By Daniel, Refuse Fascism volunteer
We are in an emergency situation. Refuse Fascism is calling on people across the country to break with business as usual and launch, beginning Monday July 28, weekly noise demos declaring Shut Down ICE! Shut Down the Whole Trump Fascist Regime!
The goal is disruptive, visible, growing acts of mass noncompliance that confront the fascist program and help build momentum toward the kind of mass nonviolent resistance needed to drive the Trump regime from power.
With immigrants dying living in hellish internment camps that we wouldn’t send our PETS to, we CAN NO LONGER treat our current catastrophe as just another day, just business as usual.
But what does it mean to act as if this isn’t BUSINESS AS USUAL, to act as if ICE IS COMMITTING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, to act as if the TRUMP FASCIST REGIME MUST GO NOW? We can take great hope in the following courageous defenses, both big and small, of human rights and dignity.
Youth baseball coach Youman Wilder from New York noticed local ICE agents interrogating his players during practice. The coach intervened, telling the agents, “This is inappropriate to ask these children anything. …I’m going to have them implement their Fifth Amendment rights and not say anything to you.”
After that confrontation, the agents continued their interrogations, but got no further information, and ultimately left. It was thanks to this coach’s courageous stand that his players avoided a potentially fatal confrontation with ICE!
Another selfless example comes from a national immigrant activist group known as Union del Barrio. Specifically, ICE and law enforcement were gathering in an Alhambra, CA Target parking lot, scheming to detain immigrants in the area.
However, local members of Union del Barrio reported witnessing ICE cars in that parking lot, and a rapid response team arrived, demanding that ICE agents leave the area immediately. Although one Union del Barrio member was arrested, ultimately ICE agents left without disappearing a single immigrant. Union del Barrio’s courage, conviction, rapid nonviolent action, and their willingness to sacrifice to protect immigrants under threat successfully overwhelmed ICE’s ability to violate people’s rights.
A final example are volunteer organizations operating nationwide that safely escort immigrants to private exits in immigration courthouses following court hearings. As you might know, ICE agents have been lying in wait outside immigration courts to ambush and disappear immigrants engaging with the asylum process LEGALLY. These collective efforts, not without risk (see Brad Lander, New York City escort arrested for “obstructing detention” of an immigrant), have allowed countless asylum seekers to evade ICE’s grasp!
These brave acts, not without risk of arrest or doxxing, were performed by individuals who recognized that we are in a DIRE fascist moment, one that calls for decisive action and strong moral leadership BY THE PEOPLE, FOR ALL PEOPLE.
These examples should inspire you. In the first two examples, these were not planned acts of defiance but people rising against the threat directly posed to be peoples rights and lives. They are right and righteous and this needs to turn into not a few people we can list but thousands and thousands, a mass movement of people following that lead. Join your local Refuse Fascism organization on July 28th, August 1st, and every week after, to deliver a critical message to the country: IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, TRUMP MUST GO NOW!