In mid-July, an armed attack on ICE facilities in Tacoma, Washington took place. Here’s a brief summary of what happened:
Will Van Spronsen… was killed [on July 13th] while carrying out a raid against a migrant concentration camp in Tacoma, Washington State. Van Spronsen is thought to be the first person killed attempting to take direct action against the US deportation system, which for months has faced heavy criticism over its use of concentration camps to break up families and detain migrant children.
The 69-year-old, known as an anti-fascist and campaigner against migrant detention, was shot dead by four police officers as he attempted to set fire to deportation buses stationed at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a few hours after a peaceful protest against the facility had been held.
– Via Freedom News
DGR Response to Armed Attack on ICE Facility
Deep Green Resistance recognizes, first and foremost, that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is nothing more than the paramilitary wing of the settler nation. Tacoma, like all of so-called North America, rests on stolen land – as an illegitimate occupier, this government has no right to establish or enforce imaginary borders across the territory of the Coast Salish people or any other indigenous community.
DGR affirms the struggle against all forms of xenophobia and white supremacy, and we stand in solidarity with those who resist ICE and its glorified ethnic cleansing. Direct action of this kind against the American immigration enforcement is justified and moral.
However, we also affirm the need for strategic, organized resistance that is capable of striking decisive blows against the settler state. Lone-wolf attacks of this nature are unlikely to achieve much beyond the symbolic. While we honor Van Spronsen’s bravery, we encourage activists to evaluate actions like these and consider more effective methods and strategies.
Decisive Ecological Warfare, the strategy of Deep Green Resistance, provides a detailed roadmap for creating and maintaining a militant resistance movement capable of overturning the white supremacist settler state. As aboveground activists, we must work to harness and direct the kind of fury and passion that leads to attacks like these, away from individual expressions of rage and towards organized militancy on behalf of the planet and all oppressed peoples.
I honor Mr Van Spronsen for more than his bravery. He is at an age where he most likely is more accepting of death and more determined than ever that now is his time to express his passion and fight for his beliefs, no matter the consequence. I believe he is an inspiration and many more will follow, hopefully with a different result. May he rest in peace.
I agree with your response, but take it a step further. Because the occupation of the Americas is illegitimate and its occupiers have no legitimate right to determine who lives or moves here, only the traditional indigenous people can do that. They are the only ones who have any right to say who gets to move or live here, so occupiers/colonizers have no right to invite people here. Also, please consider that the last thing that the Earth needs is more hyperconsumer Americans.
I’m ambivalent on the immigration issue because despite the issues I mentioned above, the U.S. has destroyed many people’s lives and societies in other countries, and therefore has an obligation to take them in. And the anarchist part of me likes the idea of open borders, despite the fact that all animals that have territories and all human societies defend their borders. So again, no opinion one way or the other on this issue, I’m pulled both ways on it.