We are fighting to protect the Sanctuary Values Act because it limits police power and protects vulnerable people right now. This is one step toward our larger goal of ending the harm of policing altogether.

Federalizing the police means more raids, more deportations, and more fear and terror especially for Black immigrant and undocumented folks.

This isn’t about which police force is in charge. It’s about whether our community keeps the protections we fought for in the Sanctuary Values Act.

Federal control would result in:

• Increased ICE collaboration
• Greater risk of detention and deportation

Living our abolitionist principles means we oppose both the local and federal expansion of police power, because the harm to our communities comes from the system itself, regardless of who’s in charge.

Being principled would mean we filter our actions through that abolitionist belief.

We should ask outselves:

• Does my action reduce the power or legitimacy of policing?

• Or am I just choosing who gets to control the same harmful system?

If one of our principles is that prisons and policing are inherently oppressive and must be dismantled, a principle would be that both federal and local policing harms our community.

Without having clear principles guiding our actions, decisions, how we navigate a situation like this, we could find ourselves fighting for and legitimizing systems and institutions that contradict the principles we say we have.

To “have principles” is to have a set of personal values about what’s right or wrong, just or unjust, etc. These are our moral compasses, they guide our decisions, our actions, etc. “Being principled” means consistently living our principles, even when it’s difficult, or no one is watching.

Thank you for supporting these comrades.