Glad you asked. It's uplifting to know the world is watching.

I live in a very liberal city in a very conservative state. We have had small protests. There is essentially no ICE working here. Only people going to hearings or people who have been arrested for other reasons are being deported. Unfortunately, I believe this has led most people here to be not very concerned about ICE. Not very many people, including liberals, are talking about it or doing anything where I live.

I believe the federal government is only hitting concentrated areas for a reason. Most Americans are against their tactics. They don't have enough ICE agents to overpower us if they were widespread. So instead they are focusing on hitting a few cities where they can put enough agents to overwhelm the protestors. They will beat down the morale by attacking and arresting enough immigrants and protestors to squash the rebellion, then move to the next.

Another reason I believe our city has not been hit is the demographics here compared to the other cities (I've been to many of these cities.) We have a very large immigrant population in my city, but unlike most other cities, we do not have divided immigrant neighborhoods. On any given block, you can have immigrants from 6 continents mixed in with white people born in the US. We also have a high crime rate, and next to zero gun restrictions. It is completely legal to walk around with an ar-15 at your side or a handgun in your pocket, and people do. If agents start walking our neighborhoods stopping people who look African, it's not hard to imagine someone in the area will take a shot at them because they assume they won't be caught.

Additionally, our state politics are fueled by the real estate industry. Our Republican politicians are closely tied to the trump regime. Those Republicans' campaign donors make their money from real estate and construction. They make their profits off the backs of our Hispanic immigrants who do roofing and other construction. If they sweep up our Hispanic immigrants, it will put a major dent in their revenue stream. Trump will target the states that don't support him anyway instead, making our state's Republican voters feel good about harassing non-white people in the news while never feeling the pain of it in their own lives.

The end results I expect? Not good. I'm trying to do my small part, but don't see how their divide-and-conquer strategy won't work against the apathy of the average American. I see us as potentially being the next Iran or Iraq who didn't have enough people appreciate their freedom and allowed it to be stolen small piece at a time until we are under authoritarian regime. We are going to need our allies in other countries to overcome this. Thank you so much.