Statement from the Libertarian Party:
ICE is a division of the Department of Homeland Security. Much like DHS itself, it was spawned as a response to 9/11 and the Global War on Terror. ICE was created in a national security context, blending immigration enforcement with counterterrorism culture, equipment, and mindset.
What we are seeing in the United States is the rise of the warrior cop. Masked federal agents donning multicam and plate carriers, injected into civilian life with a GWOT mentality. This is no routine law enforcement. This is occupation-style policing.
Until recently, immigration enforcement was overwhelmingly a civil matter. Visa overstays, border crossings, and asylum claims were processed administratively rather than treated as battlefield threats. Under the current administration, immigration is increasingly framed as criminality itself. So when the President says they are “going after criminals,” that definition quietly expands to include visa overstays, people in green card or asylum processing, and peaceful individuals caught in bureaucratic limbo. This framing becomes the justification for the police state.
The Department of Homeland Security has now taken the position, via internal guidance, that entering homes without a judicial warrant using administrative authority is lawful. This is an assertion by fiat, not a principle recognized by the Constitution, statute, or the courts. The Fourth Amendment does not bend to agency memos.
The militarization of domestic enforcement did not happen overnight.
The surplus weapons, vehicles, and equipment from foreign wars were gradually brought home and distributed to federal agencies and police departments through long-standing programs that accelerated after 9/11. The tools of war have been normalized in civilian governance.
Now those weapons, systems, and intelligence apparatuses are being used against immigrants and citizens alike.
Soon, they will be used against you.
The technocratic police state is designed for mission creep. Powers justified for one emergency expand to the next, until they are permanent, all-seeing, and unquestioned.
The left fights in the streets. The right cheers the legitimacy of the force used against them. Together, they move in a morbid waltz toward total technocratic control.
Do not be fooled. Every justification for state violence will be depersonalized, amplified, and systematized until it is a permanent feature of governance.
Abolish ICE. Reform the broken immigration system. Do not give the police state an inch.
– @StevenNekhaila
Chairman, Libertarian National Committee
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