Allgemein

Following in a long American tradition of identifying fascists, a network of leftists has set out to name and shame Trump’s immigration agents. Last week a photographer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune filmed a border patrol agent approach a protester, lying prone in the street, and aim a canister of pepper spray at his eyes. The protester was already detained, three other agents pressing his body into the pavement, but the agent can nevertheless be seen spraying the orange chemical irritant, which causes excruciating pain, at point-blank range. The agent probably thought he would enjoy anonymity for this bit of brutality. The federal police terrorizing Minneapolis remain largely nameless as they dole out horrifying – and in two cases, fatal – violence against anyone opposing Operation Metro Surge. But within two hours of the Star Tribune posting the footage to social media, a group called Pacific Antifascist Research Collective claimed to have identified him. The collective – which days earlier promised in a post to “identify ICE terrorists until ICE’s campaign of terror is stopped and the armed thugs and their leadership are held accountable” – made flyers of the agent’s face for people to share online, or to print out and tape to telephone poles and buildings across Minneapolis. “TYLER GRAMLIN”, screamed the text on the flyers in English, Spanish, Hmong, Somali and Tagalog. “SUSPECTED KIDNAPPER/TERRORIST”. (…) This modern iteration of antifa grew in response to an alarming new cadre of white supremacist groups that emerged during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Although antifa is most commonly associated in the public imagination with punching Nazis, such militancy represents a tiny fraction of its activism. The story of antifa – a subculture of anarchists, socialists and communists dedicated to destroying the far right “by any means necessary” – is remarkable not so much for its violence, which is rare, but for its espionage and research. Over the last decade it has exposed the identities of thousands of pseudonymous Americans belonging to this new generation of fascists, sometimes deploying spies to go undercover into white supremacist groups and gather intelligence – including secretly recorded audio, covert photos and thousands of private chat messages – that would be used to unmask professors, politicians, police officers and pastors

via guardian: Antifa used to unmask neo-Nazis, now it’s exposing ICE: ‘Predators don’t get anonymity’

siehe dazu auch: Here’s How Many ICE and CBP Agents Allegedly Preyed on Children Apparently the institutions are riddled with accused sex criminals. The Trump administration pledged to deport violent criminals—but instead, some of them have been on the payrolls of the federal government’s most aggressive agencies. ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection employed at least 30 people with sexual and violent criminal histories in recent years, according to a report published Monday by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance with research from the Pacific Antifascist Collective. At least 20 of those individuals committed offenses with underage victims, according to the report. The 30 listed individuals have been charged with a wide litany of crimes, including gunpoint sexual assault, child sex trafficking, aggravated assault, robbery, rape, torture, kidnapping, sexual abuse of a minor, and possession and production of child sexual abuse materials. Their transgressions occurred between 2015 and 2025, with the bulk of abuse happening within the last two years. The delinquent officers include Minnesota-based ICE agent Alexander Steven Back, who was arrested in November for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor, in a multiagency sting referred to as “Operation Creep.” “When he was arrested, he said, ‘I’m ICE, boys,’” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges told reporters at the time of Back’s capture. Elsewhere in the state, in June, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Timothy Ryan Gregg “attempted, coerced, and enticed a minor victim” in order to make child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota. The majority of the listed offenders were located in Arizona, where at least nine agents committed sex crimes. Several of the offenders were charged, caught, or sentenced within the last year. The most recently convicted officer within the folds of the Grand Canyon State was 30-year-old Aaron Thomas Mitchell, who was sentenced in March to 27 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a teenage girl. Months later, in May, Yuma-based CBP agent Ramon Marquez was arrested and charged on multiple counts for abusing a 16-year-old participant in the state’s Customs and Border Protection Explorer Program. Later that summer, another Arizona-based border agent, Bart Conrad Yager, was slammed with 24 felony charges, which included one count of attempted child sex trafficking and six counts related to his attempts to solicit prostitutes. “There is a dangerous culture within these agencies, and that is evidenced by this horrifying list,” said Ohio Immigrant Alliance executive director Lynn Tramonte in a statement. “Congress must stop giving ICE and the Border Patrol a blank check to commit crimes against the public. DHS must answer for its faulty hiring, vetting, and re-verification processes. The public cannot trust law enforcement agencies that employ so many dangerous criminals, and refuse to police their own ranks.”