Revolutionary Strategy for Immigrant Defense

The situation for immigrants and their defenders is getting worse. Overall, workers are either paralyzed by fear of Trump and ICE or generally supportive of the mass deportations as a “solution” for creating more jobs and higher pay. The latter illusion is especially prevalent in the trucking industry, construction trades and other blue-collar jobs. An April 2026 Harvard/Harris poll found that 55 percent of respondents favored “deporting all immigrants who are here illegally” even while the approval rating of Trump and ICE hovered around 40 percent.

Liberal politicians and union bureaucrats are responsible for the passivity of workers in the face of ICE terror. They tell workers to wait for salvation in the courts and the November midterms. In Minnesota, the union bureaucrats sabotaged the potential for independent labor defense against ICE. This is a fact that most of the left covers up. Across the country, liberal Democrats—such as Newark mayor Ras Baraka, New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill, Brandon Johnson of Chicago and L.A.’s Karen Bass—posture as defenders of immigrants while deploying their cops to serve as auxiliary troops to ICE agents. These cops arrest protesters, contain demonstrations and clear the streets. We can expect more repression off-camera in the future.

Revolutionaries should seek every opportunity to expose the liberals’ and the bureaucrats’ crimes. The liberals and the bureaucrats are enablers of the racist scapegoating of immigrants by Republicans and the far right. They are the main enforcers of working-class passivity. Keep in mind that even conservative workers will hear you out if you clearly distinguish yourself from the liberals at the outset.

White nationalism and racist terrorism are weapons of the U.S. ruling class to cripple labor, especially in times of crisis. White nationalism permeates the White House; it has been wielded in recruitment posters for the paramilitary-style ICE forces and will continue to be the main weapon to redirect workers’ anger away from the bourgeoisie. We have seen Klan-like activity in the South recently, including the June 18 discovery of the body of a 27-year-old black woman hanging from a tree in Miami. The family firmly rejects the Sheriff’s Office finding of suicide. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security are trying to burn into workers’ minds the idea that antifascist equals domestic terrorist. It is important to address the reality of white nationalism today and the fear it evokes in order to provide effective arguments against reliance on Democrats and liberals.

With the slow-motion train wreck of the Trump administration, far-right populists have stepped into the void of leadership. Fascist Nick Fuentes is telling his supporters to vote Democratic in order to “purge” the Republican Party. He is also telling them to arm themselves and organize with “like-minded people,” such as cops and local businessmen. He says that Trump is not carrying out real mass deportations. Whether the future will see a bonapartist (authoritarian) state or more fascist pogroms or something else, we can’t be sure. However, we can expect the general trend to be a shift further to the right, even if the Democrats sweep the midterms and DSA candidates get elected in New York.

The DSA and other left groups have ensured that, in the eyes of workers, socialism is indistinguishable from the old liberal Democratic Party status quo. Mamdani, AOC and Sanders are what many workers understand as socialism. Most of the left sabotages class-struggle defense against racist attacks; they do this by liberal utopian moralizing for open borders and labeling as a “racist” any worker who questioned Biden’s immigration policies. Fighting for immigrant defense under liberal banners only undermines the struggle.

Revolutionaries must offer a class-struggle strategy to prevent the capitalists from using U.S.-born workers as a club against immigrants—and vice versa. The starting point is acknowledging workers’ frustrations and explaining the game the bourgeoisie plays with them. The capitalist class increases or decreases the supply of labor depending on its needs for exploitation.

For example, many truckers were driven out of the industry due to the 2020-21 Covid economic shutdown and costly environmental retrofits to their trucks. In December 2021, Biden’s “Trucking Action Plan” expedited the issuance of Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) and facilitated the recruitment of drivers among immigrants, women and the formerly incarcerated (i.e., more vulnerable populations who face pressure to demand less from bosses). The relative labor surplus resulted in cutthroat competition at humiliating load rates. Low pay, overtime-fueled sleep deprivation and lack of union training also caused safety hazards on the roads. Along came Trump in 2025, driving tens of thousands of immigrant truckers out of the industry. He claimed this purge led to better pay and more jobs for American truckers. In the absence of revolutionary leadership, Trump stepped into the vacuum to offer a false way out to a workforce that was furious about what the Democrats had done to them.

Workers have no control over the imperialists’ immigration policy, but they do have a choice whether to fight for the maximum unity of labor or the bosses’ racist divide-and-conquer strategy that defeats labor every time.

Our perspective for maximum unity includes the following: 1) organize immigrants into the unions, including by eliminating racist requirements for union membership like Social Security numbers and “English-only” certification tests; 2) fight for full citizenship rights for all immigrants so that bosses can’t use deportation threats to undermine organizing and other union struggles; and 3) fight for union control of safety and training, as well as translations of contracts, tests, and safety manuals into workers’ languages.

But labor cannot lift a heavy object if it has not flexed a muscle. Abstract calls to defend immigrants against ICE can fall on deaf ears or seem unreal to workers. Seek out small, specific and local immigrant defense cases to begin flexing labor’s muscle. Cases that hit close to home—e.g., the targeting of a fellow union member or ICE repression near a worksite—have propelled workers into action because the workers were personally affected and saw democratic rights getting shredded firsthand. Minnesota residents felt compelled to act in large part because they knew detainees and personally experienced the repression and terror.

Remember that most workers refuse to be activists in this period. This may change. But for now, many fear being blackballed if they even sign a petition. Think outside the box to get workers involved in immigrant defense in ways that are not too far outside their comfort zone. Contributing to a workplace collection and signing a solidarity card are just two options for workers to take a stand that carry minimal risk of getting fired.

It is necessary to explain to workers that assaults on immigrants and “outside protesters” today are target practice for assaults on unions tomorrow. This is a more powerful motivator than Christian charity or liberal arguments that they should welcome all immigrants. Workers don’t have to first morally regenerate in order to fight racist attacks. They need to be convinced that an injury to one is an injury to all.