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by nailer 2494 days ago
I might be really uneducated here - I'm not American. All I know about ICE is that they're immigration and customs enforcement - they're basically the US's border force. The quality of the conditions they keep migrants in is poor, and has been for years.

OK. Why is that worthy of a boycott? Your democratically elected governments create the laws, and determine the funding for things like beds and toys etc. Boycotts in some cases may make those conditions worse instead of better.

There will always need to be a border force. Wouldn't it be better to focus on improving conditions, increasing funding, and stopping people from crossing the border in the first place?
2 comments
SpicyLemonZest 2494 days ago
ICE isn't the border force. All border security operations, stopping people from crossing and customs inspections and such, are done by a different agency called CBP.
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nailer 2494 days ago
OK. Why not change the law, if you want to make undocumented migration legal?
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SpicyLemonZest 2494 days ago
Most people trying to boycott ICE don't think undocumented migration should be legal. They just don't think ICE is a good agency. (Again, ICE is not the only agency responsible for undocumented migration, so undocumented migration isn't automatically legal if they can't do their job.)
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nailer 2494 days ago
OK but we're getting close to circular logic here. If ICE is not bad because it enforces border laws, why is ICE bad?
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ppseafield 2494 days ago
Indeed, Customs and Border Patrol are the ones on the border. ICE are the folks that find and deport people already inside the US.

Under the last administration ICE was only targeting folks who had committed serious crimes, but now they're targeting all undocumented folk. A lot of our economy actually depends on these people, as they tend to be the ones picking vegetables and working in factory farms, preparing livestock for sale - nasty jobs most people don't want. Trump's golf courses and hotels have also knowingly employed undocumented folk, but they don't do much to the people employing undocumented folks (which is actually illegal - being undocumented is not).

Oh, and we're a country of immigrants. (Except the native folk.)

See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/us/politics/fact-check-ic... for a bit more detail.

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