Write a commentOn Monday, February 2nd, the Oswego Public Safety Meeting failed to pass a resolution barring collusion between the Oswego County Sheriff's Department and ICE.
As a private citizen, I attended this meeting to support our legislators who have the common sense and the humanity to recognize that what ICE and CBP are doing to our country is outrageously barbaric. These brave legislators, all of them newly elected, save for the sole Republican who dared to defy her party, voted truth to power. Those who voted 'yes' to advance the No Collusion resolution to the full legislature have shown their quality and they have the respect and thanks of a community that is living in fear of ICE and CBP, even though the resolution failed to progress.
The fact that many of us in Oswego County believe that we are immune to the brutality of ICE and CBP, and therefore choose to look away, to refuse to see this unfolding crisis for what it is, is one of the biggest daily challenges of my life. I do not understand how anyone can look at what ICE and CBP are doing and conclude that this is acceptable. How can anyone look at the video evidence of ICE and CBP atrocities and the escalating assault on our Constitutionally granted rights and say, 'Yes! More of that, please.'
It is absolutely beyond my ability to understand.
I say this because although my privilege shields me from the abuse of ICE and CBP, my family is of mixed race. My loving partner does not look like most of the people that live in Oswego County. We live in fear that one day, ICE will be so desperate to meet their quota on arrests that they will detain her. Her citizenship will not protect her. She was born in this country and English is her first and only language. But we know that this does not matter to ICE because their operation is not and never was about targeting the 'worst of the worst'. It is about something far more sinister.
There have been multiple documented incidents of American citizens being detained and sometimes even deported from the country without due process. This is not an exaggeration. This has happened and will continue to happen as long as ICE exists.
There is also the issue of funding. DHS, which includes ICE and CBP, is federally funded by our tax dollars.
Our County Sheriff's office has more than enough on its hands to be assisting DHS. Why should our sheriff and deputies help the feds when they should be focusing on their primary mission, the safety and security of our county? Especially when those federal agents are harassing and violating the rights of the people they're supposed to protect?
A No Collusion resolution will continue to come before the Oswego County Legislature until enough legislators recognize that they must do the right thing. This is not a political question. It is a moral question.
Ryan Lance
Oswego City
