We are horrified by the Trump administration’s weaponization of immigration enforcement to terrorize American cities – and American citizens. The intensification of federal operations, under the guise of “keeping Americans safe,” has resulted in heavily armed ICE agents brutalizing innocent people, producing violence and fear from Los Angeles to New York and everywhere in between. ICE agents have now been involved in multiple shootings and beatings of both American citizens and immigrants who are lawfully here and legally protected.
We recognize that immigration enforcement is a challenging endeavor and that if we want to be a nation of laws — which we do — that those laws must be enforced, including when they result in painful deportations of those who are here unlawfully. But it has become undeniable that, with the encouragement of the administration, ICE is exceeding its authority, creating violent encounters, and then using that violence to justify lockdowns, militarized raids, and the attempted imposition of martial law on American streets, including the clear erosion and even suspension of due process and civil liberties. These incidents are not isolated, their victims are often American citizens, and their consequences cannot be justified.
We fundamentally reject any attempt to invoke “Jewish safety” or “fighting antisemitism” to excuse these, or any other, extra-legal actions. The real fight against antisemitism demands unshakable respect for human rights, the rule of law, and protection for all minority communities.
Jewish trauma is not a shield for draconian policies, nor is it a defense for authoritarian tactics. Using our community this way is explicitly antisemitic and endangers us further, during a rise of already explosive anti-Jewish violence and harm.
As Zionists, we know that true freedom requires self-determination within a framework of law and justice. A government that can overstep every red line of democracy — using violence with impunity, diminishing due process, and deepening fear in our communities — sets off alarms for every person, Jewish and not, who has been denied their inalienable right to freedom. When the rule of law is compromised, and the enforcement of law is weaponized, and enforcement power is exercised without adequate transparency or accountability — no one is safe.
As Jews who have so often been strangers in foreign lands, our hearts bleed for those fleeing persecution. Yet we also know too well what happens when laws are not upheld. Immigration laws can and must be enforced — but federal agents are obligated to enforce them with humanity, and without cruelty. We will not stay silent when the government abuses its power to strip people of their rights, nor when enforcement power is exploited to sow fear, rather than to uphold justice.
We join millions of Americans in protest and resistance, demanding that our laws be enforced with integrity, that our rights be protected without exception, and that no community be targeted or terrorized in our name.