In light of ongoing struggles against ICE raids in Los Angeles and across the United States, it should be stated plainly and clearly what we are all witnessing: this is not immigration policy, but a campaign of terrorism by the federal government against Latino working-class people.

President Donald Trump will likely sell his first year back in office as one that saw the “best” and “biggest” mass deportations out of any other president in U.S. history. In the absence of data regularly released to the public and amid greatly reduced numbers of people coming across the southern border, some estimates suggest deportations this year will fall well below Trump’s promise of 1 million per year, though immigration detention has certainly been ramped up.

But this is not a numbers game. This is about striking fear into the hearts of working-class people.

When a worker is constantly looking over their shoulder for plain clothes officers and unmarked vehicles, do they have the confidence to stand on a picket line? When workers are constantly on edge that ICE agents could break into their home at any moment, do they have the energy and confidence to organize at the job site?

This isn’t about having the largest mass deportation event in history. It’s MAGA terrorists signaling they can deport whoever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want, and not even the unanimous opposition of the Supreme Court can sway them.

Trump wants to make an example out of Latino and immigrant workers, and send a message to other workers about the consequences of stepping out of line.

Driven by circumstance, immigrants of all backgrounds have historically worked jobs that naturalized citizens typically wouldn’t accept — jobs with poor safety conditions, low pay, little benefits, and long hours. These low wages and lack of protections on the job, made possible by reduced access to legal protections for a section of the working class, lower the bar for workers across the board. The last thing Trump and his billionaire gang want is for immigrants to get the notion they can struggle for better working conditions. His administration wants to make an example out of Latino and immigrant workers, and send a message to other sections of the working class of the potential consequences of stepping out of line.

The violent ICE raids are egregious attacks on the rights of all working-class people. Trump and his billionaire gang want nothing more than to repeal the democratic reforms of the 20th century. Trump has openly praised the so-called “Gilded Age” of the late 19th century — which were the Jim Crow decades preceding World War I.

But if the people of Los Angeles have shown us anything, it’s that the U.S. working class will not take these anti-democratic assaults sitting down and we aren’t going back without a fight.

To echo a statement from the CPUSA’s International Department: resistance is active against Trump and the MAGA agenda. Trump’s policies are intended to create flashpoints that would, in his view, justify further deployments of the National Guard and U.S. troops to effectively turn this country into a full-blown police state. The recent attacks in Los Angeles and elsewhere are part of a wider effort by the MAGA movement to instill an open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most militaristic elements of finance capital here in the United States.

We all must recognize and proclaim Trump’s anti-democratic attacks as a campaign of terrorism against working-class people — immigrants and citizens alike — and we must pressure our local and state governments to cease all cooperation with ICE.

Trump’s global concentration camp scheme

We must also do more to publicly denounce Nayib Bukele, the ultra right president of El Salvador, who is turning that country into a private prison colony for U.S. imperialism’s fascistic detention schemes. The continued operation of the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador emboldens fascists around the world and further normalizes the use of concentration camps to “solve” domestic issues. The recent removal of presidential term limits in El Salvador by Bukele’s party — and with Trump’s support — helps extend CECOT’s existence and the suffering taking place inside, and heightens the threat of the inhumane prison complex being used by the U.S. for indefinite detention. The U.S. working class must do more to demand the closure of this concentration camp and similar detainment facilities like Guantánamo Bay and Trump’s horrifically termed “Alligator Alcatraz.” The lawlessness of Trump and Bukele represent an existential threat to the legal rights of workers in the United States, El Salvador, and around the world.

It will only be through the continued pressure of a united front against fascism that we can hope to frustrate the efforts of Trump, Bukele, and their ilk.

Take action now: Shut down the concentration camps!

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Image: SEIU Loacl 721 demands the immediate release of people detained by ICE, including David Huerta, President of SEIU California and SEIU-USWW by SEIU Loacl 721 (Facebook)