Breanna Stewart breaks silence on holding ‘Abolish ICE’ protest sign at Unrivaled game appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Ahead of Sunday’s Unrivaled game between Mist BC and Vinyl BC, league co-founder and New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart held up a sign that read, “Abolish ICE.”
A day later, she’s revealing to the public exactly what her statement moment meant and how she personally feels about the impact ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been having on the United States.
“Really all day yesterday, I was just disgusted from everything that you see on Instagram and in the news,” Stewart explained. “We’re so fueled by hate right now instead of love, so I wanted to have a simple message of ‘Abolish ICE,’ which means having policies to uplift families and communities instead of fueling fear and violence.”
The three-time WNBA champion and two-time MVP is also affected on a personal level. Stewart opened up about how the fear people feel about ICE’s presence nationwide “hits home” since her wife, retired Spanish basketball player Marta Xargay Casademont, has a green card and is still working on her US citizenship.
“It’s scary. You see it on social media, you see it splitting up families and dissecting communities, and kids are being involved. It’s the worst in all ways. And to be married to Marta … we’re working to get her citizenship, and she is a legal permanent resident and all of that. But it seems like it doesn’t matter,” Stewart added.
“And I think that that’s why these policies need to be put in place, that reform needs to happen, because it doesn’t seem to be affecting the right people. It’s not helping anybody.”
Unrivaled’s official page on X, formerly Twitter, backed up Stewart’s call for peace in a post. Both Stewart’s and Unrivaled’s statements come in response to the latest ICE-involved shooting in Minnesota.
A man, later identified as ICU nurse and US citizen Alex Pretti, was shot by a federal officer on January 24, just a few weeks after another US citizen, Renée Good, was killed by ICE on January 7. Stewart continued on to give some advice about what people could do in response to these national tragedies.
“I think doing whatever you can to help your community [is important]. Obviously, Minnesota is the place that everyone’s seeing is in crisis, but it’s happening in many more cities than just one, and knowing the right people to reach out to — your local council person, your mayor, your governor — and really advocating to change the policies and advocating for reform, knowing that it’s not going to happen overnight,” Stewart said.
“But how many times do we have to see it happen over and over and over again and [use] our platform to make sure that we’re trying to make a change and a difference and hopefully save a life?”
