I've been sounding the alarm on Leftists for quite some time, especially the eagerness with which they will deny their political opponents access to things they claim are "rights," like education, food, and healthcare.
There's a reason the Left claims those things are "rights," after all. By saying that, they can put the government in charge of those things. This opens the door for using the weight of government to force people into compliance. We saw this most vividly during COVID, when Leftists openly pushed to deny healthcare to the unvaccinated (and if that wasn't scary enough, quite a large number of Democrats also wanted to take our kids away).
One of the other things the Left claims is a "right" is Internet access. That's why the Biden administration spent $42 billion on high-speed Internet access in rural areas (the fact that not a single household was connected to the Internet went largely unreported in the media). Imagine what they'd do if they had control over that, too. They've already made it pretty clear that they want massive censorship of social media and the Internet.
And now one radical Leftist group is trying to bully AT&T into breaking a contract with ICE and they're pushing a petition to make it happen.
Tell AT&T: it's time to drop your ICE contract! AT&T has a $146 million, multi-year contract to supply ICE with some of the technology they use to identify anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant.
— The People's Lobby (@peopleslobbyusa) October 18, 2025
Sign our petition to call them out! https://t.co/pI9agiHCkD pic.twitter.com/qqjF5vRaVU
In a press release, the People's Lobby wrote:
With $30.7 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2025 alone, AT&T does not need its 2024 or 2025 contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remain profitable. Yet, the telecom giant is choosing to both collect money from customers who are in the crosshairs, and line its pockets with public dollars to help ICE agents – who are masked, unidentifiable, and operating without warrants – as they terrorize members of the public in communities like Chicago.
“AT&T has a choice to make: Be a good business, or exploit people. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t put people from every ethnicity in your ads, take TV, internet and cell phone money from customers who live in communities that are being scapegoated, and then provide ICE with the surveillance and first responders communications infrastructure they used to turn people’s homes into war zones. We don’t want Blackhawk helicopters and heavily armed infantrymen kicking down doors in the middle of the night to kidnap parents and zip tie children. Not in Chicago. Not anywhere,” said The People’s Lobby Executive Director Will Tanzman.
It's adorable that a bunch of unemployed or underemployed Leftists think they can tell AT&T what kind of business they do and do not need.
But I digress.
This is who the Left is, and they're not even attempting to hide it anymore. If you do not do exactly as they say, they will attack you. If you enforce our duly enacted immigration laws or support the agencies that do, like ICE, they will attack your business —threatening the livelihoods of your employees and your ability to operate. This will creep into the mainstream and won't be contained to companies like AT&T.
It's doubtful AT&T will drop the contract. If they do, I would not be surprised if Elon Musk stepped in to fill the void with Starlink, as he's done in the past. But here's where I circle back to Biden's $42 million high-speed Internet boondoggle. See, the government had awarded an $800 million contract to Elon Musk to do the same thing. But the FCC revoked that contract for political reasons, according to current head Brendan Carr.
The Biden administration put politics before the needs of rural people, wasted $42 billion of our tax dollars, and didn't connect a single household.
Now the "People's Lobby" wants to do the same to AT&T and — under a Democratic administration — might just get their way. And if you think it stops at AT&T, you're kidding yourselves. They'd gladly cut off my Internet (ironically through AT&T), cutting me off from the world and my job, as punishment for being an outspoken conservative. The Obama and Biden administrations worked to de-bank conservative figures, businesses, and others.
They want total control, and that means over you, too.