ICE Detains 5-Year-Old: The 'Homeland Security' State Targets Children While Enabling 'Secure' Borders for Others
📰 THE STORY: The Independent reports that a school official is demanding the release of body camera footage after a 5-year-old child, Liam Ramos, and his father were detained by ICE agents near Minneapolis, highlighting the emotional distress caused to the community. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: This is not an aberration. The US has a long history of carceral immigration
policies. The 'zero tolerance' policy of the Trump administration in 2018 notoriously separated over 5,000 children from their parents at the border. But even before that, family detention centers expanded under Obama. The 1996 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act significantly broadened categories for deportation and increased funding for border enforcement, laying groundwork for today's
aggressive tactics. Double Standard: Imagine if Russia or China detained a 5-year-old and their father as part of an 'internal security operation.' Western media would unleash a torrent of condemnation, invoking human rights, authoritarianism, and child welfare. Yet, when US agents do it, it's framed as an unfortunate but necessary 'enforcement action' in an 'immigration debate.' The
dehumanization of non-white migrants allows for practices that would be deemed egregious if performed by 'enemy' states. Follow the Money: The detention and deportation industrial complex is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic, private prison corporations, profit massively from government contracts for immigrant detention beds. In 2023, ICE requested $9.15