16 June 2025
Since Friday, June 6, 2025, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has deployed, on Trump’s orders, a massive raid operation in at least seven locations in Los Angeles, California. In addition, Trump has called in the National Guard to carry out the raids in what appears to be a provocation to California’s Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, whom he has already threatened with arrest. The raids have resulted in at least 44 arrests, 11 of which are Mexican nationals.
In the face of this Trumpist offensive, an immediate popular response emerged; thousands took to the streets to demonstrate for three consecutive days. They directed their forces toward detention centers, including the Edward Roybal Federal Building. Neighborhood groups and community organizations blocked access, raised barricades, confronted the National Guard, and shouted slogans such as “We are LA!” and “CHINGA LA MIGRA!” and waved Mexican flags as a symbol of dignity and resistance against racist raids by the federal government.
Racist persecution
The federal government’s reaction has been brutal. The following day, 2,000 National Guard troops were mobilized in Los Angeles to reinforce the repression. Border czar Tom Homan declared that they were seeking to “make LA clean and safer,” a clear covert militarization of an anti-immigrant and racist policy against those he considers dangerous to the state: undocumented latino workers.
The police attacked Latino neighborhoods with tear gas, non-lethal weapons, and stun grenades. A typical repressive repertoire, classic of theTrumpism like the one seen in 2020 against Black neighborhoods during the Black Lives Matter movement.
Meanwhile, representatives of the federal government accused Democrats—Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass—of being complicit in allowing “anarchy.” This is part of the rhetorical game between Democrats and Republicans, while local government remains absent and neglectful of Latino communities.
So far, police have arrested 33 Mexicans and injured hundreds in the streets, schools, and homes of Latino families. Videos circulating on social media have shown the horror of an unprecedented offensive against Latino and migrant communities.
Federal Attorney Bill Essayli, executor of Trump’s racist and criminal policies, confirmed on social media that federal law enforcement operations “are proceeding as planned this weekend in Los Angeles County.” He warned that anyone who attempts to interfere with their enforcement will be arrested and prosecuted.
The arrest of David Huerta, a union leader with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU–United Service Workers West), during the protests illustrates working-class solidarity in action. He was arrested for standing in front of official vehicles, stating that his action is a collective rather than an individual act: “This is not about me, but about how we stand together as a community to resist injustice.”
“Our community is under attack and has been terrorized,” Angélica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), told the crowd of protesters. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers.”
Los Angeles is in a state of panic over the apparent martial law imposed by the federal government. Entire families are fleeing the state seeking refuge, undocumented workers are hiding in broad daylight, and urban skirmishes between Chicano communities and the National Guard erupt on the streets.
At Apparel Ambiance, after a couple of hours, a legion of federal agents in riot gear arrived to confront more than 100 people who had set up barricades to block entry to their neighborhoods. Amidst firecrackers and shouts of “pigs” and “fascists,” the agents were repelled in one of the largest confrontations of the operation.
The Latin resistance against the Trumpist offensive
Amid the offensive, thousands of Latino workers took to the streets to protest the federal government’s inhumane policies. In the Mexican neighborhoods of Paramount to Compton, resistance escalated to the point of direct confrontations with the National Guard. Chicano communities rode out on motorcycles with flags and catapults in hand to repel the advancing gangs.
Videos of the fighting, which has been going on for more than two days, show burned police cars with graffiti proclaiming “abolish ICE,” grenades exploding on the sidewalk, people wounded by rubber bullets, and dozens of arrests being loaded into police trucks.
In front of the Edward Roybal Federal Building detention center, Latino workers blocked the entrances and occupied the building’s outskirts to protest the arrests, while police fired tear gas through the windows at the crowd that numbered hundreds. Mothers are also leading the demonstrations demanding the return of their children, the same mothers who have been beaten by the batons and shields of immigration authorities.
Marches along the city’s main avenues display signs with slogans such as “Fuck migra,” “Fascist pigs,” “Viva la raza,” and “ICE get the fuck out of our communities,” while Mexican flags wave in defense of the roots of migrant generations who defend their neighborhoods, friends, and family.
Beyond the borders, the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, led by Carlos González Gutiérrez, denounced that the detainees were residents with roots and established families. These raids sowed terror in our communities.
At the same time, the Mexican government declared its condemnation of the persecutions and called on consulates to safeguard and protect families threatened by immigration services. Consulates across the country published a message of support for their fellow Mexicans last Saturday. Claudia Sheinbaum, for her part, has publicly condemned them, stating that “Mexicans residing in the United States are good citizens who went to seek a better life; they are not criminals. They have the full solidarity of the Mexican government.”
Defend our migrant sisters and brothers.
This event is a clear example of how capitalism employs structural and militarized violence to protect profit and discipline the migrant proletariat. Its offensive endangers families and entire generations who, day after day, constitute the most precarious and discriminated against workforce in the United States.
In a country where being brown is synonymous with being a criminal, our response must be an active anti-racism and a militant internationalism that defends those who work in search of better living conditions for their children, mothers, fathers, and siblings.
We send a message of solidarity to all Latino workers and our migrant brothers and sisters on the other side of the border. These criminal raids, reminiscent of the GESTAPO, are a reflection of the intensification of repression in times of crisis.
American capitalism supports the genocide in Gaza while persecuting migrants at home. However, the Latino and North American working class, with examples like the Chicano resistance, demonstrate the return of a combative, organized, and supportive attitude against Trump’s attempts to separate families, deport workers, and terrorize undocumented immigrants.
Important organizing events are already taking place now, such as the creation of the Self-Defense Coalition, made up of 60 anti-capitalist, migrant, and socialist organizations that are organizing resistance in the neighborhoods and expanding their structure to a solid political and solidarity formation among not only Latino workers but also Indigenous communities, the LGBTQ+ community, Black and Asian migrant communities and the Pro Palestine solidarity movement who are battered by Trumpist politics and who will no longer allow it.
The methods of the protests are evidently revolutionary events, as the movement called for a national strike of migrant workers on June 14 that will shake the profits of the capitalists and the reckless and vile Trump administration. This is a moment when fear is changing sides, and this offers important revolutionary opportunities for the independent, intersectional, and socialist struggle of the working class, which is now questioning who the real enemy is: the police, Trump, and this economic system of misery.
We call on Latino communities, migrant workers, and American workers to continue the fight against immigration raids, to defend our communities, families, and our class as a whole. No human being is illegal! No more ICE, no more terror!