A Nation of Immigrants Under Attack By Farrah Hassen
June 25, 2025
Introduction:
(Other Words) Across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are tearing families apart, terrorizing communities, and upending businesses.
Mario Romero was among those arrested by ICE recently. His daughter, Yurien Contreras, witnessed ICE agents taking him “chained by the hands, feet, and waist” after they raided his workplace in Los Angeles. Over 40 other immigrant workers were also arrested.
“It was a very traumatic experience,” she told The Guardian. But “it was only the beginning of inhumane treatment our families would endure.”
The architect of this anti-immigrant agenda, top Trump aide Stephen Miller, has demanded that ICE make 3,000 arrests like these per day — an arbitrary quota with no legal basis.
To meet this quota, masked, plainclothes ICE agents embrace violent and unconstitutional tactics to abduct people from courthouses, citizenship appointments, churches, graduations, restaurants, Home Depots, farms, and other workplaces. They arrest people without warrants or probable cause, violate their right to due process, and deny them their basic human dignity.
Even setting aside the essentially fascist nature of our current anti-immigration enforcement crusade, there is the stupidity of it all in purely economic terms.
Immigrants are A Boon to Our Society By Sonali Kolhatkar
June 25, 2025
Introduction:
(Other Words) Above all, immigration is a moral issue.
Most people leave their homelands to seek opportunity or safety when one or both is threatened in their homelands. They then enrich their adopted nations with their culture, cuisine, love, and dedication and are less likely to commit crimes than native born Americans.
But even setting aside such huge considerations, immigrants are also a boon to society in purely economic terms.
There is a deeply held misconception among advocates of harsh immigration enforcement that undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes. But this is false. It turns out that millions of undocumented immigrants pay into the funds that American citizens rely on, with no guarantee of ever being able to benefit from them.
Not only do immigrants pay sales taxes — as we all do — every time they make any kind of purchase, many also pay into Social Security.
The article also makes the point that the legalization of currently undocumented immigrants would result in their filing of tax returns which would mean more revenues to federal, state, and local governments.
As fascist policies become manifest, there is also the resistance.
Trained Volunteers Patrol L.A. Streets as ICE Raids Intensify By Myriam-Fernanda Alcala Delgado
June 30, 2025
Introduction:
(Capital & Main) The day after families across the country gathered to celebrate Father’s Day, Francisco Romero huddled at dawn with 10 volunteers in a South Los Angeles parking lot. The group was preparing to patrol the neighborhood for signs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
There was a heaviness in the atmosphere, despite the comradery and smiles. During the group huddle, some reflected on the difficulty celebrating Father’s Day while families across the city were being separated by ICE. Another volunteer mentioned viral videos from the prior weekend showing apparent ICE presence in the nearby city of Bell, including “snatch and grabs,” in which unmarked vehicles surrounded pedestrians suspected of being undocumented and ICE officers pulled them inside.
“It’s psychological,” Romero said, speculating about the timing of the raids, which coincided with a holiday meant to celebrate family.
While L.A. residents — and much of the country — were transfixed for days by images of masked officers rounding up immigrants and protesters flooding downtown streets, this quieter, grassroots effort to protect vulnerable communities from these raids has continued to unfold. Volunteers like Romero patrol the streets across Los Angeles weekly, keeping watch with the aim of alerting the community to any ICE operations.
Such patrols are nothing new. Since the civil unrest that erupted after the beating of Rodney King in 1992, Unión del Barrio has operated community patrol networks to monitor for law enforcement activity and other potential dangers to residents in neighborhoods across California. But the environment has become more treacherous in recent weeks. There has been an increase in ICE operations across the city, including masked officers detaining suspected undocumented immigrants from local stores, street shops and neighborhoods. Their enforcement actions have led to protests in Los Angeles and pushback from residents and organizers alike.
‘Searchlight is 99% Right’ Nazi Leader Tells British Fascists By Paul Gale
June 24, 2025
Introduction:
(Searchlight) In a post that will infuriate many on the far right – not least of all Searchlight’s legion of online detractors – nazi party boss Alek Yerbury has publicly declared that allegations of corruption and criminality made against the far right by anti-fascists are ‘99% right’.
Yerbury is already known for his blunt attacks on most other far-right personalities whom he regularly accuses of being corrupt grifters with no principled politics. But this outburst is particularly uncompromising:
“Over the past week I’ve read pieces of propaganda by the ‘far left’, whether it’s Hope not Hate, Searchlight, even the BBC or Channel 4. There is no doubt that the ‘hit pieces’ and propaganda from these organisations has a crippling effect on many of their political enemies.
“And the reason they do, is because 99% of their propaganda is factually correct.
“The ‘hit pieces’ are overwhelmingly statements of fact as opposed to fiction.
caltrek wrote: ↑Mon Jun 30, 2025 4:44 pm
As fascist policies become manifest, there is also the resistance.
Trained Volunteers Patrol L.A. Streets as ICE Raids Intensify By Myriam-Fernanda Alcala Delgado
June 30, 2025
Introduction:
(Capital & Main) The day after families across the country gathered to celebrate Father’s Day, Francisco Romero huddled at dawn with 10 volunteers in a South Los Angeles parking lot. The group was preparing to patrol the neighborhood for signs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
There was a heaviness in the atmosphere, despite the comradery and smiles. During the group huddle, some reflected on the difficulty celebrating Father’s Day while families across the city were being separated by ICE. Another volunteer mentioned viral videos from the prior weekend showing apparent ICE presence in the nearby city of Bell, including “snatch and grabs,” in which unmarked vehicles surrounded pedestrians suspected of being undocumented and ICE officers pulled them inside.
“It’s psychological,” Romero said, speculating about the timing of the raids, which coincided with a holiday meant to celebrate family.
While L.A. residents — and much of the country — were transfixed for days by images of masked officers rounding up immigrants and protesters flooding downtown streets, this quieter, grassroots effort to protect vulnerable communities from these raids has continued to unfold. Volunteers like Romero patrol the streets across Los Angeles weekly, keeping watch with the aim of alerting the community to any ICE operations.
Such patrols are nothing new. Since the civil unrest that erupted after the beating of Rodney King in 1992, Unión del Barrio has operated community patrol networks to monitor for law enforcement activity and other potential dangers to residents in neighborhoods across California. But the environment has become more treacherous in recent weeks. There has been an increase in ICE operations across the city, including masked officers detaining suspected undocumented immigrants from local stores, street shops and neighborhoods. Their enforcement actions have led to protests in Los Angeles and pushback from residents and organizers alike.
Abrego Garcia’s Attorneys Say He Faced Beatings and ‘Psychological Torture’ in El Salvador Prison By Brad Reed
July 3, 2025
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant whom the Trump administration wrongly sent to El Salvador's infamous Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), are alleging that he and other detainees at the site were subjected to physical abuse and psychological torture.
In a court filing published on Wednesday evening, Abrego Garcia's attorneys write that their client "was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture."
The filing describes Abrego Garcia and approximately 20 other inmates "being struck with wooden batons" after arriving at the facility as they were frogmarched to their cell, where guards would subsequently force them to kneel from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am While the prisoners were kneeling, guards allegedly kept watch over them and would physically strike anyone who fell over from exhaustion. The complaint adds that "during this time... Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself."
The complaint alleges officials at the prison would repeatedly threaten to transfer Abrego Garcia to cells that contained gang members who would "tear" him apart. These threats were made more menacing, the attorneys state, because "Abrego Garcia repeatedly observed prisoners in nearby cells who he understood to be gang members violently harm each other with no intervention from guards or personnel. Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards on personnel."
During Abrego Garcia's first two weeks at the facility, the attorneys write, he lost approximately 31 pounds.
Alligator Alcatraz receives first immigrant detainees Wednesday night
Source: Miami Herald
Updated July 3, 2025 10:57 AM
The first detainees arrived at Alligator Alcatraz late Wednesday night, even as the immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades has already faced some operational issues with security and water intrusion. On Wednesday evening, the gates of the facility were bustling with traffic.
Three white vans escorted by sedans drove into the compound. The vans looked like those previously used by immigration authorities to transport migrants, although it’s unclear who was in them. Constructions workers, fencing companies and locksmiths went in and out of the facility ahead of detainees coming in.
Food trucks serving churros, street corn, and empanadas flitted in and out of the facility. The activity signaled active preparations for a site that a day earlier was showcased by President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis as an operational location.
The site’s name also became official on Wednesday, when two workers slapped a large blue guidepost that said “Alligator Alcatraz” over the old “Dade-Collier Transitional Airport” road sign that led people to the airstrip for years.
Trump says he 'hates' Democrats at Independence Day event
Trump, speaking at an event organized by a nonpartisan group meant to celebrate America's independence, said he "hates" Democrats for opposing legislation to fund much of his domestic agenda.
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the "Big, Beautiful Bill," many fiercely criticizing the expected cuts it would bring to Medicaid.
"They wouldn’t vote only because they hate Trump, but I hate them, too, you know?" Trump said. "I really do. I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country."
Trump said he hopes to weaponize Democratic opposition to the bill in next year’s midterm elections. "With all of the things we did with the tax cuts and rebuilding our military, not one Democrat voted for us, and I think we use it in the campaign that’s coming up the midterms, because we got to beat them," he said.
I was thinking about the peaceful yet highly disruptive and effective civil rights movement. Not only is it "morally correct," it is also more effective. You only need planning and four people to carry out a lunch counter sit-in, in contrast to the sheer amount of supply, logistics, and combat experience needed for an armed insurgency.
Countries where insurgencies are effective are usually flooded with guns/there are preexisting networks, and militias that can be repurposed for the latest round of struggle (eg. the NRF in Afghanistan, the PDF and allies in Myanmar)
Sure, the US is flooded with guns, but the feds also have the most powerful military on the planet
