Image by Chad Stembridge.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) helicopters will undoubtedly be circling my neighborhood looking for roofers and landscapers this “Veterans Day,” just as they have been for weeks. In the U.S., you’re an easy mark when you have brown skin and your job demands that you labor out in the open.

My town, located just outside of Chicago, has been crawling with ICE agents or soldiers (the terms deserve to be used interchangeably) for weeks now. Recently, two moms, in the cold with their whistles, helped guard a crew working on a roof that was damaged by hail in a recent storm. The ICE agents/soldiers, dressed in full military kit, carrying semi-automatic weapons, and wearing ski masks to hide their identity, are patrolling in unmarked trucks — I think we all know how to spot them at this point.

These people remind me of the soldiers I patrolled with in Afghanistan, only the average ICE agent has less training than the average soldier. It seems like every neighborhood in the U.S. is now subject to an armed and potentially violent confrontation with federal troops. The U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan has come full circle.

Similar to the way that I terrorized Afghan villages during my time in the military following 9/11, ICE has been terrorizing my town. When I was in the U.S. Army Rangers, we’d target high school and college-age Afghans. Most of the time, these kids were simply walking down the street, minding their own business, when they became subject to a search, an intimidating interrogation, or abduction. After a while, Afghans would alert their neighbors anytime our caravan of trucks entered a town — sometimes they would use whistles. Villagers would quickly disappear and it then felt like we were rolling through a ghost town. This, in part, is life under occupation.

The Trump Regime’s Skyrocketing Domestic Occupying Forces

ICE training has been cut by five weeks to “surge” the number of troops: Training is now eight weeks long, down from 13 weeks. The Trump administration hopes to increase the number of ICE agents from 6,500 nationwide to 10,000 by the end of 2025. A signing bonus of $50,000 has reportedly drawn 150,000 people to apply for positions with ICE, as the agency uses white nationalist imagery to attract white supremacist recruits.

ICE agents/soldiers are occupying U.S. neighborhoods........

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