digital sarah art joy

be brave and give a damn

~ 10 minutes to read

ℹ️ This is a Reel Report, where I dig deeper into an Instagram Reel. They are a practice for slowing down my consumption of fast content; researching and analyzing and practicing my critical thinking skills; and sharing my findings through writing and art making.

Intro

A few days before the 4th of July, I saw a Reel of US Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, talking about a new deportation camp called "Alligator Alcatraz". The glee and happiness on her face as she talked about it instantly made my stomach sour. Soon after that, my Reels algo was full of people talking about all things immigration and ICE. I want to share one Reel that I found thought provoking and made me want to learn more. In the following sections, I write out its transcript, share my thoughts, and link to relevant sources and resources.

The text in blockquotes is the transcript of the reel.

The Reel

A white man with a gray beard and dark glasses sits in his car. Text above him reads

This Reel is by yersocialistdad. He talks about ICE's new budget (from the recently passed "Big Beautiful Bill"), and what he thinks will be done with it.

I've tried to look historically to understand if there were any parallels between what is about to happen with ICE and, you know, if there's been anything in history like this and I have to be honest with you, I've been unable to find anything in the history to compare to what is about to happen with how much ICE is going to be increased.

sounds scary

But first, he starts with just a teeny bit of fearful language. I didn't really clock it when I first watched this Reel (tbh I didn't notice it until I transcribed it while writing this), but I do want to be mindful of consuming and sharing things that spread fear, intentionally or not, big or little. And idk, maybe it doesn't instill fear in anyone else, but it did invoke a sense of "oh no, this has never happened before, so it's going to be horrible, unmanageable, the worst thing ever, we're doomed" for me. So many of us are already scared, some of us scared into freeze mode; we need to be speaking courage to one another.

history tangent

Also though, I learned from another Reel, that in the 1930s, there was another mass deportation targeting Mexicans. This article from El Paso Community College's student publication, Borderlands, shares a few parallels with what's happening today:

That 1 million dollar budget translates to about 18 million in today's spending power, so it definitely doesn't compare to ICE's new budget (literally billions). But, this country has a history of mistreating people. The terror being inflicted upon immigrants today is not new; it continues to be a reason to get angry and take action.

Their current budget is 8 billion dollars, they're 1 billion dollars over budget from what I can see, and they're about to get between 170-175 million1 dollars depending on the sources that you read. 45 billion dollars of that is going to towards building detention facilities. 45 billion dollars is going to build detention facilities. That is mind boggling. It doesn't make sense. Why do we need to bring 45 billion dollars worth of detention facilities if the plan is to deport people? What is the reason for this? It defies explanation that nearly a third of the budget is going to building these facilities that look like tents. It's absurd.

cruelty

I one thousand percent agree. If the goal is to get people out of the country, then why create a place to keep them? I think the dehumanization is the point. The cruelty of kidnapping. The inhumane living conditions. I think the reason is that they can't do this work without dehumanizing the people they're doing it to. They couldn't follow through with deporting so many people if they connected to them on a human level, so they must create that distance.

the budget breakdown

The National Immigration Law Center has a policy brief breaking down how the funds in the Big Beautiful Bill are allocated. Here's an overview:

For most of these, it says that amount of money is "available through September 30, 2029", so these budgets are not expected to be used up this year alone, but rather over a span of the next 4 years.

The other key thing to note is that this is not all for ICE specifically, but rather a variety of immigration enforcement. According to this Snope's article, only the 45 billion for detention centers and 32 billion (their article says 29) for agents and operations are for ICE.

There is a lot more information in the policy brief, so I recommend reading it yourself. They cover new and increased fees for various immigration processes, as well as tax increases on immigrants. I tried to read through the bill itself, but it's not fun. If you want to take a look, search for "SEC. 100052. APPROPRIATION FOR U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS" to find the immigration enforcement funds section.

vs frozen funds

It's hard for me to feel like I understand big numbers. Once they pass a certain threshold, it just feels incomprehensible. If you tally up the budgets in the above list, it reaches about 170 billion dollars, the number mentioned in the Reel. I wanted to compare that to how much funding the Trump administration has cut, but it was hard to find definitive numbers. I did find this database on the House Committee on Appropriations's website that attempts to tally how much funding he's currently blocking. It also states though, that it is not comprehensive or exhaustive. It comes out to 425 billion.

In this article, they list out the types of programs that are affected. They range from medical research to mental health services to school lunches to public transportation to natural disaster relief. Instead of spending 425 billion dollars on things that make our lives better, we're spending 170 billion on kicking people out. I hate that for us.

And then, you know, it's not necessarily that they're going to increase staffing as much as I think people believe. Their current staffing, their current head count is like 20 thousand people and they said they're gonna hire 10 thousand. I mean they could have done a lot more with that amount of money, so I think we're going to see deputizing and utilization, more use of the 287G program which is, you know, utilizing local police and I think every time you see, you know, red and white lights in your community you're gonna wonder if someone is being taken. I think that's the new America.

287(g)

I hadn't heard of 287(g) before. From ICE's website: it is a program that allows ICE to "partner with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove criminal aliens who are amenable to removal from the U.S." Apparently, its usage has grown a lot just this year. This article covers its past and its quick growth this year. According to it, over 300 new agreements were signed in the span of months, putting the total over 500.

the new America

And here we see a little more fearful language, the threat of a new norm where people see cops and get scared. I get it. That is a lot of new officers with ICE affiliation and abilities. But also though, red and white lights have ignited fear and community loss in certain communities for fucking decades. This is the same America, violent and prejudiced and divided. The real "new America", will come when we the people get our shit together and continually show up and relentlessly choose and support and hold accountable the things and people who make our communities better.

These numbers are not just staggering, they just don't make sense, just in detention centers, that is 5, well, it's about 4 thousand per undocumented immigrant that we believe is in the United States right now, just in terms of building the detention facilities, and I'm sure some of that is obviously like maintenance, staffing, all those costs. And as we see this happening I'm reminded of yet another quote from The Handmaid's Tale "Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance. You have to work at it." You're going to have to work at pretending that you do not see these things happening because they will be gargantuan in their scale. When I say we have to organize this is what I mean, we have to organize now. You need to have 10, 15, 20, people that you can call in your community to protect each other, to be safe, to honestly give yourself a little bit of sanity. because what is coming is not going to be like anything we've ever seen before.

ignoring is work

Unfortunately, noticing is work, too. Caring is work. Trying to understand big ass numbers and their implications is work. Learning history is work. Learning what you can do and how to do it is work. Giving up your status quo is work. Giving a damn is work. I guess the decision comes down to: what do you want your work to do? Do you want your work to help you live in alignment with your values of compassion and community? or let you make decisions from a place of fear? Do you want your work to help improve life for yourself and others? or keep your status quo at the expense of your values? Do you want your work to encourage yourself and others? or allow and spread hopelessness?

protect each other

For folks in Oregon, Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC) has a hotline for reporting ICE sightings. They validate sightings as well as do other work to support our local immigrant communities.

For other states, Latinx Therapy has a list of Rapid Response Hotlines across the country.

Art Response

As part of these Reel Reports, I want to also create a piece of art or design in response to what I've learned. For this one, I decided to make some letterpress prints of the phrase: Be Brave and Give a Damn.

20250716_201257

While writing about this Reel, I learned about the 1930's Mexican Repatriation, the immigration budget allocation from the Big Beautiful Bill, and ICE's 287(g) program. I thought about trying to make something educational, like a zine or a poster around one of those topics, but after spending time with this Reel, I feel its lesson right now for me is ultimately to care. Care about how we as a country prioritize our spending. Care about treating immigrants with humanity. Care about what's unfolding in our communities. Which is fitting considering this is my first Reel Report, my first attempt at creating something and saying something around an issue rather than just consuming too many Reels about it.

I'd also noticed while writing this report, how this Reel invoked some fearful feelings for me. I didn't realize until I took this time to reflect and dig deeper. The PNW Chapter of International Migrants Alliance posted an Instagram post that included this phrase: "Don't spread fear, build people power." I want to carry that with me as I do this work. Yes, some things are scary and fear is a totally valid response. But it's not needed to make things better. There's no reason to spread it. What we should be spreading is knowledge about what's happening and what we can do, hope that we can make a difference, and courage to keep learning and keep working.

The phrase I chose is a riff off of the UK's poster: Keep Calm and Carry On. It was made during World War II, although according to Wikipedia, it wasn't well known until after. It was a nod to British Stoicism and meant to fight against panic. I think "Be Brave and Give a Damn" calls on American bravery (is that a thing? I don't know/I think it should/could be) and fights against apathy.

Three letterpress prints side by side, each reads "Be brave and give a damn"

Prints are available for purchase, 50% of profits will be donated to the PIRC. I think I'm going to make stickers of these as well.

Outro

It's now a few weeks after I wrote this. I wrote it in a fit of passion and hyperfocus; I created the prints in a whirlwind 3 hour printing session; and then I faltered. My days unfolded like normal, because I have the privilege of witnessing what's unfolding from a distance. But the prints I made, and their message, follow me. It feels silly to think that posting this requires bravery, but it's shattering my norm. I want this to be the start of a practice that educates and encourages myself and others.

Thank you for reading this. I know it's uncomfortable to think about these thing sometimes and I hope me sharing my thoughts and learnings and art helps you find ways to hold space, seek understanding, and build your own practice of showing up and caring for your country and community however you can.

  1. It sounds like he says "million", and the in-video caption also says "million", but I'm pretty sure he meant to say "billion".↩

#civic-duty #consuming #reel-report