I'm replacing Stephen Miller as architect of the nation's immigration enforcement regime.
It's my world, now. Welcome.
I would love to write a full satire piece on this moment in immigration which is all enforcement no policy. But it’s too depressing and has too many echoes of Germany 1933 to be funny. We are in a time of extreme danger, and my fear isn’t about what Trump and his minions will and won’t do — the answer is, they’ll do as much as they can to emulate Hitler and Mussolini all the way to those dictators’ genocidal conclusions — but about what regular citizens will and won’t do. It is way too easy to normalize the closing down of an entire open society of 285 million people, and the installation of an authoritarian regime. Neutrality is no longer a choice that is available to anyone living here. We have to resist it with every breath, with every action. Even if you have no ideas about what you should do, do something. Scholar and researcher of the right wing, Scot Nakagawa, has written a great set of guidelines for how to be proactive rather than reactive within an authoritarian context. Let this be your invitation to participate. (One suggestion.)
This is a brief piece to catalogue things that aren’t spoken of as acts of resistance, but they ARE acts of resistance, ones I’ve either personally witnessed or been personally connected to. These can be minor; everything matters. I encourage you, dear reader, to state in the comments what you’d like to read more about. I’ll take whichever story you all tell me you want more of, and build it into a real researched essay.
I’d like to get one thing out of the way, first, and that is: Jews aren’t the targets of the regime, right now. (I’m using the term “regime” not “administration” in order to deny it legitimacy.) Black and Brown folks, trans people (especially trans kids and youth), teenage and young women, and immigrants are its current targets. Progressive and radical Jews are a group the regime would like to be able to target but they haven’t come up with a broadly-applicable method for filtering the rightwing Zionists from the leftwing Zionists from the non-Zionists from the anti-Zionists. So until they have such a tool, they cannot dragnet the Jews into detention camps. They’re using the stupidest, bluntest instrument to dragnet everyone else which is racial profiling, gender policing, and gender profiling.
Are they stupid? Absolutely. Is their stupidity stopping them from causing massive violence, trauma, and even death to people who are unfortunate enough to be captured by their ICE goons? No. So, we must respond.
POSSIBLE ESSAY TOPICS ON MINOR RESISTANCES FOR THIS SPACE:
Rehoming artifacts from federally-funded museums, libraries and archives to keep them safe for the duration of the regime (I have anecdotal evidence that this is already happening).
Preparing spaces in our homes to house refugees from the regime and keep them safe in the event of door to door ICE or anti-trans raids.
Pride parades, but every month. Every week, if possible.
Collaboration among houses of worship and across faiths to come up with policies and internal guidance on how to resist ICE incursions in houses of worship.
Crowdfunding for cash assistance to refugee families so that they can avoid going to low-wage public-facing jobs (gas stations, etc) and avoid ICE.
Additional measures I don’t plan on writing about, but which are good and proactive things to do to resist authoritarianism:
Boycotting, Divesting, and Sanctioning Israel for its state-sponsored genocide against the Palestinian people.
Moving wealth out of your bank into a values-aligned wealth management fund or a socially responsible investment fund.
Celebrating trans historical figures openly, publicly, and with great joy.
Academic institutions re-stating and doubling down on Diversity, Equity & policies.
Insisting on universal accessibility measures (captioning, ASL, making the accessible entrance the main entrance, providing elevator availability) for events and meetings rather than forcing disabled folks to request access.
Collaborative art building, and place making with gardening and other festive & enriching and life-giving collective efforts.
Got more like these? Add them in the comments! Or pick one of the bulleted list of possible essay topics for me to write about.
Final note: this is fascism, this is authoritarianism, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Sadly the specific organizing meeting you can’t make it to tonight isn’t going to be the thing that breaks this regime. So, you’ll make it to the one two weeks from now. Keep your head up.
In love and solidarity,
Mariya