A new billboard will soon be up in Memphis that targets the recent costs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions here.
It is not known where exactly the billboard will be be here. But billboards in the campaign will feature images of ICE agents detaining people with slogans like: “Your tax dollars wasted. They get billions to beat us up. We get layoffs and rent hikes.”
The “ICE Costs Us” campaign campaigned launched billboards in 200 cities, including Memphis. The campaign is from a group called the Mijente Support Committee, a nonprofit focused on growing the collective power of Latinx, Chicano, and Caribbean communities in the United States and Puerto Rico.
The group claims $28 billion has been funneled for ICE support in the Trump Administration’s recent crackdown on immigration in the U.S. It comes while families lose healthcare and basic services, both of which the group says is ”dangerous and morally wrong.”
“For far too long, our government has prioritized setting up cages and pouring billions into an immigration enforcement apparatus that has left families shattered and communities terrorized,” said Marisa Franco, co-founder of Mijente Support Committee. “Millions of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, yet this violent agency continues to operate with a blank check.
“It’s clear that these choices don’t make us safer and have no impact on improving our economic security. Our billboards put a spotlight on these choices and demand a different path forward .”