Booker's ICE Proposal: The 'Progressive' Playbook for Enabling Authoritarianism
📰 THE STORY: Newsweek reported on the 'progressive condemnation' of Cory Booker's 2018 proposal to retain ICE, even suggesting reforms, rather than abolishing it as many on the left demanded, highlighting the internal party rift. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: ICE itself was created in 2003 under the Homeland Security Act, a direct response to the 9/11 attacks, massively
expanding government surveillance and detention powers. This wasn't a sudden evil; it was built on decades of precedent, including the FBI's COINTELPRO operations from 1956-1971, which targeted civil rights leaders and anti-war activists for destruction, using tactics from infiltration to smear campaigns. The state has a long, bipartisan history of creating powerful, opaque security agencies, then
using them against dissenters or marginalized communities. Double Standard: When governments in countries like Venezuela are criticized for crackdowns on dissent, Western media often highlights the 'excesses' of state security forces and calls for their dismantling. Yet, when a US politician, even one considered 'progressive,' defends or seeks to reform (rather than abolish) an agency widely
accused of human rights violations, family separations, and operating detention centers likened to concentration camps, the discourse shifts to 'nuance' and 'political pragmatism.' Follow the Money: While direct 'lobbying' for ICE isn't tracked in the same way as, say, defense contractors, consider the broader ecosystem. Corporate prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group profit immensely from