Weekly Member Update - February 2, 2025

Minneapolis - Kerem Yucel, AFP Getty Images

In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Donald Trump avowed to “de-escalate” the situation in Minnesota and claimed that federal agents would be “more relaxed” in their operations. Trump also demoted Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino and his Nazi overcoat back to his home base on the California/Mexico border, swapping in noted bribe-taker and talking human thumb Tom Homan to take Bovino’s place. By Thursday afternoon, Homan had declared that federal agents would be “drawn down” in Minnesota.

Of course, on Thursday night, Trump was disclaiming that ICE operations in Minnesota would be pulled back at all and, by 1:30 in the morning on Friday, the President of the United States was again defaming Pretti on social media as an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.” Meanwhile, consistent with their institutional and historic culture of cruelty and violence, ICE and Border Patrol continued their rampage on the streets of Minnesota unabated. In one highly publicized incident, several federal agents abducted a Constitutional Observer — and US citizen — at gunpoint before local police intervened. And then, of course, the Regime started arresting journalists on Friday; the fact that Georgia Fort and Don Lemon are both Black is just a coincidence, we’re sure…

So, there is no de-escalation, no draw-down. As we discussed last week, the Regime lies to justify its violence, and it engages in violence to perpetuate its lies. ICE and Border Patrol continue to terrorize Minnesota. Border Patrol is detaining Constitutional Observers in Los Angeles and conducted nearly 30 raids throughout Southern California on Wednesday alone. While Concerned Republican Senator Susan Collins was apparently able to persuade the Regime to call off “Operation Catch of the Day” in Maine — thereby demonstrating that bad politics for vulnerable Republican Senators trumps the Regime’s claimed public safety rhetoric — the invasion of American communities, including our own, by masked and violent federal agents persists. This coming week, we’re keeping a wary eye on Springfield, Ohio; recall that, during the 2024 campaign, Trump despicably alleged that Haitian migrants in Springfield were eating household pets and, now, the temporary protected immigration status for more than 300,000 Haitians — including thousands in Springfield — will likely expire tomorrow. A 30-day deployment of up to 1,500 federal agents is expected to soon follow, and there is reason to believe that the terror and dystopia seen in Minnesota will be replicated, or even exceeded, in Springfield.

As much as we all wish that murders of Pretti and Good had caused the Regime to pivot, it remains clear that Trump, Stephen Miller and the like are fully committed to using ICE and Border Patrol as the instrumentalities of their fascist ambitions for unrestrained power. They will not stop. Instead, they must be stopped. By you. By us. January 2026 was godawful, but there is zero reason to believe that the rest of 2026 will be Shangri-La. Instead, we expect 2026 to be an existential and daily fight for the future of our Republic, culminating in the November midterms and whatever Trumpian scheme to maintain power will invariably follow. We believe that we will win, but the work ahead of us is daunting and will require a level of solidarity and resolve that few living Americans have ever had to summon.

We think of the work ahead as falling into three proverbial buckets. First, and foremost, we need to keep urgently preparing for when ICE surges in the Capital Region, and we do that by learning to be Constitutional Observers in addition to being demonstrators, organizers and mutual-aid providers. We call it “Constitutional Observing,” by the way, because that’s what it is; it is an exercise of our Constitutional prerogative to watch and document ICE activity in our communities in order to insure that the inevitable lies of the Regime can be rebutted by photographic evidence. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that more than 34,000 Minnesotans have signed up for training as Constitutional Observers in that State and, here in the Capital Region, Indivisible Albany was present at not one, but two, separate trainings this past Saturday in order to hone our skills on observing, documenting and reporting ICE activity. The national Indivisible organization and its associated No Kings coalition hosted an Eyes on Ice: Document and Record online training last week which had more than 200,000 attendees, and a second installment of the Eyes on Ice training is being held this Thursday, February 5. On Saturday, February 7, the James Connolly Social Club in Troy is hosting the Capital District Bandaid Brigade for a workshop on how to prepare for protests or other street actions and, three days later, on Tuesday, February 10, our comrades in Guilderland Indivisible are hosting an in-person training that will include Constitutional Observer guidance, as well as whistle-kit assembly. Other resources abound: We Have Rights offers a host of training videos in eight separate languages; Wired recently published extensive guidance on how to film ICE and Border Patrol activity safely and effectively; and Witness Media Lab has promulgated both a tip sheet and extensive additional resources on how to document ICE activity. No amount of training is too much, in our view, so we will continue to offer additional training opportunities, both in-person and online, as they become available.

The second focus of our work will be on encouraging our state and local leaders to do everything and anything in their powers to counteract the actions of the Regime and help protect our local communities. To that end, we note that Governor Hochul announced her “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act” legislative proposal this past week. While we acknowledge that Hochul’s proposal would eliminate so-called 287(g) agreements and would also prohibit federal agents from using local detention centers for civil immigration enforcement purposes, we agree with Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado that the Governor’s proposal does not go far enough. In our view, there are are host of other legislative proposals in the pipeline which would do more to protect New York residents from the tyranny of the federal government. For one, the New York 4 All Act (S.2235A/A.3506A), sponsored by Brooklyn Senator Andrew Gounardes and Bronx Assembly Member Karines Reyes, would prohibit New York’s state and local government agencies, including police and sheriffs, from colluding with ICE, disclosing sensitive information, and diverting personnel or other resources to further federal immigration enforcement. While Governor Hochul’s proposal is focused on 287(g) contractual agreements specifically, NY4All would ban even noncontractual cooperation with federal immigration authorities and therefore does more to insure that New York resources are not used to oppress New York residents. We also support the Mandating End of Lawless Tactics (MELT) Act (S.8462/A.8908), sponsored by our own State Senator Patricia Fahy and Manhattan Assembly Member Tony Simone, which would prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks while operating in New York and require their use of clearly visible uniforms with name badges and agency-identification. We also continue to support Senator Fahy’s State Airport Facilities Enforcing Accountability in Immigration Removals (SAFE AIR) Act (S.7960/A.8188), cosponsored by Queens Assembly Member Michaelle Solages. While Avelo Airlines may have been defeated by our collective efforts, another commercial airline could start conducting deportation flights for ICE at any time, and the SAFE AIR Act would ensure that New York State does not aid in immigration enforcement actions that lack the fundamental due process protections required by the US Constitution. We also agree with our local Assembly Member Gabriella Romero that New Yorkers should have a private right of action, enforceable in New York State courts, when deprived of their constitutional rights by federal officials. Member Romero’s NY Civil Rights Act (S.8500A/A.9076A), co-sponsored by Brooklyn Senator Zellnor Myrie, would afford New Yorkers that redress with the availability of both compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive and declaratory relief, and reasonable attorney's fees. A final pair of worthy legislative proposals, the Access to Representation Act (A.270/S.141) and the Build Act (A.2689/S.4538) — both of which are the subject of a Rally for the Unrepresented at the Capitol tomorrow morning — would together require, and fund, a right to counsel in immigration proceedings within New York State. While even more could be done at the State level to protect New Yorkers — we note that California is looking to impose draconian taxation on corporate profits obtained by in-State private prison contractors, for example — we believe that each of the aforementioned proposals would be a step in the right direction toward protecting New Yorkers from federal overreach.

The third focus of our work — the old dependable bread and butter — will continue to be whacking away at the corporate pillars propping up the Regime generally, and ICE in particular. Whether it be Home Depot, Hilton Hotels or Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the corporate coconspirators with the Regime are legion and are sure to be the subject of boycotts and protest actions going forward. We’ve also seen reporting from Jacobin and The Lever this past week about the obscene profits being reaped by ICE detention contractors amid widespread reports of inhumane and inadequate treatment inside migrant detention facilities. Late Sunday, news broke that one such facility — the Dilley detention facility where Liam Ramos had been held until yesterday, and where hundreds of other children are still imprisoned in hellish conditions — was on lock down due to a measles outbreak. The squalid and deplorable conditions in ICE’s ever-growing network of for-profit prisons, where more of our neighbors are locked away than ever before, should be a source of national outrage and shame, and the fact that private prison contractors who contributed to the Trump campaign are now taking in millions of dollars of our tax money to operate these would-be death camps just adds a layer of blatant corruption to what would otherwise merely be an ongoing and systematic human rights violation. Two of those craven contractors — CoreCivic and GEO Group — are heavily financed by Citizens Bank, and Citizens Bank has consequently been the subject of an extensive boycott and direct action campaign. We’re also keeping a close eye on plans to convert a massive warehouse in Chester, Orange County, into an ICE detention facility, despite opposition from the Republican Orange County Executive, as well as State Senator Michelle Hinchey and Congressman Pat Ryan.

But, the main focus of our attention in the complicit-corporation arena will be on the rapidly expanding police surveillance state. As we’ve stated previously, the proliferation of Flock camera systems in our communities will be the primary focus of our next Member Meeting, a week from today at The Love Albany Center. But Flock is just one chapter in the story of our eroding privacy and civil liberties. In the coming weeks, we’ll detail more information about the intrusive technological police state that is expanding before us at the hands of corporations like Palantir. What makes companies like Palantir particularly diabolical is that, unlike most run-of-the-mill corporations who partner with Trump and ICE merely to make a quick taxpayer-funded buck, companies like Palantir are run by true believers like Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, billionaire oligarchs who are committed to a chilling technofascist political project. Stated simply, the companies that are supplying ICE and the Department of Homeland Security with the tools of our oppression are themselves hostile to democracy itself; this is no mere side hustle for data behemoths like Palantir, it is a step toward the end-game of a permanent and repressive global oligarchy. As we said, we’ll have more to say about oligarch technofascist corporations in future installments, but we’ll leave you today with one salient fact to consider. While companies like Palantir are global entities without physical storefronts that could be targeted for local protests, we can still target the local political benefactors of Palantir; to that end, the People of the mighty 518 should take note of the fact that two local Democratic Congressmen, Josh Riley of NY-19 and the aforementioned Pat Ryan of NY-18, are two of the top three Democrat recipients of Palantir campaign donations. In fact, Congressman Ryan is himself at the top of Palantir’s gravy train so, while we appreciate his opposition to the Chester ICE facility discussed above, we’d feel a whole lot better if he stopped accepting Palantir money and donated the $130,000+ that he has already received to a worthy cause. Perhaps Ryan and Riley could pool their Palantir money together and donate it organizations like the Capital Region Sanctuary Coalition who are working to ameliorate the harm that their corporate donor Palantir is facilitating. Imagine the good work that could be done for immigrant families with nearly a quarter of a million dollars of Palantir money.

Finally, SAVE THE DATE! More details to follow in the coming weeks….