As the government continues to try and impose a dictatorship, an uprising is getting under way in America in response. The resistance is characterized by people recognizing their common humanity and coming together. As one speaker at a recent Chicago rally said, “We must protect one another, show up for one another and never forget that none of us are free until we all are free.”
The resistance takes many forms – marches, demonstrations, occupations, disruptions, lawsuits, social media posts, exposes by independent media, communities coming together to defend themselves, coalitions being built, and unions, veterans, faith communities and other groups stepping forward. People of many colors and cultures and all walks of life are uniting in their common defense. They are reacting to the Trump regime’s overt racism, its support for genocide, and to many other attacks, including the assaults on constitutional rights, on our livelihoods, on our already frayed social safety net, and on immigrants.
The invasions of our cities by masked unidentified men and soldiers, and the abductions, detentions and deportations of immigrants in particular has touched a nerve. It is immoral to treat people this way, and millions of people understand that the abductions and the increasingly militarized policing of the cities is designed to pave the way for a full-blown dictatorship. Resistance to these invasions has been strong in a number of cities, particularly Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Below are excerpts from some leaders of resistance efforts in Chicago who offered their thoughts in public remarks during demonstrations and press conferences held Sept. 6.
Veronica Castro, deputy director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: We have a federal government that, instead of supporting our community, is using its vast resources to hurt us.
We see this with the use of masked, vigilante ICE agents, stalking people at the domestic violence courthouse. We saw just this morning, they chased someone down at a supermarket while they were out shopping with their family. We have seen and heard from our allies in DC and California about what the authoritarian playbook looks like. And now they are bringing it here into our streets, our neighborhoods, and even our celebrations. When they threaten us during the time of one of our city’s largest celebrations of heritage, the Mexican Independence Day parade, they’re sending a message that no space is safe. No moment of joy is beyond their reach. These attacks are not just on individuals. They are attacks on who we are as a city and on the communities that make Chicago vibrant and strong. They are concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a few while tapping into white supremacist prejudices and fears to scapegoat our communities and distract us from them robbing us. But we aren’t here to just name what’s happening. We are here to show what we are going to do about it.
We’re going to stand united with our neighbors, immigrants, Black folks, all the people of Chicago, right? And right now, our rapid response teams are out informing our communities about their rights and fighting tooth and nail to ensure that civil due process is upheld. Our job right now is to take to the streets, defend our spaces, and keep each other safe. Uniting in solidarity, educating our community and resisting together – this is how we defend our home. And we won’t stop until ICE and Trump are out of our neighborhoods, our city, our state. Because we keep us safe.
Kobi Guillory, one of the co-chairs of the Chicago Coalition Against the Trump Agenda: We are a coalition that is as diverse and as powerful as this crowd that is in front of me today. We are a coalition that understands that we cannot accept what the Trump administration is saying about our city. We cannot accept the divide and conquer rhetoric that calls our neighbors criminals, that calls our siblings illegal, that calls our cousins terrorists.
And we understand that solidarity is our shield right now. When there are troops coming here to attack our Black and Brown children, we have to fight. We have to stand up together and we have to fight because we cannot hide our heads in the sand. We cannot wait for them to come for someone else. We cannot wait for them to come for us before we start getting involved. We have to stand out and we have to fight back. And that is why we are fighting for more funding for education, for more funding for healthcare, for more funding for housing. And we know based on our experience here in Chicago, based on the experience of other Black-led cities in this country, that when you invest in people, that is how the city becomes more safe. When you invest in more and more police, when you invest in more and more prisons, in concentration camps like that Alligator Alcatraz, when you invest in that, everything becomes less safe.
Daniel Lakemacher, member of About Face: Veterans Against the War: I’m a US Navy veteran who was in from 2005 to 2009, and I’m a member of About Face: Veterans Against the War since 2009. …First to the National Guard and to all military members: You are not alone….[You have the right to conscientious objection], to object to your participation in the military in the present moment…Conscientious objection is only one option. It is not enough for this present moment. That is why we are emphasizing the need for all of us to come together and demand a right to refuse so that every member of the military has the right to refuse their participation in any operation that they believe is unjust or immoral….You are not alone in questioning whether it’s moral, just, right or in this case even legal to follow these orders [to deploy to Chicago]. And perhaps most importantly, you will not be alone in refusing orders that violate your conscience.
Governor Pritzker, you made that statement as commander in chief of the Illinois National Guard, calling these orders illegal. Back up your words with actions by directing the Illinois National Guard not to report, to refuse these orders. Use the resources of the state to support at the individual level any guards person that refuses….make Illinois a sanctuary state for any member of the military that is refusing orders that you are calling illegal. Make this state a safe haven for not only the Illinois National Guard, but any other member of the military who refuses to deploy against civilians domestically in our cities.
Lastly, I have a message for our local communities here in Chicago and across the state. The National Guard in Illinois, they live in our neighborhoods. They’re members of our community. Reach out to them, encourage them as the neighbors, family and friends that they are to you, to do what is right. Support them in knowing that they will not be alone. Tell them that they have a duty to refuse this attempted invasion of our communities.
Aaron Hughes, member of About Face: Veterans Against the War: I served in the Illinois Army National Guard from 2000 to 2006. I was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait 2003-2004…. To military members, to members of the National Guard: You have the right and the duty to refuse illegal orders. You have the right to apply for conscientious objection. Contact the military law task force for support. Their number is 619-463-2369. Contact the GI Rights hotline for support at 877-497-4487. Contact About Face: Veterans Against the War – you can use the secure link, bit.ly/milrights.
Governor Pritzker has to show up for these National Guard members. They cannot be left alone. We as a community need to let them know that we will stand with them in exercising their rights in refusing these illegal, immoral, unjust orders. And we must go beyond that. Because in the end, it’s not just about what’s legal and illegal, it’s about what’s right. And deploying troops to oppress people here or abroad is wrong. And we have an obligation to stand up and support those service members that know that, that speak out and resist. And that’s what we’re calling on our fellow Chicagoans, our community members in Illinois, to do, and support the spectrum of resistance, support service members standing up and speaking their truth.
It is important to remember for all those activists out there that the Trump administration is enacting a counter-insurgency war on the people. He is enacting a war on workers, a war on migrants, a war on veterans in dismantling the VA, a war on education. And we need to support all forms of resistance. And it’s important to remember that those that are targeted by these actions, those communities that are targeted are the same communities that are recruited into the military.
Pastor Francisco “Paco” Amador, of New Life Community Church: I am a pastor in the immigrant community of Little Village in Chicago. I want to say to every single one of you on behalf of our community, thank you for standing with us. We sense your love and we sense your care for people who might be your neighbors nearby or your neighbors far away from you. Every single immigrant is a human. Every single immigrant has every single right to have their families stay together. Jesus said blessed are all those of you who are hungry and thirsty for justice. We are standing on these words right now, because we’re together saying we want justice. We say in Spanish “aqui estamos y no nos vamos” – we are here and we are not leaving.
Breanna Champion of the Illinois Black Voter Project: Whose side are we on? We’re on the freedom side. Just as we were when Officer Dante Servin murdered our beloved community member Rekia Boyd in 2012, just as we were when Rahm Emanuel closed 50 of our public schools in 2013. On the freedom side, just as we were when we demanded that our city might give its police department 40% of its budget in 2015, and just as we were when we ousted the corrupt state’s attorney Anita Alvarez for criminalizing our city’s youth in 2016. These are only but a few movement moments that have grown me as an organizer and restored my faith in what we the people are capable of when we come together and share our stories. Everyday Chicagoans have been building communities, fostering care and keeping each other safe for decades. Just this past summer, organizers from all over the city have been fighting to save public goods we’ve won, like the Carrot program, youth jobs, federal cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP and funding for our public schools and hospitals just to name a few. We know that when we invest in our community’s public health and safety, when our neighbor has a place to sleep and our children are fed, our communities are safer.
Continue fighting. Continue to keep each other safe. Know your rights when interacting with these racist, violent institutions. Know who has our back and know who doesn’t.
Viviana Barajas of Palenque LSNA: It fills my heart with great pride to stand in solidarity with people from all walks of life tonight. It has been months of these shock and awe games. News cycle after news cycle alerting us to the latest threat Donald and his cronies are making against our rights. In my community, this has resulted in parents preparing for worst case scenarios should they be detained and their children be orphaned. Take a moment to think about what preparation for that might feel like. This summer we at Palenque, alongside other Northwest partners, have also been trying our best to avoid having to cancel cultural community events by adding security teams specifically on the lookout for ICE. And other organizations throughout the city have had to make the difficult decision to cancel their activities. We still have small businesses struggling to stay open because people are afraid to go out. So whether there is a visible federally militarized deployment in our streets or not, our communities are still experiencing state sanctioned trauma as a result of this orchestrated fear campaign.
And these issues aren’t unique to Chicago. Aurora, Skokie, Joliet and Wheaton among other collar county suburbs are still struggling. It’s exhausting, it’s infuriating and sincerely heartbreaking because all of it is by design. This administration’s latest sinister tactic of terrorizing our communities by siccing the National Guard against its own people like they have done in LA is yet another waste of our taxpayer dollars. I’m talking about $1.6 million a day. But if Trump thinks these frivolous theatrics to undermine our sovereignty will shut out the passion we have for protecting our people, this is Chicago and he is sorely mistaken. We have been studying LA and DC, and they have stood up for their cities and have led with joyful resistance in community building. And today’s demonstration demonstrates that we here in Chicago will do the same.
Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director of Live Free Illinois: This administration has waged war on anybody in this country who is a threat to white supremacy. As we stand in this moment today fighting for our loved ones, we are also literally standing in a moment where we are fighting about whether justice, equity and freedom will live or die in this generation. Trump has spent billions on federal guards in the militarization of our communities, pouring money into weapons and intimidation instead of investing in schools, hospitals, jobs and housing. He has stripped out the vital resources meant to help us live, only to use them to try to break our spirits. But somebody tell him, like Beyonce say, you won’t break my soul. Let me remind you God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a power, a love and a sound mind. Power to fight back, power to win, love to bind us together and a sound mind to keep us clear, focused and unshaken in the struggle for what is right.
We cannot fight this alone. We have to lock arms and resist evil head on because this is pure evil. And we must remember Jesus himself was an immigrant. The son of God knew what it was to be displaced, to flee violence and to live under empire. And if Jesus was the immigrant, then we know without a doubt that God is on the side of the oppressed, the vulnerable and all fighting for freedom today.
There’s a song that I like to sing. It says “I need you. You need me. We are all a part of God’s body.” It is God’s will that every need be supplied. You are important to me. I need you to survive. The truth is that song is more than just a melody. It is our marching orders. We are bound together in this struggle. We must protect one another, show up for one another and never forget that none of us are free until we all are free.
Omar Flores, with the Immigrant Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression: I wanted to talk a little bit about why Trump is here in Chicago out of all cities. And I want to be clear he is not here because he sees opportunity in this city. He’s here because he knows that we are winning. And I’m not just saying this, we know this from experience because when ICE tried to come to Little Village when they showed up on 26th Street, the immigrants working committee ran them the fuck out our neighborhood. And we made sure they stayed out because we chased them out.
And we held a rally at Broadview [ICE Detention Center] last week and when the cops tried to tell us to leave, when ICE tried to tell us to leave, we stayed and they were forced to accept our presence. …We don’t back down. We’re not going to be canceling these festivals. We’re going to be going twice as hard for Mexican Independence Day. We have to keep up the fight. And when the Feds leave, we still have to be in the struggle. And the Immigrant Rights Working Committee, we’re continuing this fight by demanding the closure of the Broadview ICE facility. We need to shut it down. People are sleeping on concrete floors. They only have cold food. They have no access to showers on average of three days. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Aram Han Sifuentes with the HANA Center and also the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Action Council: ICE and troops don’t keep us safe, we keep us safe. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Just two days ago, DHS conducted the largest single site raid ever at the Hyundai Plant in Georgia – 475 people were kidnapped by ICE. And 300 of the people detained are South Koreans. Like many immigrants, fleeing oppression from all over the world, as Koreans, as Asian Americans, our people have lived through authoritarianism, martial law and the brutal suppression of workers and ordinary people. We have seen checkpoints, unlawful detention, and we have had our family members kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at the hands of the government. What’s happening here in the United States looks frighteningly familiar and we must name it for what it is: Another step towards totalitarianism and fascism.
This was never about public safety. We create safety when we use our tax dollars to build affordable housing, good schools, and a sustainable future for all people, not by cutting critical resources our people need for their survival to pay for enormous tax cuts for the wealthy few. This struggle is not ours alone. When immigration raids target our families, when police violence targets Black lives, when our elders and the most vulnerable lose their health coverage, when deportations tear apart immigrant communities, we are called to stand together. Our liberation is bound together. None of us are free until all of us are free. Many of us are understandably scared, angry and uncertain, and that’s exactly why we need to stand together. When we choose solidarity and joy, we build the power to defend our communities.
Nazek, with the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine and also co-chair of the Chicago chapter of the US Palestinian Community Network: Trump talked hatefully about our neighbors on the south and southwest sides of Chicago, but he doesn’t know our city. He doesn’t realize that we have always produced some of the most powerful resistance in the history of the US. Like almost a million people in the streets when resisting Sensenbrenner in 2006, and tens of thousands in the streets when fighting for justice for George Floyd in 2020 and calling for freedom for Gaza and Palestine from 2023 until today.
Major ice raids like in Georgia yesterday, in New York, Miami, New Jersey, and of course Los Angeles are political diversions from the US-funded Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza, which has murdered over 64,000 since October of 2023. Our people know all too well the daily humiliation, brutality and dehumanization that Black and Brown communities here in the US experience at the hands of law enforcement. And they face it from Israeli occupation and settler colonialism that has plagued our land for close to eight decades. And our people also know resistance as we continue fighting every day for freedom and liberation in Palestine, the Arab world, and just like Black, Brown, native and other people here in the US. …We are inspired by the steadfastness of Palestinians in Gaza and it is why we refuse to cower to Trump and his threats because we have a rich tradition of community organizing, collective people power and militant resistance in our incredible city of Chicago, where we will continue fighting for our neighbors and for our community. And I know we will win.
Bob Lee is a professional journalist, writer and editor, and is co-editor of the People’s Tribune, serving as Managing Editor. He first started writing for and distributing the People’s Tribune in 1980, and joined the editorial board in 1987.
