The news came: Another person assassinated by ICE. Johan Sebastian Guererro, 26 year old father. The Boston chapter of Refuse Fascism immediately put out a call for people to go to Biddeford, Maine.
People put aside other things to get up there right away – one person even forfeited a day’s pay. A team of 4 volunteers went the next day to show our support, connect with the community there and put this ICE murder in the context of the overall fascist assault of the Trump Regime. We wanted to raise the demand “The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go Now!” and struggle with others to raise this demand as they fight against this latest horror.
The team arrived in Biddeford about 1:15. One person had taken the text of the RF email that went out Monday night and made it into a leaflet. On the drive up, people stuffed those leaflets into the trifold “America at 250” brochure with the header “Another ICE Killing: TRUMP MUST GO NOW!” peeking out of the top.
There were two vigils for Joan, one at the site of the murder and the other at a major intersection at a small nearby park. We first went to the spot where Joan was murdered. There was a memorial there and a small gathering of a few dozen people. The blood still stained the street where he was shot and killed even though, as one bystander explained, “Authorities tried to remove it with a street sweeper.” We talked to numerous people, some who came from hundreds of miles away, disgusted, angered, and wanting to do something.
Parents with their children continued to drift by laying bouquets of flowers paying their respects, explaining to their young ones why they were there, their eyes filled with anger and fear–not wanting this to happen to anyone. A neighbor of Mr. Guerrero, an older woman in a wheelchair shared, “No one should be treated like this, just gunned down, and his daughter coming down the street to see this.”
One mother with her two children, holding a sign, “ICE = NAZI SCUM See You At The Nuremberg Trials,” explained that she was at the Vigil for Mr. Guerrero “showing people that people are against these injustices and to give them the courage to stand up against this fascist regime that is the US right now.” After a discussion about what Refuse Fascism’s mission is, she quickly stated, “We need to start a chapter here.” Another young woman came up to us, asking to hold a Trump Must Go Now! placard. “These murders are being normalized. ICE is being normalized. We cannot allow this to be normalized.”
At the second vigil, we met a man holding a sign, “Veteran against ICE,” furious about what ICE is doing with the concentration camps, deportations, and murders. He told us that he is a teacher and that his immigrant students are his best students, then they disappear, never knowing why or what happened to them. Next to him was a woman who said, “I woke up to the sound of gunshots.” In tears, she pointed, “His blood is right there!” She went on to say, “I am disgusted and sickened by the fact that some pro-ICE people came yesterday evening [to the initial Vigil of hundreds for Mr. Guererro] supporting ICE and some of these MAGA idiots were denying that he was even shot by ICE.” This is one indication of the “two countries within this country,” with irreconcilable sets of values and ways of thinking.
Through word of mouth we found out there was going to be a bigger demo in Portland at 6 PM. About 600 hundred of mostly younger people listened to speakers and then marched through downtown Portland, including along Commercial Street and the piers along the water, while hundreds of tourists were watching. It was refreshing to see so many younger people in the streets. We distributed about 400 flyers, and a dozen RF placards (people grabbed them at the rally, if we had had more, they would have readily been taken up) were seen throughout the march. The RF team had been out all day and were too tired to march, but we gladly took pictures as people marched by.
The main sentiment from people we talked with at the rally was that we have to “Abolish ICE.” Some people said that we cannot wait for the elections to stop ICE as they are committing crimes daily. Others connected up the different crimes this fascist regime is doing such as the bombing of Iran and the erasure of Trans people. Very few people had heard about the extreme sentences that came down on the Prairieland defendants.
The main struggle we took up with people was connecting how all of these crimes are in the context of living in fascism, that none of these outrageous atrocities are going to stop until we drive out Trump and this whole fascist regime before it is too late. That the genocidal ethnic cleansing of Black and Brown immigrants is all part of the white supremacist, male supremacist, xenophobic, Christian fundamentalist, ultra-nationalist fascist regime. That there is no living with fascism. Struggling with people between putting out the chant “Trump Must Go” and the demand “Trump Must Go NOW” with what fascism is—a different way society is run, demonstrated the lack of understanding many good people have of the reality we live in. But, most of these decent people came today seeking answers and want to act. Answers to how we stop all these crimes against humanity.
People used RF’s QR code and our 855-755-1314 number to sign up on the spot. Some asked for extra flyers to take back to their friends. We collected 10 names and look forward to the starting an RF chapter in southern Maine. As the latest RF flyer states:
THIS IS A TIME WHEN THE DEMAND: “TRUMP MUST GO NOW!” NEEDS TO BE SEEN, HEARD AND FELT EVERYWHERE.