Keep up the struggle against ICE and a Trumpist dictatorship

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Detroit/Seattle Workers' Voice mailing list
June 26, 2025

Keep up the struggle against ICE and a Trumpist dictatorship!

by Pete Brown, Detroit Workers’ Voice

No Kings Day on June 14 was a rousing success. Millions of people across the U.S., and in other countries as well, demonstrated their opposition to a threatening Trumpist dictatorship. Masses of people came out to denounce Trump for his vicious, anti-people policies. Many people held signs pointing out that what Trump is doing is often illegal. Trump is trampling on the U.S. Constitution as he ignores Congress and the courts as he slashes government welfare agencies and lets loose police attacks on people. Support for immigrants and opposition to mass deportations were especially prominent at No Kings Day, as was support for Palestinians and the pro-Palestinian movement on U.S. campuses. In contrast, Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C. to celebrate his birthday was a pathetic flop, as soldiers marched by half-empty reviewing stands, and even Trump himself fell asleep.

But Trump’s ICE agents are still fanning out across the country to arrest and deport millions of immigrants. It will take more than one day of demonstrations to repudiate Trump’s racist politics and stop the raids. Working class organizations are needed to overthrow Trump’s bourgeois politics of divide-and-rule, organizations that can consistently stand against racist assaults such as the ICE raids.

Terror in LA

Trump has especially targeted Los Angeles and the state of California, because it is dominated by Democratic political leaders and is home to millions of undocumented immigrants. The first big raids were in the garment district of Los Angeles, where Latinos work at low-wage factory jobs. Then it was at Home Depot stores in the LA area, where Latinos gather seeking jobs as construction workers, and others work as street vendors selling food and drinks to the day laborers. At the same time, ICE began large-scale raids in California’s Central Valley, scooping up immigrant agricultural workers.

Then it was on to car repair shops, car washes, elementary school graduation ceremonies, children’s music schools, and LA Dodgers baseball games. Anywhere Latinos are apt to gather in crowds, ICE agents are likely to appear, even in swanky fashion districts and the Hollywood Home Depot. Refused admittance to the LA Dodgers’ parking lot, ICE agents parked outside to snatch stragglers. Courageous school administrators have so far kept them out of elementary schools.

The raids have depressed economic and social life in LA. (1) Some businesses have been forced to close because Latinos are not showing up for work. (2) It isn’t just temporary, part-time day laborers who are targeted; it’s janitors, dishwashers, waiters, construction and factory workers. And it isn’t just “illegals.” Many U.S.-born American citizens are afraid of being detained and possibly deported if they are unable to instantly prove their backgrounds. Latino-Americans who do go to work have taken to carrying their passport, if they have one, as well as their driver’s license and other ID, so they can verify their citizenship on the spot before they’re sent to some detention facility. Even so, they’re often manhandled by agents, pushed up against a wall and grilled with questions like, “What hospital were you born at?”

One of the worst outrages is the arrest of immigrants who have shown up for normal immigration hearings. Immigrants who are conscientiously obeying the law and showing up for their hearings are often now arrested on the spot and immediately deported.

Such raids are being carried out across the country, not just in California. In New York City, the city comptroller, a Democratic politician named Brad Lander, visited an immigration court to observe the policy at work. He saw ICE agents grab immigrants who had shown up for their hearings on their applications for refugee status. Lander decided to escort one such immigrant, a man named Edgardo, out of the courtroom so he could leave safely. But masked ICE agents surrounded the pair and demanded that Lander get out of their way. When Lander asked to see their judicial warrant and asked for their identity, the agents manhandled and arrested him, charging him with obstruction. The charges against Lander were later dropped, but in the meantime Edgardo disappeared into some ICE detention facility pending deportation. (3)

Donald Trump has ordered ICE to concentrate on Democrat-run cities (4), and especially those that have declared themselves sanctuaries for immigrants. Being close to the Mexican border and home to hundreds of thousands of “illegals”, LA is ground zero for the war against immigrants.

Some bourgeois have advised Trump to ease up on the raids, to ensure they are carried out in an “orderly, legal” fashion. Even some of Trump’s advisers have urged him to give agricultural and hospitality workers a mass exemption, since they are crucial to the economy. Nonetheless, the raids continue.

What would be needed to stop them is organized mass struggle by the working class. Confronting the ICE thugs – demanding their names, badge numbers, etc. – is important, and to their credit rapid-response teams in LA have been able to swing into action. But also what’s needed is for workers everywhere to condemn the raids and their racist foundations. America’s main trade unions – the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, SEIU, UAW, etc. – have issued tepid statements criticizing some of ICE’s arrests and their methods, but what’s needed is a mass movement against Trump’s racist politics. Every day – at town meetings, city council hearings, at congressional offices, union meetings, etc. – government officials need to be confronted by crowds of angry workers demanding

Rein in ICE! Stop the racist raids! No to mass deportations!

Trump and his minions have got to go!

Notes

1. Ruben Vives, “ICE raids leave people ‘scared to leave the house’ in South Bay town”, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/california/sto ... leave-home.

2. Salvador Hernandez and Grace Toohey, “‘It’s a risk to come to work’: Terror and a touch of desperation in L.A.”, Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2025, ". https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... tion-raids.

3. Marcia Kramer, “Brad Lander, NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate, arrested by ICE agents”. MSN from CBS New York, June 18, 2025. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/brad- ... ngNewsSerp.

4. “Trump to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities”, CBC News, June 16, 2025. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6799439

Picture: A demo against ICE at Los Angeles City Hall on June 15. https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_la_times ... 5d17149d13.