On the night of September 30, an apartment complex on the South Side of Chicago, housing children and families, was suddenly subjected to a nightmare: their home was turned into a warzone in the middle of the night. Federal agents rappelled out of helicopters, threw flash bang grenades, tore apart apartments, forced children outside, and detained 37 people. ICE led the warrantless raid that included hundreds of agents from a list of agencies including Border Patrol, US Marshals, DEA, ATF, and the FBI. Not long before that, an ICE agent shot and killed an unarmed man in Franklin Park. For weeks now, Trump has been trying to send 300 National Guard troops to Chicago.
The authoritarian police state Trump is aiming for has been in his sights since day one of his second term. In July, Congress handed immigration and border enforcement $170 billion in additional funding over four years, more than all but 12 nations’ entire military budgets. That includes $75 billion directly to ICE, making them larger than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.
Dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” the invasion of Chicago by ICE began on September 9. The assassination of right-wing bigot mouthpiece Charlie Kirk gave the Trump regime the perfect opportunity to take their reign of terror to a new stage. The primary reason for the offensive of government-sponsored violence, mainly on immigrants at this stage, is to terrorize whole communities and show that this could be done to others. While Trump and the Republicans are painting cities as being overrun by “left-wing terrorists,” the real violence comes from the state itself: ICE agents kidnapping immigrants on the streets.
Terror Is the Point
The state, which includes armed bodies like ICE, as well as the courts and the legislatures, always seeks to serve the interests of capitalism against the interests of workers. In Trump’s hands, its actions are particularly aggressive, a reflection of the ruling class’ desperation. But ICE and the police under Obama and later Biden were also brutal and inhumane. Violence against protesters is not foreign to the Democrats who encouraged the crackdown on the campus Gaza encampments under Biden. The Democratic Party greased the tracks for Donald Trump’s unfettered executive overreach.
Democrats like Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson are attempting to use the courts and public speeches to fight back against Trump’s forces. But Democrats do not want mass action unless they can control, co-opt, and then neuter it. Recent betrayals alone prove we can’t rely on establishment figures like Pritzker and Johnson to use their influence to build more than one-off protests that act as pressure relief valves. The mass organization of working-class people must be taken up by other sources of leadership, notably the unions, immigrant rights organizations, and community defense groups.
There is a reason that capitalist governments, and especially the far right, have always used these same sorts of terror tactics against marginalized or vulnerable communities. It is to the great benefit of the powers that be that workers and oppressed people be fragmented and afraid. They know it is only the organized working class, who collectively suffer from every kind of oppression, which is able to win the world we all need. While “criminal” immigrants and trans people are purported to be their targets, Trump has not been shy about revealing his greater aims. It is dissent, protest, organizing, and ultimately people rising up for their own freedom and a better world that Trump aims to curb and control. In his recent speech to the military top brass, he talked about an “invasion from within” and using “dangerous cities” as military training grounds for foreign wars.
Trump’s regime has plans for ICE beyond attacks on immigrants. He wants to use them as his own private domestic army and terror squad, able to aim their sights at any kind of activity they deem suspicious or criminal. This could include workers on strike, especially if immigrant workers are involved. More than just ICE, Trump is sending in a deluge of agencies to carry out his deportation agenda, like the National Guard, but also the DEA, FBI, and more. The increased repression will come down especially hard on dissenters who are striking workers, activists, leftists, or part of marginalized groups.
Build the Movement to Abolish ICE!
There are now daily protests at ICE facilities in Chicago and there have been a handful of videos of protests successfully warding off ICE. Protest tactics need to not only be escalated but democratically organized and coordinated through mass town halls. Escalation could look like coordinated noncooperation by workers and unions, mass civil disobedience like blocking ICE vehicles’ entry or exit, and labor strikes.
The unions have a key role to play in being leaders for our class and connecting all these political struggles that bind workers from different backgrounds and industries together. The Chicago Teachers Union has been calling for the organization of “sanctuary teams” in schools to have a plan if ICE shows up. This example needs to be taken up by more unions and transformed into offensive fights. The CTU leading the way on organizing a one-day strike across key public sector unions to shut down Chicago would be a powerful starting point.
The type of movement we need to fundamentally change society and end capitalism begins with the type of movement that can stop Trump’s attacks and bring both him and ICE down. Socialists boldly call for abolishing ICE and for a fight against Trump’s terror regime. But ultimately, to permanently end the threat posed by the far right, militarism and attacks on working people and the oppressed, we need to end the system they feed on and build a socialist society.
We urgently need to build coalitions of resistance in every city, including immigrant rights groups, unions, and socialist groups. These coalitions need to fight using class struggle tactics and organize around clear demands. In these coalitions, Socialist Alternative would call for:
- Non-cooperation with ICE and National Guard!
- No faith in the Democrats or the courts, build the working-class resistance!
- Abolish ICE to fund healthcare and schools!
- Prepare a one-day strike to shut the city down!