ICE: the tipping point?

As I mentioned in a Facebook post, a whistleblower supplied a report of forced hysterectomies at an ICE detention center in Georgia. This points to greater systemic and systematic abuse throughout the agency. 

If you are unfamiliar with the story, here are some articles to get started: 

"“The allegations Ms. Wooten made in her whistleblower complaint are shocking, but unfortunately not surprising, given everything that we know about healthcare in ICE detention facilities specifically at Irwin, and nationwide,” says Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, who wrote about Irwin in 2016 report for the Southern Poverty Law Center, and investigated other LaSalle facilities for an ACLU report this year. "

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/hysterectomies-ice-allegations-whistleblower-georgia-1062429/

Historical resonances beyond WWII (the U.S. has its own history of forced sterilization): https://www.macon.com/news/state/georgia/article245747515.html

For some, this may be heartening, but given the agency's history, I'm taking it with a grain of salt:

https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/18/ice-tony-pham-hysterectomies-allegations/

More on Dr. Mahendra Amin: https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/17/man-identified-as-ice-doctor-behind-hysterectomies-previously-settled-medicare-medicaid-fraud/

There is an "Abolish ICE" movement, in case you were not aware. The Washington Post submitted a questionnaire to Democratic leaders and their responses mostly landed on not abolishing the agency but redistructuring ICE or redistributing its duties (in which case, wouldn't that lead to terminating the agency?): https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/immigration/abolish-ice/

Personally, ICE is an abomination and doesn't serve the country, at all, in terms of how we handle illegal immigration. There are other agencies in place that have historically been well equipped to track and apprehend immigrants who are here along the spectrum of illegality. (Pro tip: not all illegal immigrants are "bad hombres" to use the President's terminology.)

https://meaww.com/the-chants-for-abolish-ice-grows-as-nurse-alleges-misconduct-at-ice-facility

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/06/abolish-ice-immigration-cbp-deportation

Lastly, yes, yes; I know. Obama deported more undocumented immigrants than Trump. And the Trump administration hammers on the idea that the Obama administration started the detainment of immigrants. However, typical of the Trump machinery, this is slightly disingenuous and lacking in context. Please read and review the following before attempting to bait me on this. Besides, if you do, I may just ignore you anyway.

In fact, here's an article that pretty much notes that key word, "context": https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/13/politics/obama-trump-deportations-illegal-immigration/index.html

This will help spell out the differences between the Obama and Trump administrations' respective policies:

http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/politics/difference-between-trump-and-obama-immigration-policies/

The entire article is worth a read, but the takeaways are itemized here:

"1. Under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, over 2,300 families have been systematically separated at the border between Mexico and the United States, and children were often detained in separate buildings. To date, some children still have to be reconnected with their parents, as the identification and registration processes have proved ineffective. During the Obama administration, some families have been separated at the border, and sometimes children have been detained in separate buildings. However, this was not a common practice at the time, and most children detained in separate facilities had already arrived unaccompanied at the border; and (continued as point 2.)

2. Obama harshened immigration policies in 2014 in response to a surge of illegal immigration. The number of illegal aliens entering the United States spiked between 2013 and 2014, and Obama implemented a “mostly punitive” approach to tackle the problem. Conversely, when Trump decided to implement its “entirely punitive” approach to immigration, the number of illegal migrants entering the country was within average, with no hikes indicated by border authorities."

A final fact check here: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/09/politics/fact-check-trump-claim-obama-separated-families/index.html.

A key point is that the previous administration was faced with a genuine spike in illegal immigration numbers. While there are arguments to be made pro and con the handling of detainees and deportation, this remains the context under which the Obama administration ramped up its response. Additionally, it should be noted that at least at one point, Muslims were targeted by the Obama administration. 

By contrast, by the time the Trump administration entered the White House, immigration numbers were back to earlier averages. However, we are well aware of the president's and his administration's antipathy toward immigrants across the board; to say that his numbers aren't as high as Obama's is to willfully miss several points, not the least of which is circumstance on one hand, lower numbers of immigrants to the U.S. (legal and otherwise), and that the current administration's policy is transparently anti-immigration. 

All of this relates to the current situation regarding ICE. The agency itself has succeeded in ripping families apart, caging children, and detaining legal immigrants. It doesn't have to be this way and ICE doesn't need to exist. There are alternatives and these should be explored and implemented.