With Election Day less than 24 hours away, more than 51 million Americans have already voted. Early reports suggest strong Latino participation in several states has ballooned. That participation appears to tilt against support for Republicans and Trump.
So, what comes next?
Americans in general, both Democrats and Republicans, are concerned about Trump's mass deportation policies, the deployment of ICE agents in our neighborhoods, and the direction of our democracy. The scenes in our neighborhoods remind us of the dictators this country used to criticize. Americans want change, and we want it now.
For millions, immigration policy right now is not a debate about the border. It is about masked agents on our streets, guns pointed at bystanders, families being separated, people detained without due process, a federal government out of control, and citizens without a voice.
For millions, immigration policy right now is not a debate about the border. It is about masked agents on our streets, guns pointed at bystanders, families being separated, people detained without due process, a federal government out of control, and citizens without a voice.
Election Day is the place to voice that anger, which can lead to immediate policy changes and the removal of ICE from our streets, and hopefully, our lives.
We need to understand this moment in history, or lose a historical opportunity to make generational change.
The answer cannot be another promise to reform ICE by Democrats. The answer must be to dismantle ICE and replace it with something entirely different, coupled with a completely different hemispheric economic policy. The base of the Democratic Party will be looking to see if establishment Democrats finally address the issue. No excuses this time.
The answer is simple: Melt ICE now.
ICE was created in 2003. It is not some sacred U.S. institution tied to the Founding Fathers. Congress created it. Congress funds it. And Congress can dismantle it.
Yes, every country needs border security. That is logical. But there is a difference between protecting national borders and terrorizing communities. There is nothing patriotic about racial profiling, unconstitutional detentions, or denying people their basic rights.
What we have witnessed under Trump is an immigration policy built around intimidation. Worse, private corporations are profiting from the detention of human beings. The marriage of government enforcement, political power, and private profit should concern everybody in the U.S., regardless of political affiliation.
The marriage of government enforcement, political power, and private profit should concern everybody in the U.S., regardless of political affiliation.
Democrats, once in power, must immediately move to cut ICE's detention and enforcement funding and dismantle its current structure. Not simply change its leadership or rename the agency while continuing business as usual. Its legitimate functions can be transferred to accountable civilian institutions operating under constitutional safeguards, which means Congressional oversight.
This also includes immediate reviews of all ICE detentions and the release of tens of thousands held in ICE facilities, with a truth commission to determine and make public the abuses of ICE and payments to victims for their pain and suffering during this time period.
But dismantling ICE is only the beginning.
Democrats need a positive immigration agenda that addresses why people migrate. Democrats have generally not connected immigration reform policies with Latin American foreign policy.
Arguing that the two are not connected was a mistake. Trump always connected the two, and so should Democrats. Trump understood that his goal has been to integrate Latin American countries as semi-autonomous entities as a sort of North American Commonwealth—essentially colonies.
Trump has been diabolical, but not stupid, and the scary thing is that sections of European-centric Latin America have been more than happy to be Trump’s lap dogs. Fortunately, Mexico and Brazil, Latin America’s two largest economies, have resisted efforts to bring the region fully into Trump’s political orbit, defending their national sovereignty and reinforcing Latin America’s right to determine its own future
The upcoming review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement offers an opportunity to rethink our economic relationship with Mexico and Latin America. Trade policy, wages, agricultural displacement, and economic instability are directly connected to migration.
We cannot discuss immigration honestly without discussing the economic conditions that force people to leave their homes. Democrats have an opportunity to shape these policies, which can serve to manage future colonial ambitions of U.S. presidents.
Trump will eventually leave office, but the damage to America's international standing and its commitment to due process will not disappear with him. This helps explain why organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America have attracted growing attention. Many Americans, particularly younger voters, are tired of politicians who condemn injustice while preserving the institutions that make it possible.
Democrats should recognize that political reality and use every available legislative and budgetary tool to demand meaningful immigration reform. The goal should be decades of policy stability, not another election cycle of empty promises. The Democratic Party base is not dumb and will understand if establishment Democrats are just playing a role and not pushing for real change.
Yes, Trump created chaos. However, he lost control of his own agenda. Now there is an opportunity to hold ICE accountable, make millions of undocumented residents legal, redefine Latin American foreign policy, and truly end the Monroe Doctrine and make Latin America truly independent.
That will stop mass immigration.
The irony could be that in the future, we might end up having to convince folks to immigrate to the United States from Latin America as stability and growth kick in.
