JUNE 8TH, 2025
Trump has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out a massive show of force across the country, ramping up the mass deportation campaign and triggering mass spontaneous protests against them.
They’ve rounded up at least 1200 people in the last three days. In LA, at least 64 people have been arrested at three different ICE raids, including the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), David Huerta! Raids and protests are happening in Paramount and Santa Ana as we write this.
In response to the raids and LAPD helping with them, Mayor Karen Bass said “To me when these things happen it sows a sense of terror in the community… I’m outraged at what happened.”
We have a few questions. If they’re so outraged, why aren’t LA’s “progressive” politicians putting their bodies on the line to block ICE vehicles like some Chicago aldermen did? If Karen Bass is so outraged, why did she deploy hundreds of riot police to smash the protests with tear gas, flash bands, batons and rubber bullets? If LA is a “sanctuary city”, why is LAPD helping ICE raids go smoothly and stopping residents from confronting the feds?
WE DEMAND Karen Bass direct LAPD to arrest the ICE kidnappers and deport them back to Idaho!
Masses of people poured out into the street for spontaneous protests against the new ICE kidnappings. Some of these protests went beyond business as usual, with locals have put their bodies on the line to obstruct the Feds’ vans, with one man being run over by the Feds for this disobedience, and the protest we were at teargassed for it. People have thrown eggs at ICE and blocked them and even “hurled chunks of broken concrete toward officers” (Reuters). The feds used tear gas and flashbangs throughout the night against the masses and DtS members.
Fuck downtown do-nothing peaceful marches! Stand with the rebels confronting the feds and disrupting business as usual!
The Left was almost entirely absent at the early morning spontaneous protests. PSL, CHIRLA and other opportunist hacks called a press conference at city hall in an attempt to divert the protest wave into their typical lame peace-policed marches. Despite the Left’s best efforts to stop it, the youth were the leading edge of the protests, showing a level of militancy, passion, fearlessness and tirelessness completely absent from the Leftist misleadership.
At night, when the cops had started kenneling protestors and rioting in the streets, the Leftist all packed their bags and went home, leaving the masses in the streets to face the pigs alone. Despite this, energetic protests continued past midnight. With a few people and a bullhorn, Dare to Struggle managed to lead dozens of people in confronting LAPD and the Feds throughout the night, walking miles around downtown and taking over intersections. This goes to show how much even relatively small groups of protestors can accomplish with even a little bit of actual leadership.
Despite the spirit of defiance, there are tendencies holding people back from doing what needs to be done. Many people shyed away from directly confronting the militarized riot police and obstructing their operations, letting these paper tigers’ intimidation tactics work. Last night, we found that when we led people to stand up to the cops and the Feds who were trying to shut us down, we could make the pigs speed off with their tails between their legs and take back the streets.
There were people out passing out “Know Your Rights” red cards while the Feds were illegally occupying the street. There were anarchist supersoldiers in black bloc who were standing around doing nothing. One protestor said on the megaphone that everything would be fine once the Democrats get reelected in four years. Most protestors shied away from confronting the Feds. Often, far more people were on their phones recording than actually protesting. Seriously, stop recording history and start making history!
There are people ready to move, looking for direction. We heard from one protestor who said “we want you to lead us”. What’s missing is an organized force prepared to take these protests to the next level.
By actually confronting LAPD and the Feds, challenging their legitimacy and their power, we showed that these low-down hooligans are nothing to be afraid of. These paper tigers got an earful of sirens and insults, projectiles and kicks to their cars, and multiple times they scrammed. They had fingers on the triggers of their riot guns, but we called their bluff, saying that if they wanted to shoot protestors point blank with rubber bullets, they may as well get started, since it wasn’t going to stop us.
People who are outraged at the deportations and the repression have to make a choice: will they continue to do what’s comfortable, trailing behind the masses of protestors, and accept the misleadership of the Left? Or will they step up, take leadership of these protests, and push them to the next level? Are people ready to do what it takes to smash the mass deportation machine?
The only way we are going to smash the deportation machine is to organize the masses in struggle against their oppressors. If you’re ready to step up, come to the Dare to Struggle national conference this week.
Dare to Struggle 