At the end of December, we at CHN asked in a blog post “Does the Trump Administration Care About You?” You won’t be surprised to learn we concluded that if you’re not rich, if you’re not white, if you’re an immigrant, the answer was “NO.” 

A month later, the right question seems to be, “Does the Trump Administration see you as the Enemy?” For our own people on the streets of Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, for immigrants, for their neighbors, for people of color, for “blue” states, the answer is “YES.” 

People gathered in front of CBP HQ in DC chanting “ICE Out for Good”

All of us fitting in these blurry categories may find ourselves under attack from the armed thugs of ICE and border patrol. Not everywhere. There were well over 1,000 No ICE for Good rallies nationwide to protest our own government’s attacks on our own people last weekend. On Tuesday, January 13, about 1,000 people gathered in front of the Washington, DC building with the Customs and Border Protection offices to protest the thuggish attacks. These events were not subject to attack. Those of us who gathered could express outrage over the death of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, shot by an ICE agent, and of ICE and Border Patrol killings of others, and ever-increasing numbers of people shot and wounded on our streets across the nation. We could protest the 32 deaths in ICE detention sites, where the inhumane treatment of 60,000 detainees is a national outrage.  

We could exercise our American right to protest the unlawful and disastrous consequences of the Trump administration’s attack on our own people without facing violence. But so many are facing violence and intimidation, accosted, attacked, and detained. In stories from Minneapolis, heard during the January 13 rally in DC and in a presentation to Coalition on Human Needs advocates the next day, we heard of ICE in schools, near churches, using tear gas and pepper spray, sometimes at pointblank range, going after mothers and fathers taking their children to school, community leaders, dragging a pregnant woman in the street, breaking car windows and pulling drivers out of their cars, detaining nonwhite students on their way to school or sports practice, refusing to look at their proof of citizenship or despite proof, holding them for hours. ICE agents are required to have a warrant to enter a home, but they lawlessly tell people they have to let them in. Agents attacked from behind and knocked down a person in the streets of Minneapolis, not knowing who the person was, discovering that he was the president of the Minneapolis City Council.  

The Trump administration has tried to deny funding to child care centers in Minnesota and in four other “blue” states; some of these attempts have been turned back by federal courts, although the administration has delayed payments, claiming investigations of fraud. The state of Minnesota, which provides state funds to child care programs along with the federal funds, can keep those programs funded for about six months, even if federal dollars are at least temporarily halted. But there are other ways to undermine programs: unannounced inspections of child care centers have been accompanied by armed federal agents going into the classrooms, ostensibly to protect the inspectors and frightening/traumatizing the children present.  

Other federal funds have been frozen, including SNAP administrative funds owed to Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has sued to enjoin the SNAP freeze. 

Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) spoke at the rally.

During the January 13 DC rally, organized by groups including Indivisible, MoveOn, ACLU, Public Citizen, and others, we could hear from U.S. senators including Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), and advocates including Ezra Levin of Indivisible, Nadia Salazar Sandi of DC Fiscal Policy Institute, and Keya Chatterjee of Free DC. Senator Van Hollen spoke of a woman in Anne Arundel County in his state of Maryland, a mother of four, who was snatched off the streets and detained, who asked to be able to be released to be with her 15-year-old son who was dying of cancer. Her request was refused; he died the next day. Senator Padilla reminded us that he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed when he tried to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem a question about excessive ICE enforcement in Los Angeles during her press conference. He asked: if they can do that to a senator, what are they doing to immigrants and others nationwide.

Well, we see what they are doing. 

And they are doubling down: ICE/DHS are surging thousands more agents in Minneapolis, inciting dangerous situations in which they continue to respond with reckless violence. Trump, Vance and Noem have vilified Renee Good without evidence, and the administration has tried to order federal prosecutors in Minneapolis to investigate Ms. Good’s widow; at least six have resigned. 

While ICE and other agents under the Department of Homeland Security are ordered to continue lawless and recklessly violent attacks on our own people, Congress must not vote to add funds in a DHS appropriations bill. That bill, because of ICE’s and Customs and Border Protection’s lethal and lawless actions and the nationwide protests, is stalled in Congress. It should stay stalled; Congress should investigate the despotic attacks. 

CHN has been encouraging people to contact Congress to stop these attacks on immigrants and their neighbors; you can take action here, and join in a call for Congress to investigate these reckless and lawless attacks here. We hope you’ll add to the more than 330,000 emails sent to Congress so far. Please also help us keep the fight going: we’re splitting contributions here with The Workers Circle, which is paying for buses for weekly Sunday vigils outside the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center. 

We have to fight back if we are to preserve and sustain our teetering democracy.