1. United States
2. Wisc.
3. Letter

Please do what you can to rein in ICE. I understand the need for immigration enforcement, but not like this. Not at the expense of lives, safety, liveable neighborhoods, and a government that runs roughshod over the rights of people. I live in Wisconsin, and I have several levels of privilege, but I'm still scared to leave my house. A friend in Minneapolis described the neighborhoods where the shootings have taken place: nice neighborhoods, with good parks and restaurants. ICE tried to raid her son's elementary school. Read that again. An *elementary school.* What were they going to do? Take children in the middle of the school day? Is nowhere safe? Children already have enough to worry about with fire drills, active shooter drills, academics, friendship, and now they have to add the possibility of being taken by ICE? When ice wasn't admitted to the school due to a lack of warrant, they raided an apartment building in view of the second and third grade classrooms. These kids are 7, 8, or 9 years old. They're not watching a movie or even the news. They're watching representative of our government use force, intimidation, and violence to get what they want. Besides the terror the children feel, what lesson is this teaching them? What kind of citizen are we making if the government pushes and bullies and lies its way to get what it wants? Their local food shelf (not big enough to call a bank) has closed, citing safety concerned. People would rather go hungry than risk an encounter with ICE. Before you say, "if you're here legally, there's nothing to worry about,” may I remind you Renee Good was a citizen? I don't make it a habit of carrying around my Social Security card or my birth certificate. If I am stopped, and I try to explain that I can't get out of the car without assistance due to my disability, will I just be shot instead? Will the media be told I was just being difficult or that an officer feared for his life? If white female poets with pronouns in their bios offenders ICE agents so much, maybe we should hire stronger ICE agents. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and your continued fight for the rights of ALL Americans, not just the ones who looked like the agents or have a piece of paper from the government.