerian Gestapo. ICE is seeking recruits by paying theme extremely well, including a hefty signing bonus,and by inviting good Americans to join the fight, the fight "defending American culture" as they put it. This racist white supremacist dog whistle is easily heard by everyone, and it clearly reveals the true conservative Republican M.A.G.A agenda; to make America white again.