A week has passed since Trump ramped up his reign of terror against immigrant workers and their families. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on workplaces, schools, and hospitals have intensified, with the White House tripling ICE’s daily quota for arrests from 1,000 to 3,000.
Under intense pressure to meet the administration’s targets, ICE has begun using a mapping app, originally called “Alien Tracker,” which uses federal data from numerous agencies to track the status and location of more than 700,000 people. The frenzy of raids has swept up large numbers of workers in “collateral arrests”— simply for being nearby during a targeted apprehension.
In response to this brutal campaign, demonstrations have erupted across the country. Local police from Seattle to New York are cracking down on protesters. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has deployed 5,000 National Guard troops alongside more than 2,000 state police on the streets.
The epicentre remains in Downtown Los Angeles, where Democratic Mayor Karen Bass declared a “local emergency” on Tuesday, enforcing an 8pm curfew to prevent workers and young people from exercising their democratic right to assemble and protest.
Protests against ICE have not yet reached the pitch of the 2020 George Floyd uprisings. But the ground is being prepared for a massive upheaval, and one spark could turn into a mass conflagration. All signs point to gigantic class struggles ahead. The RCA has been on the streets from coast to coast participating in the movement and explaining the need to build a mass communist party that can smash ICE and the capitalist system once and for all.
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Trump’s provocations
Protests surged last weekend, reaching at least 10,000 in downtown LA. They have ebbed since, and the presence of police, military, and the National Guard has increased. In many of the scattered skirmishes this week, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), California Highway Patrol (CHP), and National Guard forces outnumbered protesters. This is set to change this weekend as anti-Trump demonstrations are expected to draw significant crowds nationwide.
Trump has further fanned the flames by federalizing 2,000 more National Guard troops, in addition to the 2,000 already deployed in LA. Making good on earlier threats, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth sent a battalion of 700 Marines to bolster ICE and the National Guard in the city. The cost of activating these Marines and Guardsmen is estimated to run taxpayers about $134 million. The troops are poorly supplied and equipped—many have been forced to sleep on the concrete basement floors of federal buildings, or outdoors on cots due to lack of space.
Low morale among federal forces
Advocacy organizations which support the families of active-duty troops and veterans report low morale among the federalized Guardsmen and Marines in LA. “The feeling [is] that the Marines are being used as political pawns” and “the sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for.”
One veteran, who served 21 years in the Marine Corps, told The Communist, “Trump’s an asswipe. He’s doing this to distract from the robbing he’s doing.” How would he behave if he were deployed to LA? “I would go because I have to, but I wouldn’t shoot. I wouldn’t shoot at anyone there. I’d be like ‘sorry, the magazine’s jammed!’”
After Trump sent Marines to LA, a veteran in full military uniform at a protest in Dallas said:
“We are not pawns for Donald Trump’s agenda … So, I’m calling upon the conscience of military members who served previously and now. We have a conscience. We have a mind. And we have a duty and moral obligation to say “no” and resist.”
Anecdotes from online chats indicate that National Guard battalions deployed are largely composed of LA and Southern California natives who are extremely uncomfortable facing down their neighbours and co-workers. Trump is trying to look tough, but the troops could, under the right circumstances, cross to the other side of the barricades.
Protests surged last weekend, reaching at least 10,000 in downtown LA. They have ebbed since, but that is set to change this weekend as anti-Trump demonstrations are expected to draw significant crowds. / Image: U.S. Northern Command, Wikimedia Commons
Democrats taking the lead in the crackdown
At the moment, the ruling class’s most reliable repressive forces are not Trump’s troops, but local and state police—most of whom take their orders from Democrats. Military deployments grab the headlines, but in cities across the country, police have taken the lead in trying to crush the protests. Much of the violence in LA has been carried out by the hated LAPD and CHP, who have intimidated, beaten, and tear gassed thousands and arrested nearly hundreds since June 6.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, Mayor Bass, and a chorus of prominent Democrats and liberal pundits have opposed the deployment of the National Guard and Marines. Not because they deplore the deportation of immigrants, but because they would prefer to handle matters themselves. To puff himself up as a strongman tougher than Trump, Newsom bragged in a recent interview that he has “the authority to coordinate and collaborate with ICE,” which he has exercised “over 10,500 times” to hunt down and deport migrant workers.
Meanwhile, other Democrats are striking hypocritical poses in support of the movement against ICE. California Congresswoman Maxine Waters went downtown to hound the National Guards with no effect. Senator Alex Padilla was handcuffed and removed by security officers when he confronted Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at a press conference where she pledged to “liberate” LA.
This is nothing but a charade. It does nothing to stop anti-immigrant terror. Democrats and their media lackeys are cynically exploiting this as an opportunity to engage in gimmicks and score culture-war points against their Republican counterparts.
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Fight ICE terror with class war!
Polls point to growing indignation among working-class Americans over Trump’s provocative show of force in LA. According to one poll, 47 percent nationwide disapprove of Trump’s crackdown, with only 34 percent approving. A poll of Californians found a disapproval rate as high as 58 percent. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings have tumbled from around 50 percent to 38 percent since June 6.
On a few occasions, protestors have been able to de-arrest workers detained by ICE. Despite the bold and heroic actions of young and working Angelenos, most clashes with ICE and the police are ad hoc and unproductive. Residents become aware of a raid or know where ICE has detained immigrant workers, and show up to confront them. Online channels of activists pass along information about planned mobilizations, but they are not made public and, thus, remain small and ineffective.
In the absence of a revolutionary party with a clear political program, many enraged workers and youth see no alternative to engaging in small street clashes. But only mass mobilizations of the working class can stop the repression.
The labour movement must get on its feet and stand up for workers not just in word but in deed. SEIU and other unions should launch a drive to organize all unorganized workers, immigrant and native-born alike. Workplace councils and neighbourhood defence committees should be organized across LA, so that when there is a whiff of a raid, thousands of workers can show up, occupy the building, and send ICE running.
An injury to one is an injury to all! Organized labour must step into the fight!
No faith in the Democrats! Down with both parties of the ruling class!
Set up workers’ self-defence committees in every workplace and neighbourhood targeted by ICE!
Immediate amnesty and full rights for undocumented workers and their families!
Build a party that can smash ICE and the capitalist system once and for all!
