NJEA’s officers, President Steve Beatty, Vice President Petal Robertson and Secretary-Treasurer Tina Dare issued this statement today in the wake of yet another murder by ICE of an American citizen exercising his First Amendment right to protest:
“Today, federal agents occupying Minneapolis murdered Alex Pretti, a VA intensive care nurse, union member and U.S. citizen. This is part of a terrifying pattern of wanton violence and cruelty by ICE that includes the earlier murder of Renee Good and the indefensible arrest of a five-year-old child, among untold other atrocities. We will not stand by while our own government murders our citizens, arrests our children and terrorizes our communities.
“We are at a point in American history where silence equals complicity. We will not be silent while armed, masked federal agents bring death, fear and chaos to American cities, neighborhoods and school communities. Responding to peaceful citizen protest with lethal violence is a hallmark of an anti-democratic authoritarian regime. Democracies protect dissent. They do not meet grief and outrage with tear gas and bullets.
“We stand in full solidarity with all those across our nation who are horrified at the carnage that the federal government is inflicting on American communities and with the millions who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest this terror campaign being waged by this administration.
“We also stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors, in New Jersey and across America, who are living in fear of ICE violence. And we stand in solidarity with students who fear for their safety, fear for their families, and fear for their lives.
“We call on Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty to be a check on this horrific abuse of power by the executive branch. This is not a matter of party politics. This is, quite literally, a matter of life and death, and the blood being shed in Minneapolis is on the hands of every elected official who continues to support or defend these indefensible policies and actions.
“We will keep teaching, organizing, marching, protesting and speaking truth to power until our students are safe, our neighbors are secure, and our democracy is defended. Silence is complicity. We will not be silent.”