Washington, D.C. — Jobs With Justice Executive Director Erica Smiley issued the following statement addressing the ongoing ICE raids targeting workplaces and workers’ efforts to resist ICE:
Since Donald Trump’s return to office, his administration, alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have led a cruel, violent, and heartless campaign against people across the country. ICE is terrorizing workplaces, schools, churches, immigration courts, and citizenship hearings, ripping families apart, and sending people to prison without the constitutional right of due process.
To say what we’re witnessing is abhorrent is an understatement, but working people are not intimidated. They were engaged, activated, and ready to support, protect, and defend our fragile democracy. We know democracy starts on the shop floor. It’s why unions, workers, community leaders, neighbors, and allies are showing up on the frontlines, refusing to comply with ICE, and exercising their right to speak out and peacefully protest.
As ICE descended upon Los Angeles last week, workers jumped into action to peacefully protest and protect those ICE targeted. SEIU California was one of the unions that responded and joined the action. When confronted by protestors, ICE has often run away, but on Friday, ICE responded with violence, assaulting and arresting protestors. SEIU California President David Huerta was one of the individuals injured and arrested by ICE. On Monday, President Huerta was finally released on bond and now faces criminal charges for expressing the freedom guaranteed to him by the First Amendment.
Donald Trump is now using the protests as an excuse to weaponize the federal government to go after people who disagree with him politically by threatening military action and deploying Marines to the streets of an American city. What Trump is threatening is illegal, shameful, unnecessary, and an unprecedented escalation by a president. However it has not stopped people from taking action and standing up for what is right and just.
People across the country see what’s happening and are justifiably appalled. That’s why protests have broken out across the country. It’s why they will continue. The Trump administration’s criminality, immorality, and thirst for violence know no bounds. But their threats and actions will not dispel us as we seek to protect, defend, and preserve our fragile democracy.
We are not deterred by ICE’s actions nor are we fazed by Donald Trump’s brazen calls for state-sponsored violence. Working people are on the frontlines for the fight for democracy. It’s a fight that stretches from coast-to-coast. From the parking lots of Home Depots, restaurant kitchens, hotels, and construction sites. It’s a fight on every shop floor in America.
Our moment may seem bleak, but the fight for democracy was never going to be easy or short. We’ve been at this for hundreds of years, and this is our time. It’s why Jobs With Justice has set up The Solidarity Hub. A place where working people can find where, when, and how to take action. We encourage you to go to TheSolidarityHub.org. Find an action near you. Now is the time to get involved.
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