ICE is a Continuation of American History

If this is new to you, Welcome to our America`

This is a picture taken by a Time/Life photographer. That’s my grandpa on the left holding my dad while imprisoned at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp in late 1942/early 1943. The government made sure this photo was never printed, lest anyone develop sympathies for the “enemy aliens” who had been rounded up and imprisoned without due process, losing everything they owned that wouldn’t fit inside a suitcase. And if you’re wondering, yes the entire family were American citizens. Not that it matters.

We are all shocked at the injustices, violence, and inhumanity of this administration’s ICE/CBP atrocities. Some of us less so. A lot of people are expressing a level of surprise that BIPOC people just can’t share. We would if we could. But this shit is not new. Give a listen to Rachel Maddow’s recent limited podcast series, Burn Order that tells the story of the government’s role in implementing and covering up the sins of incarcerating an entire people group on the West Coast. You will learn of cartoonishly inept and proudly racist government officials in charge of whole government agencies. The story would be comedic if it weren’t real. Sound familiar? General DeWitt and Carl Bentetson were the Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller of their day.

But back then, almost no one cared. To this day, this story is not taught in most schools. I’ve met dozens of people in the past few years who had never heard of the camps.

And before and after the Japanese incarceration camps, we had Jim Crow, the Black Wall Street massacre, police killings of Chinese laundry workers, genocide with trails of tears for Indigenous people, and too many other examples to list. ICE is just the latest, albeit the most visible, in this era of cell phone cameras and 24/hour news cycles. It almost feels like some people didn’t see the regular police brutality of…forever.

It must be a horrific realization for someone in 2026 to suddenly become aware of this aspect of American history. I’ve seen well-intentioned memes and videos of people expressing shock.

To be clear, we are all shocked when someone is gunned down in broad daylight. It’s just that some of us BIPOC folks are not AS shocked. It must have been a beautiful life not ever seeing the evil parts of this country and its history.

Some young White people are pointing out that putting their bodies out on the streets is an act of surrendering their White privilege, and this is true. But it’s not a new concept. During the Civil Rights movement, White people were beaten, hit with fire hoses, had dogs attack them, and were even killed for standing with Black people. I want to be in community with people like that. Then and now, those are the best people.

I’m not writing this to call anyone out or even correct anyone. This shit is incredibly bad. But I really do hope that all these people who are just now taking the red pill and seeing America for what it is will also see that it always has been this way and can join forces with us. Those people organizing in Minneapolis and St. Paul (and all the other cities brutalized by ICE) are heroes. I want those people to know they are not inventing something new. They are continuing the fight that has always existed in this country. They should be proud of that, and they should feel connected to that. The Japanese Americans could have used people like that in 1942.

I should note the establishment Democrats will not save us. Tim Walsh saying he hopes Homan will be better…get real. Any Democrat who thinks playing nice is a viable option, or that anyone in the Trump administration will be humane is useless to us. This is a public fight on our streets and in hearts and minds that politicians can’t really join if they want to remain in the establishment. The establishment has always been on the wrong side of history. “Respectable” people were in the KKK, fought desegregation, supported anti-miscegenation laws, thought the Civil Rights Act solved racism, assumed Christians were good people, thought Eat, Pray, Love was an amazing tale of White self-discovery influenced by foreign and “exotic” lands, ate at Chipotle and Chic Fil-A…etc, etc.

Almost no one stood up for Japanese Americans in the 1940’s. The Quakers were the only organization to publicly condemn the camps. All the other christians and even the ACLU supported the camps. It pains me every time I think of this. But it is real progress to see the organizing today by coalitions of all kinds of people. Today, Japanese Americans help lead the fight to support other oppressed people. Despite the legacy of injustice for marginalized people, we love this country because we see America as its people. And those people are worth fighting for. All of them. Even the MAGA assholes.

So, welcome to our America. If we survive this, I hope we can build something great together knowing full-well our history. All of our histories.