On Monday night, nearly 80,000 people hopped on a video call to learn how to “observe ICE”, a non-violent and constitutionally protected practice of documenting federal immigration agents’ activities in public. Some wrote in the chat where they were from: Arkansas, Texas, Michigan, Florida and many other corners of the country. Others typed why this was important to them: calling for “ICE out” of their communities and demanding the abolition of the agency itself. “The fact we’re all here gives me hope we’ll come out the other side,” wrote one participant. Within 24 hours, another 200,000 people had watched the recording on YouTube.
The rising interest in ICE observing came two days after Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent and less than three weeks after an agent killed Renee Good.
“Two of my neighbors have been killed, but because of ordinary people documenting the actions of ICE, we’re able to show the truth of what happened to Renee and Alex”, a Minneapolis resident named Marjorie told those on the call. “And we’re also able to track what is happening in our community, and ensure that our neighbors are not being simply disappeared.”
