Frontera Federation Supports Student Calls for National Shutdown on January 30 to Oust ICE

We call on all U.S. workers to organize to defund violent immigration enforcement 

(EAGLE PASS, TX) — Frontera Federation endorses the urgent calls for a nationwide economic shutdown on Friday, January 30, to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol from killing, hurting, and abducting our neighbors in Minnesota and across the United States.

At the U.S.–Mexico border, we have long witnessed a pattern of abuse by Border Patrol and ICE that is neither isolated nor accidental: murder with impunity, aggressive enforcement tactics, mass surveillance, racial profiling, family separation, denial of due process, and the normalization of lethal indifference to tens of thousands of migrant deaths and enforced disappearances. These harms are inseparable from broader assaults on constitutional protections and international human rights standards happening today, including the killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Keith Porter Jr., Isaias Sanchez Barboza, and Silverio Villegas González, and the shootings of eight other people since September. 

“It is not enough for members of Congress to block additional funds for ICE and Border Patrol,” said Frontera Federation Co-Director Ari Sawyer. “We must abolish ICE and completely defund violent enforcement operations, including immigration detention.” 

ICE alone already enjoys a massive budget of $85 billion, higher than any other policing agency. 

No amount of leadership change, training, or enforcement guidelines will fix these deeply violent and unaccountable agencies. Indeed, ICE and Border Patrol routinely ignore existing guidelines and are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, including children and U.S. citizens.

We demand the following: 

• ICE out of Minneapolis and other U.S. cities.
• Congress must defund Border Patrol’s rogue interior operations.
• Ensure meaningful investigations and accountability for all immigration enforcement staff involved in harming or killing civilians. 
• End qualified immunity for federal immigration agents. 
• Terminate private detention contracts and end immigration detention in almost all cases.
• Congress must claw back funds already given to immigration agencies. 
• Cancel contracts with companies that facilitate unconstitutional surveillance by ICE and Border Patrol.
• Create safe and legal pathways to immigrate and restore pathways to seek protection. 

Without urgent public opposition across the United States, more state violence against civilians and further loss of life are inevitable. 

Frontera Federation calls on neighbors, faith leaders, educators, workers, and local officials to speak up and to act in public spaces to halt the expansion of abusive enforcement into our cities. Community presence, mutual aid, court-watching, rapid response networks, nonviolent civic action, and labor strikes are proven tools to protect lives and uphold rights.

“This is a system designed to dehumanize and endanger,” said Amerika Garcia Grewal, Frontera Federation co-director. “Our peaceful collective action on January 30 sends one clear message: not in our name, and not with our dollars. Fund communities, not cruelty.”

To support the National Shutdown, visit https://nationalshutdown.us/.