Los Angeles, February 15—The latest fascist raid triggered an emergency rally where 100 antiracists blocked a Homeland security van from accessing the Metropolitan Detention Center. Protesters called for an end to deportations and for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to get out of Los Angeles; Progressive Labor Party called for a borderless world.
The rally turned into a picket around the building, from the entrance to the side where detainees are locked up. The chants of “hey hey ho ho deportations have got to go” and “ICE must go” got louder and more militant as the crowd grew stronger.
As a Homeland Security van pulled up, protesters immediately surrounded the van, waving signs and chanting. Two Homeland Security officers came out briefly and approached the van but quickly returned to the detention center. Protestors surrounded the van for two hours until police in riot gear responded and dispersed the crowd.
This protest was in response to the ICE raids in Southern California. ICE kkkops arrested 212 workers over a five-day period and issued 122 notices of inspection to businesses in the area.
No sanctuary in the Democrats camp
This week brought a significant uptick in terror for immigrant communities here after another round of raids. While ICE agents claimed to only target specific individuals with criminal records, we know that is just a cover for terrorizing entire communities of workers.
California is listed as one of only six sanctuary states in the country. There are statewide regulations to obstruct federal immigration kkkops and their ability to question and detain undocumented immigrants. Los Angeles Democratic mayor Eric Garcetti doubled down on this position last year.  Masses of students were walking out of Los Angeles high schools after Trump’s election to protest the attacks on immigrants. Garcetti was pressured by these mass demonstrations to “take a stand.”
Upon a closer look at the role of Democrats, they  are far from “immigrant friendly.” When we include the number of returns (when an immigrant is coerced into an informal deportation without a court hearing), the Clinton administration deported 12.3 million immigrants (Migration Policy Institute, 1/26/17). Obama earned the title Deporter-in-Chief because he shifted policy from returns to removals, thus criminalizing  (A removal is a court-mandated deportation and criminalization of any attempt to come back to the U.S. for a number of years). “The story of the Obama administration on immigration enforcement is that more people than ever are being expelled from the country in a way that prevents them from returning to the U.S. legally or illegally” than all other presidents combined (Vox, 4/11/14). In total, Obama deported 5.3 million immigrants.
While Trump deported fewer workers than Obama did in his first year (Economist, 12/4/17), immigrant communities feel no less terrorized. Deportations have become more random and aggressive.
While Garcetti and other Democratic mayors appear to be standing up to ICE, the only standard they really uphold is requiring a warrant. Once that paper is produced, protection for immigrants is quickly abandoned. The Democrats who supposedly back the Dreamers (undocumented youth) actually promote a 10-to-12 year path to immigration that can be rescinded at any time. Furthermore, the main bill also includes up to $25 billion increase in funding for ICE and more border militarization.
Rally politics
At the rally, there were some class-conscious chants. But, most of the anger was focused on ICE and the Trump administration. There were also claims that Sanctuary cities and states were being targeted for raids since law enforcement would not cooperate with ICE. Besides calling for all of us to bring out friends, coworkers, and family to the next rally, the main call of the rally leaders was to get president Trump and vice president Mike Pence out of office and pass immigration reform.
Unfortunately, the open fascism of the Trump administration has many well-meaning working-class sisters and brothers running into the arms of the Democrats. This is a dead-end for immigrant workers and youth.
While rejecting republicrats, we struggle for the understanding that we must stand up to fascism in whatever form it rears its ugly head—promptly and militantly.
The 100 workers who protested need the Progressive Labor Party and communism. What they are searching for, a world free from racist terror, will not be found within this rotten system of capitalism. Through long-term struggle in the mass movement for immigrant rights, we can fight for the idea that raids, police murder, mass incarceration are all forms of terror against the working class. They are propagated by both Democrats and Republicans alike. Fascism, in all its forms, will only be smashed with communist revolution.