Immigrants and their communities are leading the fight against the Trump administration’s attacks on democratic rights. Since Trump unleashed a series of ICE raids in his first days in office — ordering ICE and the police to arrest over 1000 people per day — thousands of people in the cities most targeted by the anti-immigrant offensive are taking to the streets, walking out of their schools, and shuttering businesses to show that immigrants won’t be criminalized and made to live in constant fear of deportation.

The raids come on top of a barrage of anti-immigrant attacks launched by Trump on his very first day in office, including ending asylum and refugee status and ordering more troops to the southern border. The tension peaked this week with Trump making good on his promises to impose high tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China over claims that drugs are pouring over the border. Faced with the threat of tariffs that would have disastrous consequences for the working class in those countries — particularly in Mexico, whose economy is tied by a thousand strings to the United States — the governments of Claudia Sheinbaum and Justin Trudeau reached deals with Trump to delay the tariffs for now. Sheinbaum agreed to send 10,000 troops to the U.S./Mexico border, promising to act as a second arm of border patrol and repress immigrants seeking entry into the United States. 

Live-streaming their raids, ICE boasted that between January 23 and February 3, it arrested over 8000 people. In Trump’s first week in office, over 7300 people were deported. While these numbers do not yet add up to the “mass deportations” that Trump promised on the campaign trail — indeed, the rate of deportations is similar to what Biden averaged during his time in office and falls far below the daily deportations by Obama — Trump’s anti-immigrant offensive is just heating up.

As White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a recent press conference: 

[Trump] is focused on launching the largest mass deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals. And if you are an individual, a foreign national, who illegally enters the United States of America, you are, by definition, a criminal.  And so, therefore you are subject [to] deportation.

The Trump administration is building on Trump’s many claims since 2015 that those who immigrate to the United States are “criminals,” making the act of entering the country without authorization a criminal offense in and of itself. Trump has given ICE and the police carte blanche to enter schools, religious sites, hospitals, and workplaces to target immigrants and expedite their deportation — when their only “crime” was entering the United States. These maneuvers make life more unsafe for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the United States, whether they have lived here for twenty years or twenty days.

These attacks on immigrants rights are being met with the defiance of immigrants and their communities, who will not sit back as Trump’s attempts to divide the working class — of which immigrants make up a critical part — threaten the lives and livelihoods of parents, children, siblings, friends, classmates, and coworkers. While Trump demonizes immigrants who risk their lives to enter the United States, the millions of immigrants living in the United States are an integral part of the multi-generational, multi-ethnic, and diverse working class — immigrants make up five percent of the workforce in the United States and have deep roots in their communities.

Blossoming Solidarity

Since the last days of January, solidarity with migrants has erupted all over the country, organized by grassroots organizations, the communities, migrant families, teachers, students of all races and people in general. Organization has been growing from below, while the Democratic Party makes itself complicit in Trump’s attacks. 

Protests have been organized in small towns and major cities throughout the country. We have seen inspiring protests, gatherings and people rallying spontaneously in solidarity in cities such as San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon and so on. Over the weekend the protests escalated and coincided on Monday with the “Day Without Immigrants,” a day of action that took people to the streets and made business shut down against mass deportations. 

California

In Los Angeles, California, in every corner of the city, immigrants and people in general organized protests all over the weekend and Monday. On Sunday, a big mobilization took place with thousands of people protesting in a march that headed off from Calle Olvera towards City Hall. After rallying, protestors went to US Highway 101 and shut it down and faced police repression from hundreds of riot police from the California Highway Patrol. Protesters of all races held signs that read “Don’t bite the hand that feeds”. Mexican flags were prominent and for moments, protesters created a festive vibe that reminded the city of its latino’s roots, the essential black and brown Los Angeles that has been there forever. 

In many other cities of California, big demonstrations were held all over the state. 

Hundreds of students at Overfelt High School in San Jose walked out of their classes on January 28 against arrests made in their neighborhoods. Community members joined the protest and marched across the city, through immigrant neighborhoods that have been the site of a rich history of immigrants rights activism.

Protesters waved Mexican flags and held signs with slogans such as, “Legalization for all,” “No somos criminales” and “Immigrant rights are civil rights.” People chanted, “Si se puede” and “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.”

Arkansas: 

Protesters held a rally in Little Rock, Arkansas on Friday, in support of immigrants and against the ICE raids. Among the dozens of protesters were students who say they are afraid to go to school for fear of ICE officers putting them and their families in danger. Signs dotted the rally that read, “No human is illegal,” “Immigrants make America Great” and “Fight ignorance, not immigrants.”

As one organizer, Angela Baltazar, said, “I got split from my parents from the age of three to the age of nine,” Baltazar recalled, “I wouldn’t want any child to experience that, ever.” 

On Saturday, protesters returned to the streets, protesting in front of the state Capitol in Little Rock.

Texas: 

Texas is one of the epicenters of both the anti-immigrant offensive and the defense of immigrants rights, given its proximity to the southern border as well as its ultra-reactionary governor Greg Abott. It is the home of millions of immigrants with deep roots in the state.

In Dallas, Texas hundreds of people—including immigrants and their children—protested against the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies for the third day in a row. On Friday, protesters rallied outside an ICE office and students walked out of their classes to protest deportations. On Sunday hundreds of people marched downtown for several hours.

Thousands of people marched through Houston on Sunday to protest ICE raids and the expansion of their jurisdiction in schools, hospitals, and religious sites. Organizers called for unity across the city in defense of migrants, saying, “White supremacy has been trying to divide Black and brown people for centuries,” Dixon said. “But we are coming together because all of us are immigrants.”

Georgia: 

In Atlanta, Chamblee, Georgia, hundreds of people, many of Hispanic descent, protested in support of immigrants on Saturday, temporarily blocking Buford Highway. The protest started at noon and lasted well into the early evening. Many children were seen holding signs that read “end family deportations.”

As the protest grew throughout the day, riot police were deployed to harass and intimidate demonstrators, eventually arresting four people. Crystal Alvarado, told Fox 5 that her friend was one of those arrested. She told the news outlet, “The protest was perfectly fine until they started to kick us out. That’s when people started throwing drinks at the cops…”

Chicago, Illinois:

On Saturday, hundreds of people rallied and later marched to downtown Chicago to demand an end to the genocide in Palestine and to stop Trump’s plans for mass deportations. The protest was led by a coalition of more than 60 immigrant and human rights organizations.

On Monday, businesses across the city closed for the day to participate in the Day Without Immigrants. Many students skipped classes as part of the day of action.

Workers are participating in the actions, driving their unions to put out statements of support against Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. As Bob Reiter of the Chicago Federation of Labor stated, “Chicago has always been a city of immigrant workers, regardless of status.” Reiter said the labor organization stands with businesses and workers opposed to Trump’s “deeply anti-worker” policies.

North Carolina:

Flags from Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela, and other countries could be seen throughout a protest of hundreds of people that took the streets of Charlotte to denounce Trump’s anti-immigrant offensive. Supporters in cars and on the sidewalks shouted in support of the protest, calling out “si se puede!” as the marchers passed.

Foundations for the Fight Against the Far Right 

Trump’s attacks on immigrants is the first step in his onslaught against democratic rights, an attempt to curtail the aspirations and the organization of the working class and oppressed who are no longer satisfied with the status quo. But the resistance that is springing up against this offensive — to protect immigrants and say definitively that immigrants are not the cause of the vast social and economic inequality that defines American society — is a blueprint for our future struggles against Trump and the advance of the Far Right. 

This extends from the protests of immigrant communities in the streets to the teachers and healthcare workers who have stated clearly that they will not comply with Trump’s orders to criminalize immigrants and make them afraid to leave their homes. As Trump targets trans people and those who protest against U.S. imperialism and the genocide in Palestine, as Trump attacks the working class and its institutions, these sectors must join together to protect immigrants rights and the rights of all the working class and oppressed.