Learning from the Los Angeles protests

US National Guard soldiers form a line against protesters in Los Angeles on June 12, 2025. The pillar in front of them reads "Fuck ICE" and "Nazis were only following orders too." Photo: United States Northern Command.

Opinion • Frieda Afary • June 25, 2025 • Leer en castellano

On June 6, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on the Los Angeles Garment District led to the arrest and detention of 44 undocumented workers. The raid inspired protests by family members and immigrant rights activists in front of a federal detention center in downtown L.A.

The protests set off by the June 6 ICE raids continued to grow over the next few days to include thousands, mostly young people of color. They spread to other parts of L.A. and other major cities in the U.S. 

On June 14, a previously planned series of nationwide protests called No Kings Day brought out an estimated five million people in mostly peaceful marches and rallies in 2,000 different towns and cities.  

These protests were planned to coincide with a $45 million taxpayer-funded military parade in Washington D.C., which Trump had ordered to celebrate Flag Day—and his birthday. Protesters, including youth and people of color as well as labor activists, spoke out against the raids, the mass firing of over 260,000 federal workers, the gutting of the health, education, and environmental protection budget, and the assault on civil and human rights. 

They also spoke out against authoritarianism and fascism.

The Trump administration’s assault on immigrants has been part of a broader plan of action to promote hatred and to gain support among millions of working-class people. The protests in L.A. showed that these efforts will not go unanswered.

Rising up in a sanctuary city

L.A. is a Sanctuary City. That means city officials should not turn in undocumented migrants to ICE unless they have committed a crime. It is also the site of vibrant and effective immigrant rights organizations and activist networks. 

Among them are Clergy and Laity United for Justice (CLUE) and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, which have been two of the most active organizations. There are also “rapid support networks” in many communities nationwide reporting on ICE raids and getting community members and activists to show up and stand up to ICE agents. 

Recently, CLUE has organized weekly women’s vigils in front of the downtown L.A. Federal Building. Their vigils are modeled after those held by mothers of the disappeared in Argentina. Together with other organizations, CLUE has organized "Know Your Rights and Nonviolent Resistance" training sessions for several months. They also recruit people who want to serve as observers and witnesses in immigration courts. 

United We Dream, an organization of DACA youth (people who were born outside the U.S. but brought to the country as children and who remain undocumented), is also involved in local organizing. 

Indivisible, an anti-Trump nationwide network founded by Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin in 2017, has grown to include hundreds of local community chapters following the November 2024 election, in which Trump was re-elected. Indivisible chapters, along with other networks such as 50501 and the Working Families Party, are actively involved in organizing solidarity work nationwide. Others have helped organize protests against Avelo Airlines for their participation in deportation flights. 

During the week of protests that kicked off on June 6, the L.A. Police Department itself made over 850 arrests, most of which were for failure to disperse or curfew violations.

On Friday, June 6, police injured and arrested labor leader David Huerta, who is the head of the California Branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He was charged with “conspiracy to impede an officer,” detained, and released three days later on $50,000 bail.  

Agents from the Department of Homeland Security assaulted and handcuffed Alex Padilla, U.S. Senator from California, when he attempted to ask a question at the press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Understanding ICE

The latest wave of ICE raids has been part of an intensified nationwide assault by the Trump administration on undocumented migrants to meet his campaign promise of mass deportation. 

Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and architect of Trump’s immigration policy, has called for a quota of 3,000 daily arrests to amount to one million per year. To meet this number, the Trump administration has raided workplaces, farms, store parking lots, courthouses, and the addresses of those whose Temporary Protection Status has been revoked. The latter includes several hundred thousand Venezuelan, Haitian, Cuban, and Nicaraguan migrants, and will soon include Afghans and Ukrainians. Even schools and places of worship have not been immune to ICE raids. 

In carrying out such an extensive hunt, the Trump administration has exceeded the Biden administration, which deported over 271,000 people last year, focused mostly on newly arrived migrants and less so on people with families and jobs here. 

Following the L.A. protests, Trump launched a campaign of disinformation to say that the mostly peaceful protesters were “paid agitators” akin to violent mobs. He deployed 4,000 National Guard soldiers under federal control, and sent 700 Marines to guarantee the ICE raids against the will of the L.A. mayor, Democrat Karen Bass, and California Governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom. 

While Bass and Newsom stood up to him and his illegal act, taking the case to court, a higher court allowed Trump—at least temporarily—to take federal control of the California National Guard and also send the Marines to L.A. 

Moving the anti-fascist movement forward

A movement against the Trump administration’s authoritarianism and fascism is growing in the U.S. This is evident in increasing protests, and most recently in the victory of mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s  Democratic Party primary. While these developments are promising, the numbers and content of the movement are still far from offering a viable challenge to the Trump administration. 

This administration controls the most powerful army in the world. It also enjoys strong support from the Police Union and the National Guard Union whose members have been increasingly used to arrest migrants at the southern border and nationwide. Trump is backed by big capital in the form of billionaires and corporations, but also enjoys support across the country. 

Combating fascism and authoritarianism in the U.S. must begin with the painful recognition that 54 percent of the U.S. public continues to approve of the Trump administration’s deportation program. 

Trump’s approval rating is currently hovering at 45 percent. In the November 2024 presidential elections,  the majority of the working class including 53 percent of white women, 47 percent of Latino men and 25 percent of Black men voted for Trump. 

The dehumanization of undocumented people as “criminals” and “enemy aliens,” the rejection of facts, the embrace of Social Darwinism and the ideology of “survival of the fittest,”  patriarchy, misogyny, racism, and extreme nationalism are alive and well among the US populaion. These elements are all classic features of fascism. 

Today, dissatisfaction with the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers, enormous budget cuts, massive tax cuts for the rich, and assaults on civil and human rights is growing. Disinformation—as well as the massive investment on the part of big tech companies in distractions like social media algorithms and artificial intelligence—have also been effective.  

What unites the opposition in the U.S. today is hatred for Trump. But there is still little affirmative content. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continue to attract large audiences—including many younger people—but their message is mostly limited to “fighting the oligarchy.” 

Our protests would benefit from having speakers, messages, and literature that consistently combat disinformation, offer clear analyses of current national and international events, and address the capitalist alienation that moves us away from human solidarity and rights. This type of thoughtful and analytical opposition—rooted in a vision of the future—is still mostly missing in protests across the U.S. 

The extreme right has built on the message of “America First,” patriarchy, homophobia, racism, and hostility to socialism. Feminists and the left can challenge this by responding on two levels. 

First, by offering a clear explanation of fascism, how it is different from authoritarianism, and why it leads to total destruction. 

And second, by  offering an  affirmative socialist humanist vision that distinguishes itself from authoritarian states calling themselves socialist. This vision must address capitalist alienation—whether in the workplace, in gender relations, the family, education, healthcare, the environment, or in our multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial society as a whole.