Defund Hate Coalition Responds to ICE Shooting Two People in NYC: The Deportation Force of ICE and CBP Are Terrorizing our Communities 

For Immediate Release: 
Friday, February 7, 2020

Washington, DC — On Thursday, news media reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot two people in an attempt to arrest an immigrant outside their home in Brooklyn, New York. 

The Defund Hate Campaign, which is made up of 38 organizations comprising directly impacted communities, faith leaders, and civil rights and immigrant rights advocates, released the following statement:

“Yesterday’s assault and state-sanctioned gun violence shows us what we’ve known all along: that our communities are safer without the deportation force of ICE and CBP. For the last three years, we’ve seen Trump’s racism towards immigrants and people of color lead his anti-immigrant, mass deportation agenda. Fueled with billions of dollars from Congress, this agenda has only further militarized our borders and put our people in danger by incarcerating them, deporting them and even killing them. 

We support community members in New York who have gathered outside of Maimonides hospital, where the people who were shot were transported to receive care, to demand that ICE release the family they terrorized. We also uphold the rights of all New Yorkers to feel safe where they live, and to protect their most vulnerable communities. 

The Defund Hate Campaign’s message to Congress, and state and local officials remains unequivocally clear: reject Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda by defunding these unaccountable and dangerous agencies.”

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