DEAR GOVERNORS OF AMERICA
Stop telling us what you can’t do.
Dear Governors of America,
Stop telling us what you can’t do.
I’ve heard every variation of the excuse by now. Federal jurisdiction. Limited authority. We’re monitoring the situation. We’ll await the investigation. I’ve heard them after Minneapolis. I’ve heard them after Houston. I’ve heard them after Biddeford. Every time another person dies, another podium appears. Another carefully rehearsed statement. Another promise of a “full and transparent investigation.”
Bullshit.
That’s not leadership.
That’s a eulogy with a state seal on it.
Joan Sebastian Guerrero was twenty-six years old. He left home Monday morning expecting to go about his life. He had a wife. He had a young daughter. He had a Social Security number. He was legally authorized to work. He wasn’t even the man ICE was looking for.
They fired through his windshield anyway.
Witnesses watched his family arrive. A little girl in Bluey pajamas. A woman crying, “You took her dad.” Agents pulled Guerrero from his vehicle, shackled his wrists, and left his body lying in public for hours.
Hours.
Somebody poured another cup of coffee.
Somebody answered email.
Somebody moved on with their day.
His daughter never will.
Now tell me again your hands are tied.
Because I’m done listening.
Every time you tell the public there’s nothing you can do, what I hear is that you haven’t bothered to find out what you can do.
You don’t get to shrug your shoulders while people die in your states and then rediscover your voice once the cameras arrive.
If ICE won’t follow its own policies, stop helping it.
Suspend every 287(g) agreement in your state until ICE demonstrates compliance with its own body-camera policies, its use-of-force standards, and meaningful independent accountability.
Inventory every agreement your state has with ICE. Every contract. Every memorandum of understanding. Every shared database. Every voluntary partnership. Publish every damn one of them. Let the people who elected you see exactly what is being done in their name.
Direct your attorneys general to investigate every fatal shooting, every in-custody death, every credible allegation of excessive force, every claim of medical neglect, and every private detention contractor operating within your borders for possible violations of state law.
Send inspectors into every immigration detention facility your state has the legal authority to inspect. If a corporation refuses access, sue it. If it obstructs investigators, drag that obstruction into the light where the public can see it.
Hold hearings.
Put executives from GEO Group and CoreCivic under oath.
Ask them why detainees leave their facilities underweight and frail.
Ask them why people describe weeks in solitary confinement.
Ask them why families report untreated illnesses, delayed medical care, retaliation, spoiled food, and abuse.
Make them answer where everyone can hear them.
And stop pretending these detention centers simply materialize out of thin air.
They need roads.
Utilities.
Contracts.
Infrastructure.
Corporate partners.
Political permission.
They operate inside your states.
When human beings emerge emaciated, medically neglected, psychologically shattered, or dead, don’t tell me it’s only Washington’s problem.
It is happening on your soil.
Under your watch.
With corporations doing business inside your borders.
Governors swear an oath to protect the people within their states. Not just the citizens. Not just the voters. The people.
That oath isn’t suspended because the federal government is involved.
You don’t have to control immigration law to demand accountability.
You don’t have to command ICE to stop lending it your officers, your facilities, your resources, and your legitimacy.
You don’t have to control Washington to stop acting like a fucking spectator.
Stop telling us what you can’t do.
Tell us what you will do.
Show us the executive orders.
Show us the inspections.
Show us the investigations.
Show us the lawsuits.
Show us the hearings.
Show us every agreement you’ve terminated.
Show us every corporation you’ve forced to answer for what happens behind razor wire in your state.
Show us the backbone you promised the day you raised your right hand and took the oath.
Not after the next shooting.
Not after the next body.
Not after another child watches a parent disappear or die.
Now.
Because if your contribution to the next tragedy is another polished statement about your profound concern and your commitment to a full and transparent investigation, then stop calling it leadership.
Call it what it is.
Failure.
And the people who elected you should judge it accordingly.
Rook T. Winchester
Closer to the Edge
Powerful. Perfect. Thank you. Simply throwing hands in the air is not an acceptable reaction. Never was.
Politicians must play by the same rules Tempertantrump follows: none. He is counting on his political handicap - it has nothing to do with golf! He is a story teller (aka propagandist) hoping one of his stories will be believed. His defense is: “Who’s gonna stop me?”