Right Now

On Friday, ICE raids targeted communities in Los Angeles, and Angelenos stood up for their neighbors. It’s now Sunday, and there have been continuing protests, with many protestors putting themselves between ICE and their targets. I’ve even seen reports that a group of protestors surrounded a group of ICE agents refusing to allow them to leave the area.

In response to all of this the Trump administration has federalized the National Guard and sent them in, despite the fact that California’s governor, who is the commander-in-chief of California’s National Guard unit has said it was unnecessary to deploy them. Pete Hegseth has said that he wants to send in the Marines next.

Effectively, the Donald Trump administration has just declared war on Los Angeles.

This is only the beginning, there’s a lot going on, and most of it is bad news. I fully expect we will see similar scenes play out in other cities across he nation, and some kind of martial law being invoked wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

On the other hand, there’s some reason for hope as well. These anti-ICE demonstrations were pretty spontaneous, with the neighborhood itself rising up to oppose ICE as soon as they were spotted and organizing resistance on the fly. This tells me that not only are these actions wildly unpopular, but also that those of us who are opposed to this are organized enough that we can effectively fight back.

And we must fight back. One thing that has been proven time and time again in dealing with these fascists is that they’re not ready for a fight and often just showing up in large numbers is enough to scare them away.

Everyone can help even if you’re nowhere near Los Angeles. Even something as seemingly insignificant as sharing news of what’s happening will have an impact. Exposing what the administration is doing will cost them support as none of these ICE actions that have taken place since inauguration day have helped the administrations popularity.

Finally, stay vigilant and informed. This is almost certainly the first steps towards a bigger action, but don’t be surprised if the major news organizations downplay the severity of the administrations actions or if they uncritically accept the narrative given to them in press releases. There are other sources out there that are better at reporting the situation on the ground, giving an unvarnished look at events while avoiding parroting the official narrative.

And as always, take care of yourselves. It looks like things will be ramping up this summer, and the best way to resist what unfolds is to make sure you’re in tip top shape to help.

Stay Informed