This past week, we have seen an escalation of the brutality that the Trump administration is willing to rely on to carry out its agenda, both here and abroad.
The Trump administration is terrorizing immigrant communities, sending militarized and masked ICE agents across the country to violently abduct migrants, and take them away in unmarked cars to be detained and deported. Their goal is to deport as many immigrants as they can get their hands on. The administration has pressured ICE to increase their arrests to 3,000 people a day, and ordered them to target public spaces, with no place off limits. ICE agents have shown up to scheduled court appearances and abducted people from the courts. Immigrants are being deported without any chance to defend themselves in court, and without any legal documentation certifying their arrest by ICE. Family members are left traumatized, often not knowing where their loved ones have been taken.
The Trump administration likes to pretend they only go after immigrants with criminal records. This is a lie! They go after anyone, including immigrant workers who have been here for years, with families, and who have no criminal record at all. They want to terrorize the immigrant population, and silence them with fear.
And while this assault on immigrant communities is happening in this country, the Trump administration is supporting a major escalation of violence in the Middle East, as Israel has launched an attack on Iran. Israel and the U.S. continue to claim this is a limited attack to destroy Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon. In reality, this is an unprovoked and brutal attack on the people of Iran, striking heavily populated areas, including Iran’s capital city of Tehran. As of Sunday, June 15, Israel’s bombings have killed over 400 people, 90% of whom were civilians.
It is unlikely Israel could have carried out these strikes without some U.S. approval, and massive military and intelligence support. Whether or not the U.S. approved of this attack beforehand, they are now providing Israel with air defense against Iranian missiles. And Trump is using Israel’s bombs to pressure Iran to agree to new terms for its nuclear energy program, and “to make a deal before there is nothing left.” This unjustified attack on Iran could continue to escalate, and spread to the wider Middle East. And it has taken much of the attention away from Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide of Palestinians, who face dire starvation. We must do everything we can to oppose this brutality.
The Trump administration is showing that there are no limits to how far they are willing to go to defend their billionaire agenda. They will risk wider war in the Middle East. They will mobilize the military to attack and repress the population. They will defy the courts. They will abduct people from off the streets and disappear them. They have deployed the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to repress the protests in L.A. And now the administration is threatening to increase ICE raids around the country and is prepared to deploy the military in other states as well. They want to make people too afraid to stand up.
The Democrats have tried to posture as an opposition, but their words won’t stop any of this. Since the protests started in L.A., instead of protecting immigrants, city officials have imposed a curfew and ordered local police to attack protesters. California Governor Newsom’s response to Trump sending the National Guard and the Marines has been to argue that they are not necessary, and that he can suppress the protests without them. The Democrats are no friends of immigrants — both Biden and Obama carried out mass deportations and further militarized the border. The Democrats equally support Israel’s brutality in the Middle East. Ultimately, the Democrats defend the same system as Trump, even if they may not defend all of his aggressive tactics.
The reality is, we are the only ones that can stand up to this assault on our lives. We have seen communities across the country come to the defense of immigrants. And we have seen the protests against ICE continue despite the militarized response. We have seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in opposition to Israel’s genocide. And last Saturday. we have seen the massive “No Kings” rallies in cities all across the country.
These are all important and must continue. The only way to stop the attacks is to deepen our forces of opposition, by uniting all of the people that are being attacked by their agenda — and there will be more people targeted. We are seeing the lines being drawn — it is a small minority of billionaires represented by Trump versus the majority of people who don’t want to live in a world like this.
We are the only ones that can stand up to their brutality. But we have the majority on our side. It is the labor of working people that makes this system run. If we can unite our forces in defense of immigrants, we can build a force powerful enough to stand up to all of their attacks — here, in the Middle East, and around the world.
