“Policy Violence”: ICE Raids & Shredding of Social Safety Net Are Linked, Says Bishop William Barber

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

In North Carolina, protests are continuing, as they’re continuing around the country. In North Carolina, federal agents arrested 370 people in immigration raids. On Monday, Bishop Barber and other religious leaders gathered in Charlotte.

BISHOP WILLIAM BARBER II: So, they hit North Carolina with ICE raids, and they hit North Carolina with ICE raids right at the same time people are raising concerns about Medicaid and healthcare and racist voter redistricting. And some people think that that means what we have to do is go to the ICE raids and forget about the other things. But what we know in this movement is it all connects.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS: It all connects, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Bishop William Barber speaking Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina, joining us now from North Carolina. He’s president of Repairers of the Breach, national co-chair of Poor People’s Campaign, founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.

We only have a few minutes, Bishop, but your agenda is a big one. Can you talk about the protests around immigration raids, and then what you’re talking about when it comes to healthcare and other issues right now?

BISHOP WILLIAM BARBER II: Well, thank you so much. Amy.

We had a Moral Monday in 20 states yesterday. And in North Carolina, we had two: one at 12:00, one at 7:00. And the focus is to connect the dots and to bring people out, of every different race, creed and color.

We were in Charlotte because the ICE raids came. We knew they were coming. People stood up, had been planning for months and waiting for it. We went there to deliver “Liberty Vans,” which is a concept through the Save America Movement. Steve Schmidt and others have come together. These vans, on public ground, travel constantly to film what ICE is doing, that news may not get a hold of, and to put it out there and also to document the trauma that people are going through.

But we also gathered hundreds of people right there in that church, and thousands online, who are saying that when you look at the ICE raids and then the raiding of Medicaid for millions of people, the raiding of food stamps for millions of people, and, in North Carolina, the raiding of our voting rights, what you have is a — is a conglomerate of policy violence, and it’s deadly. It’s deadly. It kills dreams. It kills hopes. It kills democracy. But also, we know 51,000 people are scheduled to — may die from preventable deaths because of what has happened in the Big Beautiful — big, ugly, destructive bill. And the reason, Amy, we keep raising that is because that same bill, that cut 16 million people’s healthcare, 22 million people’s food stamps, takes that cut and then puts $160 billion into ICE agents. They’re hiring more agents with masks.

And we recognize that we have to connect this together, and we have to stand strong together, and it has to be a moral issue. We cannot let this merely be a issue between Democrats or Republicans. We had clergy from everywhere, as well as activists, as well as impacted people, on Monday night, who are determined for the long haul and who understand what policy murder, policy violence, policy destruction looks like, and why, in this moment, we must raise it like never before. And we’re talking about long term. These Moral Mondays will continue. They began in the South in 10 states. Now they’ve spread to 20. And we’re going to continue to raise it.

In fact, Amy, lastly, when we go, we’re not only going with vans. We’re going with caskets. We’re literally taking caskets to the General Assembly, sometimes to the office of these congresspersons and senators, to say, “These policies are destructive to lives.” And we must make that case before America. This is not just about Democrat and Republican and left versus right. This is literally about life versus death.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Reverend Barber, in Chicago, everyone from the governor on down to all the community organizations finally succeeded in basically pushing ICE out of the city, at least temporarily. What’s your sense of the kind of solidarities that are being built between Black and Brown communities in North Carolina right now?

BISHOP WILLIAM BARBER II: Well, Black and Brown and white, you know, people are coming together. And I think it’s important to say that — and Asian. We had Jewish, we had Muslim in the room. We had Christian in the room. You know, sometimes what happens is, pain that is caused by powerful politicians who forget that what they ought to be doing is picking up humanity rather than pulling down humanity, it actually has a reversal effect, and it makes people come together, because it’s so blatant and so ugly, so harsh and so mean. And that’s what we see happening.

And people are not believing that ICE has ever gone anywhere. They are saying they may go underground, they may stop for a minute, but just like what you see in Charlotte, the people that were planning there, even before we went down on Monday, they’ve been planning. They’ve been training. They’ve been getting ready. And that’s what we’re saying to cities and states and counties, in states all over the country: Get ready. Don’t wait. Get ready now. And get ready by connecting the dots. Get ready by connecting the dots.

We must organize this pain, the same pain that is caused by millions of people losing healthcare, millions of people losing their food stamps, millions of people’s voting rights being challenged, millions of people without living wages, and millions of immigrants being challenged and harmed and deported. We must connect all of that pain into a powerful movement.

And then, lastly, Amy, this is not new.

AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds.

BISHOP WILLIAM BARBER II: Yeah. Well, the bottom line is, we also said this is not new. This has a deep American history. People have had to fight it for years, and it’s our time now that we have to fight it. And we must do it together.

AMY GOODMAN: And as we move into this holiday weekend, people should remember, according to Feeding America, one in five children are going hungry in the United States. That’s despite the government reopening. Bishop William Barber, president of Repairs of the Breach, national co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, thanks so much for being with us. That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!