On Monday, dozens of protests were held across the United States against the Trump administration’s fascist deportation operation and its ongoing efforts to establish a military dictatorship. For the fourth day in a row, significant and sustained protests continued in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States.
In Baltimore, Maryland, over 100 people peacefully marched in opposition to the immigration Gestapo and the deployment of California National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles. In solidarity with workers and their families in Los Angeles, Baltimore-area protesters chanted “ICE out of LA” and carried signs denouncing ICE and calling for due process and equal protection for all.
The peaceful character of Monday’s protests has not prevented police from instigating violence, as they have on previous days. In New York City, hundreds of people are rallying outside an ICE facility located at 26 Federal Plaza. Video taken by on-the-ground journalists shows New York Police Department (NYPD) thugs snatching people off the sidewalk.
Outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles, National Guard soldiers and police in riot gear have begun pushing and shoving away crowds of mostly young people. Police have also begun firing “less lethal” rounds and CS gas at the crowd.
As of this writing, some 1,000 people are still protesting outside the Federal Building at 300 N. Los Angeles Street. Primary tenants of the building include US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The Federal Building is adjacent to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, where an unknown number of immigrants remain detained in the basement after being kidnapped by ICE thugs. On Monday, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President David Huerta, who was also being held in that building, was released on a $50,000 bond. Huerta was assaulted and detained by ICE agents on June 6 during an immigration raid on a garment warehouse in the Fashion District. He has been charged with conspiracy to impede an officer, a felony.
SEIU organized protests in several other cities, including New York City; Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Washington D.C.; and Los Angeles. In an expression of the social chasm between the union bureaucracy and the workers it claims to represent, most SEIU protests drew only a few hundred people, despite the union boasting a membership of over 2 million.
The largest SEIU-organized protest by far was held in Los Angeles. Estimates vary, but at least a few hundred people—if not over a thousand—attended. Notably, the Guardian reported that only “a sole Los Angeles police helicopter hovered overhead, but otherwise law enforcement was entirely absent” from the SEIU protest.
While police were absent, nearly every SEIU protest featured a bevy of trade union bureaucrats and Democratic Party politicians to fill the void. In Seattle, Representative Pramila Jayapal addressed the crowd, while Representative Jesús “Chuy” García spoke in Chicago. Speakers denounced the Trump administration’s tactics while remaining silent on the decades-long, bipartisan campaign to arm and fund the immigration Gestapo.
As federal funding for education, food programs, Medicaid and Medicare is set to be slashed, an analysis published last month by Stephen Semler found that funding for ICE increased every year under both the Biden and Trump administrations between 2016 and 2025. Semler found that under Trump, ICE’s budget increased by $1.8 billion—about 7 percent per year—while under Biden, it rose by $1.6 billion, or about 5 percent per year.
While Trump and his fascist conspirators in the Republican Party and media have justified the deployment of military forces on the grounds that there is an ongoing violent “invasion” in Los Angeles County by immigrants, the reality is that the only “invaders” and “occupying force” are the militarized federal agents—working in conjunction with local police and sheriff’s departments—who are targeting long-time residents, workers, and their families at work, in immigration court and outside schools.
Speaking to Reuters journalists outside the Federal Building on Monday, Seven Johnson, an 18-year-old born and raised in Los Angeles, said he came to protest to “stop ICE, stop the deportations.” Johnson said this fight was part of “one struggle, liberation for all. We are here to fight for everybody, because I love my people. We are no different from Palestinians, from people in the Congo or Sudan.”
Logan Castillo, also 18, said he had been at the protests in downtown Los Angeles both yesterday and today. He said, “We are here to get the message out and make it clear: we are not okay with the fact that people are going into homes and kidnapping people.” He added, “This is bigger than one person—this is the community getting together.”
A 16-year-old named Cloud told Reuters, “We are Donald Trump’s worst nightmare. We are not rioters, we are not looters, we do not want the Gestapo in our neighborhood.” Cloud added, “Solidarity is what it’s all about. Today it is mostly youth; yesterday, it was many adults.”
“We don’t want our classmates deported,” he concluded.
Kylie Bincent, 25, a stand-up comedian, said she came to the protest because “it’s very clear we don’t need the National Guard here. ... We are sick of Trump—they are taking families away. We just want to be left alone. America is really scary right now. The only thing that gives us hope is being here together.”
A resident of Los Angeles who wished to remain anonymous told the World Socialist Web Site:
I feel sick. I’m a Latina living in LA, and seeing troops patrolling our streets under the excuse of keeping order—it doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like history repeating itself. Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico—my people have lived through this kind of military repression. And now it’s here.
What’s happening here isn’t about stopping violence. It’s about shutting us up. The government is labeling peaceful protest as “insurrection,” arresting union leaders, and preparing to use actual Marines against citizens. This isn’t just creeping fascism. It’s fascism kicking down the door.
Meanwhile … Democrats, progressive leaders, are just writing concerned press releases. No real plan, no real resistance. Just empty words.