Detroit, MI – On January 7, crowds of people rallied and marched to demand justice and protest the murder of Renee Good. Comité de Acción Comunitaria – Detroit (DCAC) organized an emergency protest just hours after reports came in as part of a national campaign with the Legalization for All network to condemn this killing and the attacks on our communities.

The action began with a rally, where protesters gathered on a cold dark afternoon at the ICE headquarters in downtown Detroit, waving Sanctuary City Now signs and chanting “City council cut the ties, we won’t pay for ICE’s crimes,” “No justice, no peace, no racist police” and “Say her name!”

Jackson Robak, a Freedom Road Socialist Organization member, stated, “It is our duty to build a movement that can fight back and make this country ungovernable.”

Robak honored Good’s memory calling her a “martyr of the immigrants’ rights movement” and saying “the monopoly capitalists would eat their own if they could to make a dollar or make profit. But that’s what makes us different, the masses of people, is we care about our own, we remember our own, we honor our martyrs.”

Sofia Marx, a member of the Wayne State Students for a Democratic Society stated, “This unjustifiable abuse of authority is a stark reminder of ICE’s seemingly unchecked power.”

Marx spoke about the need to fight back, “The Trump administration wants to scare us, they want us to stay silent, to hide, to accept these escalations and to allow our peers to be ripped away without a fight but we are not going to allow the continuation of these unchecked attacks on our peers.”

Relating Detroit to Minneapolis and Chicago, Kassandra Rodriguez of Comite de Acción Comunitaria stated, “How long will our local governments watch as their residents are murdered and terrorized in the streets? They treat us like animals, like our people don’t matter. Murdering us in broad daylight, taking our children to school like Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez and now standing up for our neighbors.”

Rodriguez spoke of the need to fight back “We cannot wait for what is happening in Minneapolis, in LA, in Chicago to happen here in Detroit. We need to stand up for the immigrants in our communities now. Now is the time to fight back. Now is the time to kick ICE out of our community and out of our city.”

#DetroitMI #MI #ImmigrantRights #KillerICE #ReneeGood #DCAC #L4A

The protest was organized by the Detroit Community Action Committee, a group fighting for the rights of immigrants and the democratic rights of Chicano’s based in Southwest Detroit.

Their current campaign is to make Detroit a sanctuary city for immigrants. This means that it would be illegal for the Detroit Police Department and for the city government of Detroit to assist ICE in tracking down and arresting immigrants should Detroit become a sanctuary city. Members of the Detroit Community Action Committee brought an ordinance to the Detroit city council earlier in the month and are waiting to hear back from the city council.

In his speech, Jackson Robak said, “I’m here with the Detroit Community Action Committee to demand an end to the connection between the Detroit Police Department and ICE. Seeing that the Supreme Court has legalized racial profiling and profiling based on spoken language, DPD is now connected to an openly and legal racist entity in a city that is 77% percent Black and almost 10% Chicano/Latino. ICE can now have the legal ‘right’ to target almost every citizen in the city and have DPD backup. It’s wrong and shouldn’t exist!”

The demonstrators were greeted by friendly Detroiters who honked their horns in support as they drove by. Chants like “Si se puede!” and “El pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido!” echoed down Lafayette Boulevard.

When asked about the brutal murder of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, Detroit Community Action Committee organizer Kass Rodriguez said “This Supreme Court ruling allows ICE to continue to terrorize our communities and commit crimes with impunity. Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez was stopped and murdered by ICE agents after dropping off his children at school. He was a father, a husband, a brother, and a hard-working member of his community. His death was a direct result of policies built to criminalize and villainize immigrants.”

With racist and reactionary politicians like J.D. Vance alluding to sending the National Guard to Detroit, it is more important now than ever for the people of Detroit and other cities to stand up and fight back. Detroit is putting its foot down. Sanctuary city now! Justice for Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez!

#DetroitMI #MI #ImmigrantRights #DCAC

Denver, CO – On the evening of June 27, Aurora Unidos CSO, Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC), and rank-and-file Teamsters gathered outside the Byron Rogers Federal Building to demand that charges be dropped on Los Aneles immigrant rights activist Alejandro Orellana.

On June 12, the FBI raided Orellana’s home, supposedly for handing out masks as protection against police attacking his community. Speakers at the press conference made it clear that Orellana was being targeted for being active in the immigrant rights movement and for being a public voice against police crimes in East Los Angeles.

Members of Aurora Unidos CSO and DACAC gave speeches calling for the bogus charges on Orellana to be dropped. Caleb Cobb, a Teamster, talked about Orellana’s organizing as a fellow rank-and-file worker, ending by saying, “We have a duty as union members to stand up to all attacks against workers.”

Ella Rydwell with DACAC spoke about the repression Angela Davis faced from the FBI and the international struggle for her freedom, connecting that fight to the one being waged today for Orellana. A common theme among the speakers was that protesting is not a crime and that Orellana was only looking to defend his community.

#DenverCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #FBI #AlejandroOrellana #StopFBI #CSFR #L4A #CentroCSO #DCAC #AUCSO #ImmigrantRights #ICE

Detroit, MI – On June 8, around 80 Detroiters and several community organizations protested Trump’s deployment of the National Guard on the Los Angeles community. Outside of the downtown ICE and Police Department Headquarters, Detroit stood in solidarity with those fighting back against ICE and the National Guard in LA.

Those in attendance held up signs demanding Detroit become a real sanctuary city that in no way works with ICE, with phrases like “Ni una mas deportación” and “End Trump’s attacks on immigrants.” The protesters took parallel corners of Michigan Avenue. One side of the street chanted “Fuck” while the other responded with “ICE,” with both sides of the street flipping off the headquarters that stood behind them.

Afterwards, the protesters gathered together, and Jacob Smith of DAARPR spoke on the importance of taking action like this. He championed the efforts of the community involved in the “everyday struggle,” and gave people opportunities to engage in the struggle beyond the action on June 8.

After Smith, Jo Pico, a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said, “We are in awe to see Chicago, Minneapolis and LA and elsewhere bravely run ICE out of their communities.” He recognized that Aztlán is on fire and we must fan the flames, promising that Detroit is going to fight back just as the Chicano community of Los Angeles has. Pico encouraged everyone to make the United States ungovernable under Trump.

Finally, Kassandra Rodriguez of DCAC emphasized that the fight to kick ICE out of Detroit is one that will require everyone to show up for their community, whether it is in Southwest or Hamtramck. She commended those who showed up, reminding everyone that “we keep each other safe with our numbers,” and by “putting our bodies on the line, screaming at the top of our lungs, and putting our safety at risk for our community.” Rodriguez closed her speech by chanting what had been the theme of the day: “¡Sí se puede!”

The protest was called by Michigan 50501 with many grassroots groups arriving with signs, banners, megaphones and community members. These same organizations, including Detroit Comité de Acción Comunitaria (DCAC), Detroit Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DAARPR), Detroit Anti-War Committee, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization, are helping organize Detroit 50501’s “Day Without Immigrants” protest on June 14.

#DetroitMI #MI #ImmigrantRights #ICE #LosAngeles #DCAC #DAARPR #DAWC

Centennial, CO – On January 14, the Denver Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC) and 16 community members braved the cold to rally in opposition to police crimes outside of the office of the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District.

It was the inaugural day for new District Attorney Amy Padden, the democrat sworn in as head prosecutor for the 18th Judicial District. Before January, the 18th District covered Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln Counties, but it has been redrawn to cover Arapahoe County exclusively. The district covers a significant portion of Aurora, as well as part of the rural eastern plains of Colorado.

LaRonda Jones, the mother of Kilyn Lewis, a 37-year-old Black man who was shot and killed while he was unarmed by Aurora police officer Michael Dieck, was in attendance. Jones told the crowd, ”How can we trust a badge that has become a weapon against us? Because of what happened to my son and other family members' children, the badge is no longer a symbol of protection. It's a symbol of danger, of fatality, of loss. This isn't about a few bad apples. It's about a diseased tree, a system that allows this kind of harm to continue without interruption – a system that turns its back on accountability.”

Anna Harris spoke next and contrasted how the police have treated white mass shooters with the killing of her partner Kory Dillard, a 38-year-old Black veteran who was killed by Aurora Police early last October during a mental health crisis. Harris stated, “Our city has had four mass shootings, and in every tragedy, officers were able to demonstrate their ability to detain a dangerous suspect, not only swiftly, but alive.”

Padden’s predecessor, former DA John Kellner, had a troubling history of protecting violent police and prosecuting victims of police violence as well as those who simply exercised their rights under the law. The people present at the rally are cautiously hopeful that DA Padden will discontinue the policies of John Kellner.

Concluding the action was a reading of a letter to the new district attorney. Jeff McFarland, a member of DACAC, put forward a number of demands to address police crimes, then the crowd chanted, “All power to the people!”

#CentennialCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #DCAC