To achieve his goal of one million deportees in his first year in office, Trump is focusing on the state of California. He has, however, encountered strong resistance in Los Angeles, which has a high immigrant population and is classified as a ‘sanctuary city‘, where, in general terms, the police limite cooperation with the federal authorities on immigration matters. To quell the protests, he gave illegal powers to the Justice Department and the Pentagon to deploy military and federal forces, such as the FBI.
The protests in Los Angeles against Trump’s immigration policy are not surprising. Ten days after he took office, thousands of immigrants mobilised across the country against the government’s immigration policy, particularly in Los Angeles, where the protests were massive. On Friday, June 6th, ICE arrived in the city – the second city in the world with the most Mexicans, after Mexico City – carrying out indiscriminate raids, concentrated in the so-called ‘fashion district‘, located in the south and in the historic centre of the city, an area of textile and clothing factories and shops, where most of the workers are Latin American and Asian. A veritable witch hunt was unleashed, carried out by armed men, violating all people’s rights. Almost 50 people, most of them Mexicans, have been arrested in these operations.
Faced with this, the far-right-wing Trump government, continuing its authoritarian and repressive drift, bypassing US laws, ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops, despite the fact that this had not been requested by the governor of the state. He also declared that 700 marines are ready to deploy in the city, joining the National Guard and further increasing the military presence in the city.
In this context, there were prolonged and harsh clashes. Hundreds have already been arrested and dozens injured. Among those arrested was David Huerta, president of the California Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the state’s largest unions with 750,000 members, who was injured.
Despite the arrests and increased militarisation, the mobilisations have spread, and the repression deployed hardened the legitimate response of those who, heroically, faced tear gas, stun grenades, electric shocks and rubber bullets.
The extraordinary days of struggle in Los Angeles are not isolated expressions, in a country with growing inequality, a long history of racism and police violence. These protests are part of the rejection of Donald Trump’s government by millions of people. In just over 100 days, large protests have swept across the United States. At the beginning of his term in office, public workers mobilised against cuts and layoffs at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and his former partner, Elon Musk. In April, there were 1200 demonstrations in 50 cities, followed by protests over attacks on health care and education, including attacks on Harvard and Columbia universities. Now the 50501 movement (‘50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement‘) is calling for a national mobilisation on 14 June under the slogan ‘No Kings’, referring to Trump’s authoritarian pretensions. This mobilisation can be a propitious united stage to extend the mobilisations, stop the attacks on democratic freedoms, demand the release of detainees, abolish ICE and end the persecution, detentions and deportations of migrants and working people.
Today, workers and their trade union and social organisations know that, together with workers, who have staged numerous strikes in recent years, women, the black population and militant youth, who remember the fight for justice after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and all impoverished people, they can defeat Donald Trump and his government; which is already starting to go through a political crisis, that recently manifested itself with the scandalous break with the tycoon Musk.
The next national mobilisation, planned for 14 June, should once again demonstrate the solidarity of the American youth and workers with the Palestinian resistance, and their repudiation of the persecution of foreign students, harassed and deported for defending the cause of the Palestinian people; as well as the kidnapping of Greta Thunberg and the other activists of the ‘Freedom Flotilla‘, intercepted by the Israeli army while they were transporting humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
