Last week, top ICE officials ordered officers to increase arrests and to get “creative” in their methods, including trying to nab people the officers happen to encounter in what are known as “collateral arrests.” The orders come in the wake of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller setting a quota of 3,000 immigration arrests per day, along with a sharp rise in protests against the crackdown.
In Westbury, the HSI agents didn’t respond to the gathered crowd. After a few minutes, the agents drove away. A commotion erupted down the road, off-camera, and onlookers began rushing toward the corner.
One of the Nissans, carrying two of the HSI agents, had crashed into a black pickup truck that happened to be passing through the intersection. Three eyewitnesses told The Intercept that the agents’ car had sped away. Two of the witnesses believe the Nissan blew a stop sign, causing the crash. (Nassau County police referred questions about the accident to ICE, which did not respond to an inquiry.)
Try being an American citizen with a history degree. I know where this leads, and I’m terrified.
I feel like my history teachers tried to warn us about this, but they couldn’t say it directly and most of us didn’t take the hint.
“Does history repeat itself?”
“Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it.”
What they’re really trying to get their students thinking is “do we learn from history?” And the answer is a big, fat, fuck no.