Albany, NY – In response to a number of incidents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting citizens and legal residents and the dangerous development of Trump deploying the military in California, Assemblymember Dana Levenberg is joining the growing number of advocates, legal experts, and everyday Americans calling for an end to the terror-inducing raids against workers and families across the country. Levenberg released the following statement today:

“Through increasingly frightening immigration actions, the Trump administration is attempting to turn our communities into a police state. The unnecessary federalization of California’s National Guard and deployment of U.S. Marines are a massive escalation of this effort. Notably, Trump declined to take similar actions during riots in 2020 or during the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, strongly suggesting he knows he is wrong right now. As a state legislator, I stand with the many governors, including our own, who have condemned this abuse of power against California.

Moreover, the tactics of Trump’s ICE are creating needless levels of fear and confusion in our communities. Their habit of having masked plainclothes officers take people away is already being imitated by predators, leading to a situation where people will not be able to tell the difference between law enforcement and criminals. This is a recipe for disaster that puts residents and law enforcement officials in unnecessary danger.

The rise in cases of mistaken identity, wrongful detention, and unlawful deportation indicates that ICE agents are growing desperate to hit quotas and getting sloppier in their work, putting everyone at risk. The federal government needs to focus its efforts on actual criminals and allow our local law enforcement to keep families safe, instead of tearing people from their loved ones without due process.

Parents shouldn’t have to live in fear that their children will be ‘disappeared’ by masked agents. Americans should not have to carry around a dozen proofs of identity just in case an agent demands to see their papers, with no guarantee that an agent will actually acknowledge their legitimacy. And we cannot be silent as this administration ignores the Constitution and threatens to use military force against Americans. We deserve to be safe and free; the federal government can and should pursue comprehensive immigration reform instead of totalitarianism. We must all stand together right now and reject these attacks on our liberty.”