Resistance to ICE grows

New York City

From the orange groves of California’s Kern County to Newark’s Ocean Seafood Depot to churches, homes and hardware stores, the racist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are well underway. Thousands of immigrants have been arrested and deported. As of Jan. 29, more than 3,000 people have been detained in just the last three days.

And along with the raids, President Donald Trump shut down CPB One, the asylum app set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, leaving some 270,000 asylum applicants stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border. Congress passed the Laken Riley Act, effectively deputizing cops to be ICE agents, and Trump has declared war on birthright citizenship.

What’s already evident is the resistance that has sprung up in response, from every quarter of society — and every country. Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro’s eloquent X post shows the content of what most of humanity is thinking: a determination to resist Trump’s racist scapegoating campaign.

Activists in many cities are creating, distributing and posting Know Your Rights leaflets. On Jan. 26, Workers World Party’s New York branch turned its biweekly Socialist Discussion Group, created for the purpose of analyzing issues from a socialist perspective, into an Ice Watch training. Organizers decided that the crisis the ICE attacks posed to our class necessitated turning the analytic setting into basic training on how to respond to deportation raids.

WWP joined forces with NYC IceWatch, a project of the Immigrant Defense Project, for the meeting, which was attended by more than 50 people.

A central part of this training is knowing the protocols for using social media to report ICE raids in order to avoid false alarms, which can unnecessarily spread panic. Thus a good part of the training involved a slide presentation of the various uniforms ICE agents wear — necessary information since New York Police Department uniforms can look very similar.

Another central aspect of reporting ICE activity is the S.A.L.U.T.E. acronym, which stands for: Size/Strength, Actions/Activity, Location and Direction, Uniform/Clothes, Time and Date of Observation and Equipment and Weapons.

An example of using this acronym would be, instead of “I saw ICE agents,” or “proudboys spotted,” a better report would be: “Five ICE agents wearing dark blue coats with HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) on the back and weapons on belt, harassing construction workers on 23rd Street, 5:06 p.m. on January 22.”

Also discussed was how to respond if approached by ICE. This response involves the four Don’ts: Don’t speak; don’t show; don’t open; don’t sign.

“Don’t speak” means saying as little as possible, preferably only, “Am I free to go?” (and leaving if the answer is yes) or, if not free to leave: “I am going to remain silent. I want to speak to a lawyer.”

“Don’t show” means saying, “I do not consent to a search,” which agents cannot do legally if they don’t have a warrant.

“Don’t open” means not opening your door if ICE comes to your home. If agents claim they have a warrant, they can slide it under the door. “Don’t sign” means not signing anything without the presence of a lawyer.

Participants were also advised to lock their phones with a pin number rather than using facial recognition or a thumbprint. Also, if taking a video of a raid, harassment of migrants or any other incident, make sure to focus on those doing the harassing and not the target of the harassment.