Los Angeles socialist on resisting Trump’s racist deportations

Mass protests broke out in response to raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 6 in Los Angeles, United States. ICE agents arrested about 330 people in the initial raids and more than 200 people were arrested during the protests. 

Isaac Nellist spoke to LA-based socialist Thomas Malone, who is a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) union organiser and Democratic Socialists of America’s Bread and Roses caucus member, about the protests, attempts to suppress them and how a broader movement against US President Donald Trump’s mass deportations could develop. 

How did the protests begin?

Around 9am on June 6 there were a series of raids conducted by ICE agents and Homeland Security Forces. 

One of the first raids we knew about was at a Home Depot store right across the street from our SEIU office and, as we are part of the Rapid Response Network (RRN) that responds to ICE sightings, we were plugged into that immediately. After that there were raids popping up everywhere around the LA area. 

The one that most people saw was in the fashion district, where a clothing warehouse was raided and about 30 people were detained and taken into custody. Outside of that clothing store the community came out to document what was happening, so the ICE agents barricaded themselves in the building and were surrounded by protesters. 

After a few hours, heavily militarised Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents came down and forced everybody out. They used flash bangs, tear gas, rubber bullets and riot shields to push people back and brought in vans to load everyone in one by one.

The militarised presence felt like an occupation of this random community. The community stopped the agents leaving the way they wanted to and pushed them out, until agents started using their weaponry to disperse protesters. 

SEIU California president David Huerta was arrested at another warehouse raid. He was there to observe and the agents decided to shove him to the ground and take him into custody. We held an emergency rally that afternoon outside the federal detention centre in Downtown LA which was attended by community groups, left-wing organisations, politicians and a couple of unions to protest that detention.

That evening is when the major protests kicked off. Throughout the weekend there were clashes with police. 

There has been a huge mobilisation of police, ICE officers, national guards and even US Marines to suppress the protests. What was the police presence like on the streets? What other tactics and weapons are being used on protesters? 

It’s similar to what police deployed against protesters during the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020. However it is much more localised; the major protests that caused all the stir were within a couple block radius, about a mile.

It was overkill when they started bringing out primarily LA Police Department (LAPD) riot and crowd control police with their batons, helmets and shields. The first day or two the police were relatively hands-off, until the evening when they started throwing tear gas. But as it has gone on they have started to deploy 40mm Less Lethal ammunition, pepper balls, tear gas, rubber bullets and other weapons they used during the BLM protests. 

The LAPD, the LA County Sheriff’s department, the California Highway Patrol and federal agents have been coordinating to disperse the crowds. Once Trump called in the [4000] National Guards [and 700 US Marines], they formed a backline behind the police to protect the ICE agents and other federal officers. However they have also been spotted participating in ICE raids. 

How are protesters responding to this huge crackdown? 

Following the protests over the weekend, LA mayor Karen Bass implemented a curfew from 8pm to 6am in the area where the protests have been taking place. During that window is when they have made the majority of arrests.

The viral things you see, such as throwing things at police, graffiti and vandalism, are taking place; protesters are trying to maneuver and move around as police push and pull you through different areas. 

There has been a big use of group chats like Signal, some with hundreds of members, to coordinate with people. They will give updates on police movements. I would not say it is exceptionally coordinated, but it allows people on the ground to get warnings and call out to others so they can avoid the police as much as possible. The chats also indicate when federal agents and ICE agents are around and how to counter protest them and stop their raids, to varying success.

Who is participating in the protests? Are there any leadership structures? Is the organised left involved?

A large portion of it, especially throughout the first weekend, was not organised; mostly average people with a general disdain for Trump, ICE and the police.

Outside of a couple of specific union-sponsored rallies — such as the June 9 rally sponsored by the Labor Federation, SEIU and other supportive unions to free Huerta and the 400 or so other people who have been taken into federal detention — there are limited leadership structures. 

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) have been taking the de facto lead on some actions by publishing details and getting fliers printed, but I would not say they are the organising force. 

When police are confronting protesters, some groups like PSL, the Revolutionary Communist Party and other smaller tendencies will give callouts to give tactical advice, though protesters do not always take on the advice. Combined with the signal chats it allows for some communication between protesters. 

Besides that, the organised left are showing up to the protests and promoting them in their networks. Other groups are getting involved in the RRN or tracking the movements of ICE agents. 

Can you tell us about the RRN?

The RRN has been around for a long time and is coordinated by a variety of social and immigrant justice and law groups. It is usually coordinated by geographic area.

They have a hotline you can call and report if you see ICE or Homeland Security agents in the neighbourhood. Then the RRN paid and unpaid organisers who receive the report will go to the site and document whatever they can, including names of those who are taken. 

Can you talk about Trump’s mass deportation agenda? Who is being targeted? What similarities and differences are there with the Democrats' approach? 

Trump’s focus on mass deportations has been successful in the “shock and awe” aspect, it is absolutely terrorising immigrant communities all over the place, not just in LA.

The Trump administration is pushing quotas on ICE and other agencies to arrest a certain amount of people. The figure we have heard is that they wanted 3000 arrests in this LA operation — they are at about 400.

They are targeting the lowest hanging fruit, places that a racist person would imagine you could find undocumented or improperly documented immigrants, specifically Hispanic and Latino communities, or places where there might be day labourers doing under-the-table work such as Home Depots, car washes, restaurants and other places of work. They are focussing on public areas where they do not need a warrant or permission to just scoop people up and go. 

The big difference between this and the Joe Biden administration is the shock and awe visual element. Seeing armed FBI agents in armoured vehicles come down and forcibly push everyone out so they can round up a couple dozen people is designed to send a message to the communities that they are attacking.

Homeland Security has been placing ads on TV and radio that say “If you are undocumented, we will find you and we will deport you.” They are picking up any random brown person they see on the streets to meet their quota.

The Trump administration claims it is targeting “hardened criminals and drug traffickers” and people who aid and abet them, but also acknowledge there will be “collateral” arrests of other people around. They treat anybody who is improperly documented in any form as the exact same criminality, and therefore need for arrest and deportation. If you’ve been here for 30 years and simply do not have the right papers, you are just as bad as a murderer or a human trafficker to them. 

I do not think the Democrats take the same approach, even though their policies are inhumane as well and they keep the same systems up and running. 

Huerta and other unionists have been targeted in these raids. Palestine solidarity activists and students have also been arrested and threatened with deportation. What does this reveal about Trump’s agenda? 

This is slowly turning into a similar spectacle as the crackdown on Palestine solidarity activists. Right now they are trying to lump in organised labour and immigrant rights groups with what they see as “agitators”, such as socialists and protesters. 

Huerta was basically observing an ICE raid and they are charging him with “conspiracy to impede an officer” — a felony that could result in up to six years in prison for doing what the RRN has been doing for years. 

This feels more like a Red Scare-esque crackdown on dissent, though not as coherent. 

A federal prosecutor was quoted in the LA Times saying: “We know that unions were there [at the protests], we know that officials and organisers were there, and we will identify you, find you and get you.” This has been a repeated message from the federal government. 

Even as we talk right now, one of the Senate’s subcommittees is trying to subpoena the PSL, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the Union del Barrio to make them show all of their communications from November 2024 to now and cease and desist aiding and abetting the protesters. 

The media and politicians are pushing this idea of “good” and “bad” protesters, just like they did during the BLM protests. But the Trump administration does not care about that distinction; it considers them all as “bad” and worth prosecuting. 

Are there protests against ICE and deportations happening elsewhere? Is there potential for this to grow into a national movement?

We are starting to see it begin to spread as it is clear that the Trump administration is not letting up in trying to make an example of LA and the political leadership here. California is a Democrat supermajority state, so the Republicans are using LA as a flashpoint.

There is a potential for it to spread as Trump exacerbates the situation.

The National Guard being called in without the state governor’s permission is unprecedented. The last time it happened was during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, when they were sent to desegregate schools. This is a massive overreach on the federal level that, separately from the protests spreading, could lead to a constitutional crisis for us. 

If the protests spread there will be major suppression and the cycle will continue. I have hope that the movement will spread, but the fear I have is that they will use what the Democrats did to prosecute the January 6 rioters — using photos and videos, social media posts and geolocating data — to identify and arrest people down the line. 

However there will be continued pushback as time goes on. 

Any final comments?

Follow what left-wing groups and outlets are saying, including our publication The Call, and on the ground reporting on social media. If you only look at the corporate media’s coverage you will get a skewed view of what is happening.