The anti-people measures announced by the Trump regime in US are facing vigorous opposition from all sections of the working people, across the US. People from all walks of life, from different nationalities and social backgrounds, young and old, irrespective of political affiliation, are coming forward in broad and united actions.
Major protests have been held opposing the Trump administration’s immigration rules, which are implemented by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE is a government agency that enforces federal laws governing border control, customs and immigration. In more than 21 actions, the government has moved to overhaul parts of the immigration system, including how migrants are processed and deported from the US. Mass deportation, raids on businesses, schools, hospitals and churches have all created heightened insecurity among immigrants. Border patrol agents have been instructed to turn people away without granting them asylum hearings. Before the order, migrants were able to arrive at the US border and had the legal right to seek asylum.
People are also protesting against the contentious proposal by the administration, to deny citizenship to children of migrants who are born in the US. This is in violation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which established the principle of citizenship as a birthright for anyone born in the country.
On 3 February, students in several universities staged walk-outs, demanding that ICE be abolished. Workers joined the protests, and many small businesses closed down in support of the rights of immigrant and refugee communities.
There is mass opposition to the destruction of government jobs and cutbacks in public services. In the name of cutting down wasteful government expenditure, a newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by the billionaire Elon Musk, has fired thousands of federal employees. It has warned several government offices to plan for “large-scale reductions in force”. It has frozen trillions of dollars of federal grant funds for various social programs.
Under the slogan “NO to attacks on our rights!”, united actions are being held, to defend the rights of workers, students, immigrants, refugees, trans persons, and others, as well as to defend the jobs of government employees and the right of people to public education and health care. Various forms of popular protest are being adopted, including demonstrations, walkouts, protest marches to the US Congress, petitions, meetings, webinars, lawsuits, etc.
On 5 February, the “50501 Movement” took place, in which simultaneous protest actions were held in 50 cities, 50 states on one single day.
On 17 February, which is a public holiday in honour of past presidents, more than 75 actions were held in cities in every state under the banner “Not My President’s Day.” This was a clear rejection of the Trump presidency.
The demands – ‘No to Oligarchy!’, ‘No to Deportations!’, ‘Defend the Working Class!’ – are being raised loud and clear in these mass protest actions.
Students, parents, and school officials from New York to Texas and California are organizing “Know Your Rights” seminars to guide people on how not to talk to ICE officials or let them into schools, hospitals or churches, illegally without warrants. Rapid Response Teams are being organized to intervene and protect those targeted.
On the University campuses, faculty, staff, and students are protesting against ICE and in defence of pro-Palestine students being targeted. High school students and teachers have been holding walk-outs, almost daily in some places such as Los Angeles.
More than 60 lawsuits have been filed, with many successfully securing injunctions to block the government orders. Federal workers have filed lawsuits rejecting their layoffs. Immigrant rights organizations and legal organisations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have filed lawsuits against Trump’s order to rescind the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. Four judges have so far blocked the order concerning citizenship, even as the big monopoly capitalists backing Trump’s orders have said they will ignore court rulings.
Lawsuits have also been filed seeking to block the illegal detentions and seizures being carried out by ICE. Among these is a lawsuit blocking the forcible sending of people to the concentration camp at Guantánamo, on Cuban territory, where Trump is planning a 30,000-bed prison outside legal purview.
The National Parents Union has condemned the permission given to the ICE and law enforcement agencies to enter schools and arrest students. The University of California Student Association has sued the US Department of Education, accusing the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) of illegally accessing “sensitive personal and financial information” of about 42 million students who have taken federal student loans. Similar suits have been filed against the Treasury Department and DOGE for hacking into massive personal databases.
Doctors for America filed a lawsuit opposing the removal of a broad range of health-related data that is much needed by health care workers and researchers. The federal judge ordered Health and Human Services, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to restore their websites and datasets. Several states have legally challenged the withdrawal of funds already approved, such as from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The US government under Trump is at present greatly intensifying the deployment of its security forces at the borders with Canada and Mexico, in the name of ‘securing its borders’. People on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border are actively protesting against the detention camps, deportations, and militarization of their cities.
Intense efforts are being made to strengthen the police forces. The FBI and the CIA are being unified and restructured, in order to carry out the presidential dictates more effectively. The FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents are working in coordination with ICE, under unified command, to carry out inhuman repression including extra-judicial killings and torture .
People across the country have been demanding that the FBI and intelligence agencies be removed from their communities and organizations. People are coming to realise that the existing institutions of the state and the Constitution do not defend the interests of the broad masses of people. The demand is being raised for the people themselves to organize to defend their communities rather than depending on the police and state agencies.
Throughout the US, from north to south and east to west, people are calling out for a fundamentally different form of democracy and economy that serve their interests, not the interests of the billionaire capitalists.