DETROIT—Over a hundred people rallied at Clark Park in Southwest Detroit Tuesday to protest the fascistic Trump administration and its mass deportation program targeting immigrant workers, their families, and its threats to uproot entire working-class communities. Students and teachers at Western International High School across the street staged a walk-out and joined in the rally.
“We are walking out today in support of immigration rights. Many students in our schools are directly impacted by Trump’s policies,” Kristen Schoettle, an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher at the high school and member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers Local 231, told People’s World.
“We need union members involved in this struggle. We are also being attacked” by the Trump administration’s assaults on public education “and it’s important to combine our struggles as teachers with our students here today.”
Alyssa Avila grew up in this neighborhood just a couple blocks away from the rally. She came to the People’s Assembly demonstration to speak up for her family, her neighbors, and the entire community who can’t speak up for themselves out of fear, she told People’s World.
“We’re here and we’re not going to leave,” she said. “I am a citizen. I am American, and I am also Mexican. Our country is for all people.”
The rally drew support from organizations of all types—community, labor, peace, non-profit, social justice, and faith groups. There were flags of various countries flying as well, including those of Mexico, Cuba, Palestine, and the United States.
“Our families have rightly felt that we’re under attack, surveilled, and threatened for just existing, going to work, and living our lives,” declared a statement from the People’s Assembly, a new Detroit coalition formed in the wake of Trump’s re-election.
Bringing together a variety of organizations and community groups in Southwest Detroit, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, the People’s Assembly has been at the forefront of defending immigrants and organizing the community response to Trump’s “largest deportation operation in history.”
The demonstrators at Clark Park demanded an end to all racist and discriminatory attacks against the immigrant community and the right to live and work in peace. “We’re here and we’re not leaving!” they chanted.
Jay Makled, Financial Secretary of United Auto Workers Local 600, told People’s World that the issue of immigrant rights is very important to the auto workers in Southwest Detroit.
“The Trump administration has divided families, and workers are running around scared every single day when they don’t have to. Local 600 stands with the community—they do not stand alone.”
Marcel Ulacia, a member of the Detroit Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, told People’s World that they mobilized for the People’s Assembly because “we need to connect with the grassroots—where the people are—in order to build a popular front against fascism.”
“As residents of the neighborhood, we’ve witnessed a tense atmosphere following the election of Donald Trump,” Noelle Belanger, a member of GEOC-AFT Local 6123 said. “The increased presence of Border Patrol and ICE has caused anxiety and stress in a majority of the people here—with and without papers.”
Further tragedy struck the neighborhood when, on Feb. 17, a 54-inch steel water transmission line, built in the 1930s, exploded and caused massive structural damage to residences and businesses. The incident left upwards of 650 people displaced from their homes and forced into hotels.
This put the community at greater risk, the People’s Assembly said, especially the Spanish-speaking residents and those already skeptical of city and state intervention.
“The community here has stepped up and responded much more quickly and effectively than either the city or Great Lakes Water Authority,” Josh Medina, a People’s Assembly organizer and member of Teamsters Local 243, told People’s World. “We are fighting to demand accountability and reparations from those responsible for this disaster.”
While the city has apparently assured residents that disaster relief and assistance is the primary focus and that officers are not focused on immigration enforcement, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan went on record emphasizing that Detroit is “not a sanctuary city” and that local authorities will cooperate with ICE and the Trump administration on immigration.
“Our own government is threatening us!” Detroit City Councilmember Gabriel Santiago-Romero said to a packed house at a community event in Southwest Detroit earlier this year. “It is making us all suffer!”
On the front line in the fight to resist the second Trump administration, particularly its racist anti-immigrant attacks, are not just activists, but everyday working people—at schools, hospitals, and on the job, Santiago-Romero said.
The fears of deportation and the overall climate of fear have caused many to miss school, and some workers have stopped showing up to work, anxious that a simple traffic stop or visit from ICE could lead to their detainment and deportation.
“There is a real impact in our community when we only have enforcement, criminalization, and militarization in our neighborhoods,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib said last month at a press conference in Southwest Detroit. “We’re getting calls all the time from nonprofit leaders, saying ‘We’re doing this work at a school. Should we stop?’
“You absolutely should not stop,” she said. “Continue to serve this beautiful community that continues to show up for all of us over and over again.”
Ken Whittaker, Executive Director at Michigan United Action, said that the Trump administration’s agenda is class warfare, “plain and simple.”
“Every member of Michigan’s multi-racial working class must join this movement. We need to organize, mobilize, and demand a government that puts communities over corporations. The billionaire class is counting on us to stay quiet—we won’t.”
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