Illegal Aliens

By Portland, OR artist N.O. Benzo

Earlier this year

ICE abducted at LEAST 12

Undocumented immigrants

At El Toro Loco locations in KC

In their first big raid!!!!

I'll never forget their terrified

Tear-streaked faces

As they were cuffed and chained together

Marched into a white van

I worry if their kids and pets are okay

If they are okay

I wonder if they'll ever walk free

In KC again

Or if that was their last glimpse of hope

With the betrayal of the setting sun

But the media seems to have moved on

The public's attention has wandered back

To insatiably ingesting social media feeds

And clickbait articles

Stirring up anger for the wrong reasons

As always

ICE intruders are invading

Immigrant homes

Right here, right now

Probing the lives of "illegal aliens"

Tearing families apart limb from limb

I look around and see

Mainly other minorities

Sticking their necks out for each other

Why WOULDN’T trans people

Care about the state

Disappearing immigrants???

The state is also vanishing our rights

And hardly a cisgender soul

Is resisting our persecution

So you fucking bet

We'll put our highly politicized

Bodies in harm’s way

Instead of watching on the sidelines

Complicit, complacent bystanders

Hardly innocent

We know the sting of betrayal all too well

We don't need wishy-washy "allies"

Who abandon us at the first inconvenience

We need die hard accomplices

Now there is a rightful uproar in Minnesota

Over the public executions

Of two white citizens

By cruel little men with god complexes

Because everyone is shocked

That someone who looks like them

Isn’t safe either

And yes

Mourn every soul stolen by state violence

But where is the widespread outrage

Over Brown immigrants being kidnapped???

Where is the justice for Black citizens

Who have always faced this brutal reality

On this blood-soaked soil???

Right now Public Enemy #1

Is the people who grow most our food

Take care of our cleaning and kids too

Americans want to consume

Latine culture and cuisine

Enjoy their lively music

But not appreciate their labor

And of course

Latine people are Indigenous

They were the original Americans

Long before white colonizers arrived

With foreign labels on their lips

Evil intentions hid behind treaties

And white lies

What about that illegal immigration???

I don't want to hear shit

About "lazy immigrants"

From the race

Who enslaved a whole other race

To build an empire on their backs

While my ancestors kicked their feet back

Picked their teeth with bones

Mounted skulls as hunting trophies

I don't want to hear shit

About "just get over slavery…

It happened so long ago!"

From the race who is currently

Funding a panicked, reactionary genocide

Over the irrational white fear

Of going extinct

Just because we're projected

To be a minority by 2050

Are white supremacists afraid

They'll be treated

Like how they’ve treated other minorities

Mayhaps???

So afraid of losing artificial privilege

That equality feels like a nuclear threat?

Well, diversity is an immutable fact

Division is a cruel tact

And resisting reality is only raining down

Pain on us all

Don't just watch idly from your window

Like a 1930s German

As Karl Stojka, an Auschwitz survivor, said:

“It was not Hitler or Himmler who abducted me, beat me, and shot my family. It was the shoemaker, the milkman, the neighbor, who received a uniform and then believed they were the master race."

The gutting reality

Is that we can’t save everyone

I fucking wish we could...

BUT everyone we can save

Is worth saving!!!

Join your local community defense actions

To train for rapid response to ICE

When armed, masked intruders

Encroach on your turf

To steal your neighbors

Rise up!

Like the brave souls who hid Jews

And resisted the Nazi regime

Risking

And losing

Their own lives

History is watching

And it will not be a kind judge

To those who close their curtains

Bury their noses in phones

And turn up the television

While the fascists march on by