Cold at ICE

During the last great government shutdown, I approached the security line at the airport and saw that ICE agents had replaced the TSA workers. My body froze, like I was Georg von Trapp seeing Liesl's boyfriend in his Nazi uniform, only with a much bigger gun. The ICE agent at the baggage scanner was a smiley guy eager to help with our luggage. I scowled at him in a way that was meant to show fury but actually just showed average airline passenger. The End of My Career is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. A few weeks ago, we were in a bookshop in Haight-Ashbury when I sawa $6 pamphlet called 'Who Shares the Restroom Code with ICE Agents?' It was smart and funny, asking questions such as 'Do ICE agents read restaurant reviews on Yelp before raiding their kitchens?' So I called the author, Marc Fischer, and asked him to judge me for our actions at the airport. JoelI was so excited to see your pamphlet. I was like, 'Oh, this is what I'd been jotting down in notes for an essay, but didn't have anything smart to say.' So I was so excited to find someone who did. MarcThat's great. JoelI'd been thinking about this ever since I saw ICE agents running the bag check machines and wondered how I should have acted. MarcYeah. I mean, here in Chicago, people are generally really nice . I'm from Philadelphia, where people - JoelThey're not nice at all. I think of it as the real capital of New Jersey. MarcI always say in Philadelphia, the aggressive comes before the passive. But in Chicago, people are decent to each other, and that doesn't work for me under fascism. JoelRight. MarcI'm an abolitionist. I don't think police should exist. JoelOh. MarcSo I don't live with this idea that justice through police or the court system will one day resolve this. I think it's on us to figure out how we're going to be good to each other while creating a hostile environment for people who want to do this work, so that they maybe don't want to do it to begin with. No one's forcing anyone to join ICE -- JoelI thought of something that someone you wouldn't approve of – Adam Carolla – said aboutpeople who hand out parking tickets: 'There are other jobs. A certain type of person looks for that job.' MarcI worked in a high school in an after-school arts program in a mostly Mexican population, and I would see these flyers recruiting for the police. I wouldn't be surprised if they had flyers recruiting for ICE. I wanted to think about what intolerance of that looks like. JoelRun me through what you would do if you saw an ICE agent running your luggage through the machine? MarcI've done ICE watch. I don't write about it really because it's a form of activism. I don't know the full names of anyone that I do this with. We're in a Signal group. JoelDo you have a nom de guerre? MarcIt's just a bunch of letters. It's nothing clever at all. I have not been face-to-face with ICE agents. I've run after caravans of them blowing a whistle to draw other people out of their homes, which works really well. I've distributed thousands of whistles. JoelBut, as your pamphlet asks, what do you do when you're at a coffee shop, and an ICE agent asks you for the bathroom code? MarcYou're allowed to kick them out. JoelI mean as a patron when you've left the bathroom. MarcI'd say I forgot and keep walking past them and leave. JoelNon-confrontational, but not friendly. MarcI don't know. It's hard. JoelYou know the phrase, 'Choose your enemy carefully because you will become them?'1I don't want to be a person without acceptance and kindness, but I also don't want to tacitly approve of something horrifying. MarcI'm certainly not going to help them. This armed officer came into Pilsen Community Books. They kicked her out. They don't allow cops in the bookstore. JoelCan you do that? MarcYeah, because you can discriminate based on occupation. JoelCan we kick influencers out of places? MarcThat might be a little much. JoelOkay, but you're in a diner, and ICE agents walk in. How do you handle that? MarcI'd probably talk to a manager and explain, 'I can't eat in your restaurant if you're willing to serve ICE.' I would make a mental note at the very least, and I'd probably publicize that out of concern for people around me. JoelThere's a cost in letting people into society who are dangerous. Somewhere between me telling the ICE guy I think he's evil and being friendly was the path I should have taken. And I'm wondering what that path is. MarcThere are definitely people who are more fearless than I am, protesting at detention centers. I really commend those people who take these great physical risks. JoelI wouldn't have been putting myself in any danger if I had said to the ICE agent, 'I just want you to know I disapprove of what you do.' MarcAn ugly glare is uncomfortable enough that they know you know that they suck. JoelThere's a difference to me between cutting off people whose politics you find odious and cutting off people who are committing physical crimes against others. An ICE agent is different than someone who just voted for Trump. MarcIf I noticed ICE agents were staying in a hotel I was at, I would leave. I would go on social media and encourage people to boycott the hotel. JoelI think we've decided on a mean glare if they ever take over the TSA again. MarcYou could blow a whistle in the airport. I don't know if you would get onto your flight after that. JoelI think people would just be confused. MarcYeah, people would already kind of know they're there. It's a really complicated conversation to have with your wife before you travel, but maybe it's 'What do we do in this scenario?' In the way that lots of people have prepared themselves for what to do if they come to our house. JoelMaybe a mean glare while I say, 'Find a better job.' MarcIf enough people do that to them every day, it might tip them over to thinking, 'Being called an asshole isn't worth it.' JoelWhat I should really do is carry your pamphlet everywhere and give it to them. The End of My Career is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. InBeyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, 'He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster.' My version was as close as I was able to get, despite taking two Nietzsche classes in college.