The Miami Herald reported on August 16: “Federal immigration agents announced that they would be beefing up efforts to apprehend undocumented immigrants in South Florida as part of a nationwide effort to ‘keep communities safe’. Their target would be Greyhound transportation hubs.” Activists counter that communities feel unsafe when ICE boards their buses. It is not the 1% who ride Greyhound. Working-class folks—with or without documents—can be traumatized knowing they have little rights against these armed agents backed by a white supremacist president. Greyhound's announcement accompanies President Trump’s escalated war on migrants. In August, Trump announced that he would be blocking green cards for any immigrants who use public assistance including Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. Trump's announcement aims to promote the lie that migrants steal social services when in fact they contribute billions of dollars to social security and never get to collect. This is a divide and conquer tactic. On August 7, just a few days after the horrible massacre in El Paso, ICE carried out a massive raid in six Mississippi cities. Almost 700 workers, many of them union members, were taken off their jobs. It was the first day of school and many children were left crying in school and day care with no one to pick them up. All of these assaults are what leads to horrors like in El Paso.
|
