Get ready: ICE could be coming our way too
JVL Introduction
Beyond the crucial task of international solidarity with those in the USA protesting ICE and doing their utmost to protect likely targets of ICE, there are lessons for us here. Farage is keen to have a similar force here – even if they will not be armed. We already have a government boating about how much better they are at deporting people than the Tories were do feeding the vile rhetoric of Farage and also of the likes of Tommy Robinson.
What is happening is truly dreadful on so many levels. Here Robert Reich writes briefly about what is happening but also the importance of staying active and not giving in to despair. On his own substack, Reich writes more about what can be done.
And we need to understand that Trump’s USA is also determined to promote the far right in Europe, not only Farage in the UK but across the continent. Black people are clearly saying that since the appalling murder of Renee Good, more white people realise that they have skin in the game and understand that no-one is safe.
The people of Minneapolis (and across the USA) have shown that they can mobilise effectively not only for the crucial tasks of protesting and bearing witness but also for supporting those at risk. We also need to be preparing as we did, eg for alerting people about the presence of UK government Immigration vans.
LL
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Mon 19 Jan 2026. Read the original here.
What ICE is doing on US streets looks terrifying, but don’t forget: it could happen anywhere
This shocking moment is the outcome of a political, institutional and media environment that is not far off Britain’s
Loading article text…
Never in my whole life have I felt so threatened and I am a white 77 year old woman. I feel that I should be getting ready to defend myself, my family, and my friends.
I cannot even imagine how anyone in a minority section of society feels. I have mixed race grandchildren who could be affected by this far right lurch in government, Jewish and Muslim friends, who are already going through the mental trauma of the two year long conflict and genocide in Palestine and are watching anxiously the events on our streets and the actions of our government. None of us need this extreme swerve to the right by any of the governments involved.
How long “people” watched around the world before the outbreak of the second world-war: the gradual militarisation and propagation of ideologies supporting ethnocentric — racist nationalism, in Europe, in Asia, Japan, West Asia and Africa. None of this is new. The question is how do we stop it? Can we stop it? Fascism creeps up like a snake, before it attempts to bite and strangle its victim. Today, we experience the vilest of excesses in Palestine: the longest testing ground for the “West” to perfect its oppression, torture, rape, displacement, and genocide. Should we be surprised that those practices are in the armoury of every “western” state? Ready to be opened and unleashed on its population? Capitalism in crisis has no morals or conscience. ICE is just the tip of fascist brutality, which is also in different guises, on the streets of Berlin, London, Paris. Violence by the state is its last resort.