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Since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office last year, the number of people in immigration detention has almost doubled from 40,000 to about 75,000. Disabled people face an increased threat of violence and detention from law enforcement, including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who have been deployed to terrorize communities and detain neighbors in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and elsewhere as part of Trump’s crackdown over the last year.

As the Trump administration’s assault on migrant communities escalates, members of the disability community are showing up for their neighbors on all fronts — in Congress and the courts, at protests, and as nodes in mutual aid and ICE watch networks. Disabled organizers who spoke to Truthout said the attacks feel all too familiar, and it’s a fight they cannot imagine sitting out.

“Fascism is not new to this group, the idea of being disposable, not being of value to this capitalist society, aggressive institutionalization, state-sanctioned violence, lack of resources — we have been screaming from our lungs that there was something severely wrong,” Ramiro Alvarez, communications director at Detroit Disability Power (DDP), told Truthout. “It’s not a ‘We told you so’ moment. It’s a ‘We are glad more people are waking up and there are more in this fight’ moment.”

Research has repeatedly shown that disabled people are overrepresented at every stage of the criminal legal system. They account for upwards of two-thirds of the U.S. prisoner population. However, no similar demographic data exists for the population in immigration jails.

Members of the disability community are showing up for their neighbors on all fronts — in Congress and the courts, at protests, and as nodes in mutual aid and ICE watch networks.

Members of the disability community are showing up for their neighbors on all fronts — in Congress and the courts, at protests, and as nodes in mutual aid and ICE watch networks.

The risks are even greater for disabled people of color, who are likewise overrepresented in the criminal legal system. Of those incarcerated in the U.S., 1 in 3 are Black men, and 1 in 6 are Latino men, compared to only 1 in 17 white men. People of color are also more likely to be disabled and less likely to have access to needed health care.

“Anybody who’s not white and is disabled is at such a huge risk of being profiled by ICE and CBP,” CT Tyson, government affairs liaison at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), told Truthout.

Disability Justice Organizers Are Creating the Liberatory Future We All Deserve

Laura Murchie, a staff attorney focused on immigration law at Disability Law United, told Truthout that even if a person is not disabled when agents arrest them, many will develop illnesses or disabilities as they are moved through the immigration detention system. The scale and speed of Trump’s crackdown make matters worse.

“The harm is disproportionate to folks who are disabled,”........

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