ICE is showing us what terrorism looks like

It’s cliche to start an article with a definition, but the word “terrorism” has become one of the most widespread and important words in American politics, so let’s be clear up front. According to the FBI and Congress, terrorism means violent, criminal acts committed to further ideological goals, to intimidate or coerce civilians and/or to influence governments.

The Trump administration and its allies have taken to calling all sorts of silly things terrorism recently, including investigating them, organizing peaceful protests and being liberal. But those things are just part of living life while disagreeing with the president, which these days is just being sane and aware of the world.

I have good news for these confused federal officials, though, because their own actions give much better examples for this word.

Killing a single father with no criminal record and placing his children in foster care.

Rappelling from a helicopter in an American city in order to ransack apartments, parade naked children in public and divide detainees by skin color.

Breaking a man’s leg and chaining him in the hospital for more than a month without charges.

Using a 5-year-old child as bait (and pretending otherwise once caught on video) in order to arrest her father.

Summarily kidnapping children without telling their families, despite everyone involved being here legally.

Detaining a citizen and veteran for three days with no shower, no access to phones or a lawyer and, of course, no charges in the end. (Not all that novel, by the way.)

Criminal acts and violence, check — these actions obviously violate the letter and spirit of the Constitution and assorted laws. Intimidation and political aims, check — the government wants to make it miserable and dangerous to be an immigrant, specifically an immigrant who isn’t white, in this country. Now that’s starting to sound more like the T-word.

We’re fortunate that nothing so horrific has happened yet in Northwest Arkansas, but it’s clear that the agency is inflicting its cruelty on people of all legal statuses who live and work here.

Masked agents have hidden from local door cameras and grabbed people without warrants, according to footage published by a local advocacy, education and ICE-tracking group called the Alliance for Immigrant Respect and Education, or AIRE. Law enforcement check-ins that used to happen locally now must happen three hours away in Little Rock. People with jobs and families are afraid to leave their homes for work or groceries. A few weeks ago, ICE agents tried to get into an occupied car in Springdale because of the occupants’ skin color, which was all the agents needed to claim that the driver was “harboring illegal aliens.”

I just wonder what has happened when and where cameras weren’t recording.

Another aspect of this situation is that the administration has made it riskier for immigrants themselves, the people most affected, to speak out. An immigrant journalist in Atlanta, who was here legally and was arrested (for now-dismissed charges) while covering a protest, was held by ICE for months before recently being deported. The daytime snatching of immigrant student Rümeysa Öztürk by masked men in an unmarked vehicle, which became infamous earlier this year, followed her peacefully speaking out in support of Palestine. The president has openly and loudly threatened to strip citizenship and legal status from people for saying things he doesn’t like.

In other words, this administration has decided freedom of speech doesn’t exist for immigrants. Many of them are still standing up and speaking out anyway. But the rest of us must speak out with and for them, too.

Northwest Arkansas is again fortunate here: Allies have been popping up all over the place, demonstrating at public meetings, holding fundraisers and otherwise showing up for the tens of thousands of immigrants who call NWA home.

Groups as diverse as the LGBTQ-focused Hillbilly Harlots, the Natural State Roller Derby and The Odd Soul bar in Springdale have held public fundraisers for AIRE in the past few months, for instance. AIRE has gathered a network of more than 100 volunteers willing to drive people to their appointments in Little Rock, just to give some company and moral support for what could otherwise be a terrifying and lonely trip. Pizzeria Ruby in Johnson has also used its Facebook page to speak out passionately for our immigrant neighbors despite some backlash.

“It’s what we’re about, it’s what the sisters are based on,” said Sister Krystal Waterz, a member of the Harlots, which is sort of like a satirical convent that works to protect and celebrate queer folks. “Especially with so many people who are actively against new immigrants coming to this country that, to me, was based on freedom and was supposed to be a safe harbor for people, it is just something that we really need to focus on and we really need to support.”

Facebook has been an ally hub. One private group appropriately named ALLI — Allies for Love, Liberty, & Immigrants — has raised thousands of dollars for families who lose income after someone’s arrest or who need help with legal costs, such as passports to see deported parents.

“The fight really has to be with allies and the people who are privileged,” Nicole Mozzoni, who started the group, told me in August. “How unfair that we made this arbitrary rule about our border, and all they did is come here for a better life.”

Mozzoni recalled connecting with immigrant students and their families, documented and otherwise, while working for a local school district for more than a decade. She knows protests against ICE and in support of immigrants will fall on many deaf ears. “But we have to do something,” she said.

Amen to that. And here’s my two cents: Immigrants are a blessing. Immigrants helped build this country and this region into what they are today, and I’m proud that, despite so many efforts to the contrary, my homeland is the brightest beacon the world has ever seen for people seeking something better. Sure, it’d be preferable for everyone to follow the rules, but the rules are obscene, and their enforcement, as has been made clear these past few months, is even more so. Arkansas is wrong to embrace and cooperate with these goons. The dangerous criminal that I am most concerned about, by far, is the one who was born here and is currently defiling the People’s House in D.C.