The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has been conducting shocking raids around Los Angeles. Migrant workers have been dragged out of construction sites and kitchens and Home Depot parking lots. This extreme escalation of normal deportation tactics has led to protests and scattered low-level rioting. Trump reacted by deploying National Guard troops over the objection of the governor, the first time any president has taken this step since LBJ deployed the National Guard in Alabama in 1965. Apparently deciding that even this was insufficiently inflammatory, he decided on Monday to add a battalion of Marines. Most disturbing of all, it was revealed on Tuesday that armed National Guardsmen have been accompanying ICE agents on workplace raids in brazen violation of the normal firewall between the military and law enforcement.
On Friday, as the Trump-engineered descent into chaos was first starting, California Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president David Huerta was arrested at a protest. This sent shock waves through organized labor, and union leaders around the country demanded his release. He’s out on bond now, though he’s still facing a charge of “conspiracy to impede an officer” that could land him in prison for six years. Available evidence suggests that he wasn’t illegally impeding anything but merely observing and refusing to leave a public sidewalk. In reality, he’s being targeted precisely because, as an important union leader and a powerful voice on behalf of justice for immigrant workers, he’s seen as a threat by the Trump administration.
The incident is a stark reminder that the ICE raids are, at the end of the day, a labor issue. If you believe that an injury to one is an injury to all,…
Auteur: Ben Burgis
