As Ice Cracks Down,
Labor Stands Up

May 28th, 2025

In May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller demanded that ICE increase its deportation efforts, hoping to raise the number of arrests to 3,000 per day and threatening to fire ICE agents responsible for the fewest arrests. Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has made sweeping anti-immigration moves, involving not just ICE, but the National Guard, Homeland Security, and several other federal agencies.

The new focus on immigration is being felt nation-wide, but California is facing the most unrest. On June 6, protests broke out in Los Angeles after ICE raided areas of the city and kidnapped 45 of its inhabitants. On June 10, a curfew was implemented by the city mayor. Despite the swift response of the city and state governments to the mostly peaceful, contained protests, Trump initially sent 2,000 members of the National Guard (this number has grown to 4,000) and 700 Marines to quell the unrest. Deploying these troops has had the opposite effect: the influx of federal militants has transformed peaceful protests into violent clashes between protestors and law enforcement. Protestors, members of LAPD, and several journalists have been injured.

Several major figures in California politics have faced consequences as well. Labor leader David Huerta, president of SEIU California, was injured and then arrested on June 6 when he witnessed an ICE raid and allegedly tried to obstruct their access to a work site. As of now, Huerta is still in custody. California’s governor Gavin Newsom, a Californian representative Jimmy Gomez, and other labor leaders have spoken out against this violent repression, demanding Huerta’s release. This incident shows how labor is linked to immigration. Labor leaders are bravely standing up to the anti-immigrant, fascist Trump administration, insisting that immigrant rights are workers’ rights, and labor won’t abandon the most vulnerable workers.

Even US Senators are not above repression. Democratic US Senator Alex Padilla attended a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was commenting on immigration policy and the LA protests. Padilla was dragged out of the room, pushed to the ground and handcuffed after verbally interrupting the Secretary and asking that she answer his questions. Law enforcement’s willingness to respond so forcefully to even the mildest dissent from a US Senator bodes ill for how others are likely being treated when there are no cameras around.

At home, Chicago is feeling the effects of the ramped-up ICE raids. Undocumented workers are facing the threat of deportation at any moment. Many are afraid to go to work. ICE is finding new ways to skirt the legal system to meet quotas: they are making arrests at immigration courts. The strategy is to “dismiss” the immigrant’s case, and then arrest them outside the courthouse doors, effectively tricking them and preventing them from making a dispute. Immigration lawyers are calling it a violation of due process. 

Anti-ICE protests continued throughout the past week in Chicago, culminating in a massive “No Kings” protest downtown on Saturday. This was one of thousands of protests across the country, intentionally organized on the same day as Trump’s military parade. Many thousands of protestors flooded the Loop in the biggest gathering in recent memory, with organized labor playing a central role. This massive turnout sends a message to America and to the world that the working class will oppose Trump’s racist and exploitative plans. The world, and history, has its eyes on us and what we choose to do now in the face of rising fascism. 

In recognition of the power of organized labor to resist, GEO is devoted to protecting international and immigrant workers, students, faculty, staff, and the wider Chicago in whatever ways we can. That is why we have been pushing the Memorandum of Understanding to protect international workers at our bargaining sessions with UIC. If you're interested in joining in this push, come to our bargaining sessions with the university, and to our open bargaining committee meetings on Mondays at 5pm!