The actions of ICE around the so-called United States are deeply troubling on several levels. One is the violence and terror of their actions themselves. Another is the fascist, white supremacist ideology dictating and justifying those actions. A third, perhaps underexamined, is the impact those actions have on us as targets, resistors, or merely observers.

The deployment of unaccountable, masked mercenaries whose sole purpose is to kidnap, terrorize, and murder people of color and those in solidarity with them has appropriately sparked outrage. Their mission is to rend the social fabric of families and entire communities. The newest ICE recruit, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and everyone in between deserve nothing but our opprobrium, condemnation, and rejection. Their mythical palingenetic vision of a pure nation to be achieved through ethnic cleansing and mass violence is unequivocally fascist. They must be countered. There is no grey area: they have made their agenda and ambitions clear. To support ICE is to support fascism. To support fascism is to be a fascist. These are the terms of the debate. And there is no debate with fascism. It is only to be defeated. That millions of U.S. citizens continue to back the activities of ICE gives it no more legitimacy than did the 43% of Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in March 1933 give legitimacy to its platform. When the mandate for one’s existence – be it an individual, a party, an ideology, or a government – is to cause harm, then one has forfeited any claim to legitimacy.

Harm – in this case state terrorism – must be countered. Herein, for me at least, lies the difficulty. For when I protest ICE, witness ICE activity, read testimonials, or simply have people dear to me share their fear of leaving their house due to ICE terrorism in the area, I am filled with incandescent anger, rage, and a desire for retribution. How dare white supremacist stormtroopers rampage through communities seeking to enact nothing but pain and loss? How dare their political overseers order, justify, and fund such acts? Do not the purveyors of harm deserve harm in return? Is not our desire for vengeance against the enemies of humanity justified?

I don’t know. I don’t think so. I am no pacifist and the vapid violence versus nonviolence discussion does not interest me. At the same time, I believe in peace. I think it to be a desirable state of affairs. By peace, I do not refer to the social peace of power premised on coercion and subjugation but an anti-authoritarian, egalitarian, liberatory peace. My desire for revenge seems to run counter to my desire for peace. My justification for the harming of my enemies seems to run counter to my objections to harm. The idea that my harm is rooted in anarchism and is therefore superior to their harm that is rooted in fascism seems an insufficient rejoinder. The outcome – harm – remains the same.

So where does that leave me? This is not a liberal call for calm or respectability in the face of fascist attack. I firmly believe in collective and communal self-defense. In my opinion, the response from the streets has been restrained when considering the scope of what has been deployed against us. ICE agents and the politicians and administrators who make their work possible should consider themselves fortunate there has not been more militant resistance. But patience and restraint eventually wear thin. More than anything, what I would like to condemn in addition to the terror, trauma, loss, harm, damage, grief, and violence caused by ICE is the psychic harm they are inflicting upon all who interact in some way with their actions. In addition to everything else, their actions of hate only serve to generate hate. Do we let that hate motivate our resistance or is it based in our love for freedom and one another? Our anger is righteous and justified. Our self-defense is appropriate. Our collective well-being depends on it. But as I try to remind myself as my emotions rise: as I fight back, let me not lose sight of that which I am ultimately fighting against.