Immigrants

On May 22, about 300 immigrants detained at the Delaney Hall jail in Newark, N.J., began a labor and hunger strike. The bold action was organized to call attention to the inhumane conditions they are facing at the facility and to protest the lack of due process that led to their incarceration by ICE. They charge that immigration judges are ignoring their cases and that their bonds have been denied—tactics, they say, that are employed in order to force the migrants to self-deport.

The demonization and attack on immigrants remains a bipartisan project. Case in point, this past week the governor’s office of California announced that it will be turning over the driver’s license data of all 1 million undocumented immigrant drivers in the state to a federal database where their names, information, and addresses can be looked up. While implementation may be dependent on the legislature voting funds for the process, this decision has not yet been legally challenged and as of yet there have been no rallies opposing it. This is coming from the Democratic Party—the party that says it stands with immigrants! If they are willing to do this today, what will they do next?

(También en español) The movement's experience in LA demonstrates the that there are masses of people willing to take action to stop ICE. It also demonstrates that we need a lot more organization to be able to stop ICE consistently.

The immigrant rights movement today must have labor’s full participation in opposition to the Trump regime’s terror. The fact that a Teamster local like 705 is standing up for immigrant workers is important given that Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has consistently made disparaging comments about immigrants on his podcast.

The fates of workers, students, and oppressed people in Venezuela and in the United States are intimately connected. Just as the U.S. invaded Venezuela for the benefit of Big Oil and the banks, those same ruling-class forces are decimating the gains of the civil rights, labor, and other social movements in this country.

The administration is using every pretext to amplify the propaganda against the immigrant population. Listening to the administration and its spokespersons, all immigrants detained and deported are criminals. African immigrants are facing greater legal obstacles in both the U.S. and Europe despite their presence for decades. For Africans seeking refuge in the U.S. and Europe, gaining asylum is nearly impossible.

Winning against ICE is going to take more than what NGOs have to offer. We need a democratic mass movement that can go beyond the Democratic Party formula

The Trump administration has decided that the limited humanitarian protections offered by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for millions of refugees is “contrary to the national interest.” This includes the protections previously offered to refugees from a list of countries victimized by U.S. imperialism, including Haiti, Honduras, and Afghanistan—along with the latest country in the sights of the imperialist war machine, Venezuela.

By ERWIN FREED ICE agents kidnapped Victor Sánchez at a routine immigration check-in in Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday, Sept. 24. Victor is a community leader, father, and worker. He is involved not only with immigrant justice organizing but also helping people achieve sobriety. Victor has been in the United States since 2004. According to a […]

By AVA FAHY and ERWIN FREED Early Wednesday morning, Sept. 24, three detainees at the ICE field office in Dallas were shot by a gunman who was later identified as Joshua Jahn, 29. According to reports, the shooter then turned the gun on himself and died by suicide. Three immigrant detainees were shot, and out […]

By ERWIN FREED and AVA FAHY Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a union sheet-metal worker, husband and father, and member of the immigrant advocacy group CASA—was finally released from a Tennessee jail on Friday, Aug. 22. Unfortunately, he was re-detained three days later, on the morning of Aug. 25, during an ICE “check-in.” A press conference organized by […]

By JOHN LESLIE Immigrant Justice activists and their allies are demanding the release of Catalina “Xóchitl” Santiago, a respected community organizer and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient. Xóchitl was seized by Border Patrol agents at the El Paso airport on Sunday, Aug. 3, while she was traveling for work. Agents disregarded her legal […]

By ERNIE GOTTA Unions have been at the forefront of the opposition to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and President Trump’s growing authoritarianism. Anti-ICE mobilizations have included thousands of union members across the U.S. who demand an end to ICE terror in their communities. The mass opposition to ICE shows a dynamic initial […]

By N. IRAZÚ The immigrant movement is now at the center of struggle within the United States. It is the spearhead of Donald Trump’s racist and anti-worker policies. In his position as president—and toying with the idea of staying that way indefinitely—he decided to use the immigrant population of Los Angeles as a laboratory for […]

By CARLOS SAPIR As National Guard troops confront anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, the mobilizations against Trump’s agenda and the repressive actions taken to quiet it have both reached a new level. The Friday, June 6, massive ICE raids in Los Angeles were intended to inaugurate a new “normal” degree of authoritarian, anti-immigrant repression. The […]

By BEN MARTINEZ On March 15, President Donald Trump signed an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law, that would allow the government to detain and deport citizens of an “enemy nation.” That same night, three planes landed in El Salvador, carrying 261 men. The Trump administration had deported the […]