ICE detentions—and deportations without due process—persist. Many restaurants and other establishments conduct Know Your Rights training, and informative flyers are regularly posted throughout Chicago where I live. I see them on the edges of the parking lot of the Home Depot in my neighborhood, where immigrant day laborers often hang out looking for work. I see flyers in the post office parking lot. A Mexican restaurant I often get food from has one posted on their window. Still, I can’t stop thinking about what happened at Sava’s restaurant back in 2017. Did the agents tip the waitstaff before arresting the kitchen staff? At what percentage?  Did they compliment the chef on the waffles while cuffing him in front of diners and his coworkers?  

 

As ICE grows bolder and as public resistance to ICE intensifies, I’ve been thinking more about these secret police agents and unknown thugs that we fund with our taxes. I think about how easily ICE agents move through the city during their downtime, when they aren’t busy terrorizing immigrants in the name of white supremacy while hiding behind masks. I’ve also been thinking about their fans and supporters.

I shared some of the first questions in this publication on two social media platforms and invited others to add their own questions. Then I selected and organized some of the responses and compiled them into this booklet. Multiple friends read this text and gave suggestions. This collection of questions is an invitation to think about situations we may encounter with ICE, a poetic rant against ICE, and a provocation for ICE’s allies.  

— Marc Fischer / Public Collectors

Dedicated to Jean Toche, Malachi Ritscher,  Bill Talsma, and David Wojnarowicz