Arlington, TX – 60 people showed up at a protest organized by the Progressive Student Union (PSU) at the University of Texas at Arlington, September 4, against the Trump administration’s change to of policy on the detention of undocumented children.

Mark Napieralski, an organizer from the Progressive Student Union, spoke about how the Flores Agreement banned holding children indefinitely – and how the Trump administration is moving to keep children in indefinite detention in concentration camps along the southern border.

Speakers at the rally included Minister Katie Hays from the Galileo Church and Harold Chong from Intravarsity. Minister Hays focused on Jesus having been born to refugee parents and how the biblical narrative says that God’s place is with the marginalized. Chong spoke on the passage from Deuteronomy that states, “you must love the foreigner, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

The crowd grew with the passage of time, as the voices of the speakers reached students, administrative personnel and the members of various student organizations, who waited patiently in the oppressive summer heat to lend an ear to the cause that PSU was so determined to promote. Some of the crowd mentioned that they became quite emotional after they had learned about the atrocities that were happening in these concentration camps, saying that they would lend a hand in support for future protests.

Progressive Student Union member Arissa Moore spoke of the conditions these children face in the concentration camps, such as the lack of hygiene and little access to health related products, and the fact this has happened before, both to Japanese-Americans and Native Americans

Daniel Pichardo, PSU activist and local poet, shared the experiences of Mexican-Americans at the border and the United States. He pointed out that this is not a new occurrence, especially in a state that had once allowed the lynching of Mexicans in order to steal their property.

Students, faculty and community members stayed on to listen to the experiences, injustices and stories of hardship in this system of oppression by the Trump administration and closed the rally with one final chant, “No kids in cages! Close the camps!”

#ArlingtonTX #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #immigrantRights #Antiracism #ProgressiveStudentUnion #DonaldTrump #concentrationCamps

Milwaukee, WI – On August 1, Wisconsin Jews Against ICE, #neveragainisnow, held a protest outside the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Starting at 8 a.m., about 200 Jews and allies from across Wisconsin rallied in front of the building. By 10 a.m., the agency had closed its doors, turning away people who had appointments scheduled with either ICE or the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Activists stationed someone at the door to explain what was going on to the mostly foreign-born clientele turning up there. Many were sympathetic; others expressed frustration. Two left and returned an hour later with coolers filled with drinks and ice. They thanked those gathered for the action and encouraged them to keep it up.

The 22 activists who committed to civil disobedience carried white roses, a symbol of anti-fascist struggle, in honor of Rose Daitsman, an organizer who devoted her whole life to fighting injustice. She was a native Yiddish speaker, a lifelong communist, and a founding member of Milwaukee’s Human Rights Commission. They laid them in front of the driveways of the ICE building in downtown Milwaukee before sitting in front of them for the entire day, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For one day, no one was transported to detention through those doors of no return.

The action drew a diverse cohort of activists from across Wisconsin, but the presence of the torah and four rabbis, the sound of the shofar, and some tefillin and shawl-clad marchers powerfully marked the action as a specifically Jewish one. Imperfect and shimmering, it felt like the beginning of something.

#MilwaukeeWI #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #DonaldTrump #AbolishICE #concentrationCamps #NeverAgainIsNow

Oshkosh, WI – On the evening of July 12, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Students for a Democratic Society (UWO SDS) hosted a Lights for Liberty rally, demanding an end to the Trump administration's detention policy and the closure of the concentration camps, where tens of thousands of immigrants are being held in clear breach of international law. The call to action drew roughly 30 people from Oshkosh and the surrounding Fox Valley area.

The event started with a silent candlelight vigil to help bring awareness to the disastrous conditions in the camps. The action featured 12 different people speaking out about the conditions and the need to continue to act for the people who have lost their lives at these camps.

With the looming dangers of ICE’s taking action and attempting to deport large numbers of people out of the U.S., the need to bring one another together in solidarity with the immigrants was vastly important. In the small city of Oshkosh, UWO SDS stepped up to do just that. The people came together to share a moment and to push for the importance of being united.

“It was important that we accept that we are all human and if we lose the labels and drop the hate we can come together as one,” said SDS leader Lydia Christensen.

This was the first action hosted by the renewed UWO SDS chapter. With recent incidents involving Nazis on campus and the fact that one of the university buildings is named after a Klansman, the group has plenty of work ahead of it.

#OshkoshWI #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #DonaldTrump #concentrationCamps #LightsForLiberty #UniversityOfWisconsinOshkoshSDS

San Ysidro, CA – Protesters marched from Larsen Field in San Ysidro to the pedestrian border crossing Friday evening, July 12. The march was led by local Kumeyaay tribal elders, accompanied by the Brown Berets, and local immigrant rights and political organizations in demanding an immediate end to the Trump administration's refugee and immigrant concentration camps.

These camps have been the center of popular outrage, as many reports have surfaced of children being ripped away from their families, sexually assaulted and denied medical treatment. Some even died in custody or immediately following release. Several thousand people participated in the march, which stopped right in front of the crossing that leads right into Tijuana, Mexico. There, Kumeyaay tribal leaders held ceremonial dances and local activists gave poignant speeches enumerating the atrocities the Trump and past U.S. administrations have committed against indigenous peoples, immigrants and refugees.

The influx of asylum seekers – particularly from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – can be directly attributed to U.S. efforts to destabilize progressive governments and attack revolutionary movements across Latin America.

In the United States, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been using insidious tactics in its war on oppressed nationalities. Once tactic has been scouring driver and motor vehicle databases in states that permit undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses, using facial recognition software to identify potential deportees.

Protesters that night chanted slogans like “Free the children! Free them now!” “Abolish ICE,” and “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here!” They also proudly displayed signs reading “Close the camps, free the fams,” “Prosecute Trump,” “Kids don't belong in cages” and “No more dead children!”

After speakers addressed the crowd, protesters marched back to Larsen field and the action ended around 10:30 p.m.

#SanYsidroCA #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #legalizationForAll #DonaldTrump #AbolishICE #concentrationCamps

Houston, TX – July 4 saw union educators push for freedom for refugees and undocumented families. After a daylong meeting of the annual National Education Association’s annual Representative Assembly, a massive group of educators demonstrated their anger at Trump’s concentration camps for children and families.

Rank-and-file education workers organized the protest within less than 48 hours of arriving at the convention. The group marched around a detention center located in downtown Houston, holding signs reading “Free the children!” and “Close the camps!” As they marched, they chanted “Up up with education! Down, down with deportation!”

One Latina educator shared her thoughts on why this issue is important to educators, “We know that children need to feel safe in order to learn. We know that families need to be reunited to have a solid foundation for learning. And these families need a just pathway to citizenship.”

The protest was part of a wave of national protests aimed at ending the Trump administration’s concentration camps and family separation policy.

#HoustonTX #PeoplesStruggles #concentrationCamps #NationalEducationAssociation

Dallas, TX – About 100 protesters gathered at Dealey Plaza in Dallas in the evening of July 2 to demand an end to the Trump administration's immigrant concentration camps. After the rally, the protesters marched through downtown Dallas.

The protest was organized by North Texas Action Committee, North Texas Dream Team, Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Monsignor Romero Community Center, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Signs demanded an end to the concentration camps and legalization for all. Chants included “Down, down deportations, up, up, education,” and “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.” One speaker described the role of U.S. imperialism in causing the problems that drive people to leave their countries and come to the United States. Another speaker, Antonio Herrera of the Monsignor Romero Community Center, said that he came from El Salvador as a refugee and added, “I do not tire of saying how it hurts that our people will die in a river in search of a better life.”

#DallasTX #PeoplesStruggles #NorthTexasActionCommittee #concentrationCamps