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In the past few months, California has been the epicenter of the Trump administration’s war on immigration. Los Angeles, in particular, has been a flashpoint: the city has seen ongoing raids from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Trump even deployed thousands of federal troops and Marines. As a result, there have been large protests and ongoing skirmishes, like when ICE raided Home Depot and the garment district.
As Trump ramps up his war on immigrants, it’s no coincidence that Los Angeles is a prime target. In addition to being a Democratic stronghold, the city has a strong immigrant rights movement and a long history of social movements and labor struggles. Trump’s attacks also come in the broader political context of Republicans’ assault on the working class.
Los Angeles’s multi-racial working class — especially youth of color — have been fighting back by protesting and organizing to confront ICE. Meanwhile, Democratic politicians, like Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, have mostly been engaging in a war of words with Trump. While they have made a show of rhetorically opposing the anti-immigrant raids, fundamentally, Newsom, Bass, and the Democrats are no friends of immigrants or the working class. In fact, the war on immigrants wouldn’t be possible without the infrastructure developed across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
On this episode, we interview Julia Wallace and Hector Rivera. Julia is a Left Voice member based in Los Angeles, and a member of SEIU 721 which went on strike in April this year. Hector is a queer, Chicano, socialist educator living and organizing in social movements in Los Ángeles, Califaztlán. He writes about Mexican politics for Tempest Magazine. Julia and Hector explain why Los Angeles is the epicenter of Trump and the Far Right’s war on immigrants. They also describe the ways that communities have been fighting back, including independent self-organization, and how attacks on immigrants are connected to not just attacks on other democratic rights, but to the movement for Palestine.
Importantly, we discuss the ways that the working class, community organizations, the immigrant rights movement, and other social movements can unite their forces and go even further to definitively push federal agents out of the city and win rights for immigrants.
Listen to the episode on Spotify on Apple Podcasts.
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