‘I think in general, unfortunately, they hold a lot more power than they should.’

Ryan Schubert is a JAMS major at UWM. He shares his feelings and reaction on what ICE is doing while handling immigration laws, and what they should do differently to prevent violence from happening again.

Caden Sanchez: How did you react when you heard about ICE killing the protestors?

Ryan Schubert: For me, it was just a lot of, I don’t know, there’s just a lot of anguish there, especially when it’s a federally funded group, because that’s also the government partaking, whether they want to admit it or not.

Sanchez: Do you think there should be any restrictions on ICE with weapons like guns?

Schubert:  I don’t think they need guns for what they do. Any of those scenarios in which they pulled a gun on someone, they should have been trained to where they know not to pull a gun in a scenario like that.

Sanchez: What kind of things do you think people can do to protect themselves from ICE?

Schubert:  I think in general, unfortunately, they hold a lot more power than they should. And so I think just kind of staying as a community and telling people and getting it out there when they’re in a certain area or in a certain place, just so people have the opportunity to avoid bumping into them and avoid getting in the way and also just speak up about it.

Sanchez: When did you first form a negative opinion on ICE, was there a specific event or experience that influenced your opinion?

Schubert: After I saw their abuse of power early on with them hiding their faces and the extra leniency that their provided even though it’s a government paid job.

Sanchez: If you could speak directly to policy makers, what would you say to them? 

Schubert: Honestly, I feel like most of it is out of their control as seen in Minnesota and their government being against it, but I would just have them speak up so their people know what’s right and wrong. And for the people that do have any control over ICE making sure at minimum they go through full police training although the entire organization needs a complete rework.

Sanchez: When you saw the news about the Trump administration expanding ICE operations around the country how did it make you feel and what was your reaction? 

Schubert: It was honestly really sad to hear especially with how much of our country is built off immigration. I have friends who are immigrants and seeing how it could possibly affect them and their families was really heartbreaking.