There’s that old saying – if you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones. I think it applies here to a certain extent.
Earlier today, the official ICE Twitter account made the following post:
Think slavery doesn’t exist today? Think again. #HumanTrafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. https://t.co/u1LTrtd4Ix pic.twitter.com/JMyVe8CRdH
— ICE (@ICEgov) January 29, 2019
Think slavery doesn’t exist today? Think again. #HumanTrafficking is a form of modern-day slavery.
They then linked to the ICE website where they talk about human trafficking. Human trafficking is absolutely a very real issue, but is something most people don’t even realize is going on in their own communities – big and small alike.
Globally, 21 million people are trafficked each year, with females comprising 71% of those trafficked. Somewhere around 16,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year.
But when ICE is the agency trying to increase awareness… That’s a special level of irony.
Here we have the agency responsible for separating families at the border – even those who attempted to legally claim asylum – and many of those families might not ever be reunited.
Hell, I even made a satire piece about ICE last year:
Don’t they look *so* happy and not in any way photoshopped into the picture?
ICE is aware of their reputation though. So much so that the non-shitty parts of the agency have asked for a divorce from the shitty parts of it. Agents who investigate sex trafficking and cross-border gangs like MS-13 (the non-shitty half of the agency) have ran into trouble getting cooperation from local law enforcement agencies because of the division of ICE that detains and deports kids.
I’m not saying we should get rid of ICE, maybe just restructure the non-shitty parts away from the shitty parts, and take a good, hard look at what the shitty parts are doing and why they’re so shitty (hint: it involves a climate of referring to children as zoo animals).
So I shared my thoughts (a few times):
Think irony doesn’t exist today? Think again. https://t.co/vz7gN5mmJW
— A Science Enthusiast 🚀 (@aSciEnthusiast) January 29, 2019
On a related note: https://t.co/5BnyuOXvo6
— A Science Enthusiast 🚀 (@aSciEnthusiast) January 29, 2019
Uhhhh pic.twitter.com/xeaxjQhEZW
— A Science Enthusiast 🚀 (@aSciEnthusiast) January 29, 2019
But I’m not the only one who found ICE’s tweet amusing:
You mean like when corrupt regimes remove babies and children from their parents then sequester them in sketchy “detention camps” before ultimately hastily adopting them out and losing their paperwork? Yes, I would definitely agree with you there.
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) January 29, 2019
So is kidnapping children from their parents and putting them in cages.
— SaavikBlueValentine (@saavik2017) January 29, 2019
I you’re outraged over human trafficking, wait until I tell you about this organization that kidnaps children, locks them in cages, and didn’t bother to keep track of their families so they can’t be reunited even if they were to be rescued.
— Mike Vago (@Mikevago) January 29, 2019
If you’re interested in donating to an organization to help fight human trafficking and help victims who have been trafficked, I encourage you to donate to an organization like Unicef.