It is Right to Rebel Against ICE
Originally Published: November 2025
The United States is a vast and parasitic imperialist power which can only survive through perpetually deepening the exploitation of working people and expanding its system of repressive forces. US imperialism has bloodied its hands thoroughly in Latin America in particular, with dozens of US-installed dictatorships, coup attempts, direct invasions, and more. Why is US imperialism so focused on Latin America? In the words of the imperialists themselves it is “the US’s backyard”, meaning that without Latin America there is no US imperialism. Latin America is a region incredibly rich in natural resources such as gold, diamonds, lithium, cobalt, oil, natural gases, and much more. Yet, Latin America is poor. How is this so? Imperialism suppresses the independent economic development in these countries in order to maximize the exploitation of the Latin American people. US Imperialism relies on its Latin American cronies in government to sell out their countries’ interests so the US imperialists can further enrich themselves in their eternal hunt for profit at any social and human cost. Through their economic and political domination, the imperialist ruling class in the US enforces the super-exploitation of the people of Latin America. Due to this state of perpetual poverty and war, tens of millions of Latin Americans attempt to migrate to the US, a so-called “land of opportunity”. US imperialism creates the conditions for this mass migration by plundering these countries’ natural resources, installing brutal dictatorships, and direct military intervention.
When these migrants arrive to the US they are immediately forced into the lowest wage jobs with the worst working conditions. Undocumented migrants are deprived of democratic rights, including the right to organize to fight for their daily demands, and used as
expendable cheap labor by the US imperialists. US imperialists try to pit US-born workers against the foreign-born workers, claiming that migrant workers are “stealing jobs”, when in reality the imperialists themselves create the conditions that displace these workers in their home countries. The growing wave of migration to the US is part of the general crisis of imperialism, and the migrant workers are not to blame for it.
There are over 30 million immigrant workers and around 11 million undocumented workers in the US. Most of these workers, including their children, are born in the US, and the deportation raids are increasingly indiscriminate in targeting US citizens who appear Latin American. Those who immigrate to the US from Latin America or other regions endure perilous conditions, often risking their own lives and of their families for the journey. In their attempt to reach the US, many trek long distances on foot exposed to harsh elements. They encounter predatory traffickers who take advantage of migrants, abusing them and extorting what little they have. When they finally reach the US border, a vast militarized infrastructure of checkpoints and armed patrols awaits them. These treacherous journey is by design. The ruling class in the US ensures that the border is both perilous but porous. This ensures the steady flow of a large labor force who will work for below average wages and in dangerous conditions. Construction and agriculture – among the least-regulated industries, with low pay and high worker fatality rates – have the highest number of foreign-born workers without legal documentation.
The far-right Trump administration is using increased terror to further sow fear among migrant workers. This fear serves as lever that will “discipline” migrant workers into accepting even worse working conditions and lower wages. By attacking the rights of
migrant workers the ruling class also intensifies its exploitation of the entire working class by depressing the average wages. Moreover, deportations and detentions are increasingly targeted against activists and community leaders as a method of political repression.
Brutal deportations and militarized immigration enforcement are nothing new. While the far-right Trump administration has certainly expanded the forces, capability, and audacity of ICE and other adjacent agencies, they are merely building upon the foundation of mass deportations pursued by previous administrations, Democrats and Republicans alike. The Obama administration deported the most amount of migrants in US history, around 3 million, earning him the deserved nickname of “Deporter in Chief”. The Democrats opt for the quiet approach to mass deportations, trying to deport the most people possible without causing popular outrage. Kamala Harris demanded that migrants “do not come” to the US, and promised to be “tough on the border”, following in the example of Biden who deported over 270,000 people in 2024 alone – the highest rate since 2014 under Obama. On top of this, the Democrats cynically try to harness the anger of the people and direct it to their own electoral agenda. They condemn the just and righteous fury of the people when they take to the streets and fight ICE. These sinister maneuvers cannot conceal the role that the Democratic Party has played in terrorizing immigrant workers and militarizing the border. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties are organizations of the ruling class, and US imperialism needs to exploit the third world as well as the immigrants from these countries to preserve itself and maximize profit. The two ruling-class parties may disagree over methods and tactics, but there can be no fundamental disagreement over the existence of the terroristic regime of criminalizing and policing immigrants.
The Trump administration has built upon these foundations set by previous administrations taking immigration enforcement to even further extremes. They recently allocated over $170 billion to “border and interior enforcement” for the next 4 years. Trump has stated the current rate of ICE deportations is not enough. The new goals are to hire 10,000 new ICE agents by removing age limits for recruits, and trying to lure in more with promises of student loan forgiveness up to $60,000, and sign-on bonuses up to $50,000. Military equipment companies are receiving government contracts to supply ICE with military vehicles, new weaponry, drones, surveillance technology powered by AI, and more.
Why has the Trump administration so rapidly expanded immigration detention and deportation? At first sight, the street patrols of these armed and masked police appears to be a show of force, signifying strength. In reality, it displays the ultimate weakness of US imperialism as it loses ground in its global position. The US is increasingly challenged by the other imperialist powers such as China and Russia, and the masses in the third world are rising up in greater numbers, with ever greater determination and force. Trump and the entire ruling class see the writing on the wall. Their days are numbered. Feeling the rope pulling from their hands, they tighten their grip. They are compelled to increase the exploitation in Latin America and domestically in order to preserve their enormous super- profits, and they must intensify their political repression in order to quell the resistance to these maneuvers. The recent militarist aggression and threats of invasion made against Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico are the direct counterpart to the repression and deportation of immigrants from these countries in the US. But imperialism will perish by the very hands of the working people who they force into the most destitute poverty and servitude. The ultimate objective of this repressive offensive by the ruling class is to further
depress the condition of the workers and intimidate against any resistance. This is within the broader strategic perspective of warding off the inevitable decline and fall of US imperialism. But with every deportation, with every family torn apart, with every activist detained, the ruling class only further fuels the rebellious spirit of the people.
With this rebellious spirit, the working people of this country are already taking up the fight against ICE. In LA tens of thousands took to the streets in open rebellion against the kidnappings tearing apart their neighborhoods, seriously hindered ICE’s ability to operate in the city. While the Democrats and career “activists” called for “peaceful protest,” the people have responded with barricades and street fighting. These protests were so threatening to the administration that Trump deployed 4,100 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines. In Rochester, New York, the masses stood alongside migrant construction workers, with 100 protesters forcing ICE to retreat with slashed tires. In Chicago, ICE terror is being supported by over 500 National Guardsmen, armed to the teeth using tear gas and drones. The ICE detention center in Chicago has seen no peace since this operation began, with constant protests and increasing neighborhood response networks being made to counter ICE’s terror.
The working class, the youth, and progressive activists have developed and evolved the resistance to ICE as the raids have spread and intensified. Rapid response networks, legal defense for activists and detainees, targeting agents at their offices and hotels, direct confrontation to prevent detentions, and other tactics have proven important means to deter the state terrorism against the people. However, these actions, which are just in their own right, have not been enough to kick ICE out of our neighborhoods once and for all.
So where do we go from here? The working class has only one weapon to stand up against the ruling class’s repression, and this weapon is working-class organization. This will allow us to effectively respond against ICE, and fight not just against the repression of our migrant brothers and sisters but also against the root cause of this terror: the capitalist-imperialist system. For this, we must go beyond the spontaneous nature of the current resistance. We need to build class-conscious and combative organizations in the neighborhoods and workplaces. Organizations which can defend the rights of the workers, expel the militarized police from our neighborhoods, and hold ground in the face of repressive offensives by the imperialists. We must tie the struggle against the reactionary offensive against immigrants with the broader struggle against imperialism. The condition of immigrants in the US is directly linked to the imperialist oppression in the home countries, and we must oppose imperialism on all fronts. We must oppose imperialist wars of aggression and militarist intervention in Latin America. We must support the poor peasants’ struggle for land against the parasitic latifundio, large land-owning class. We must defend political prisoners captured by the state in the course of the struggle. We cannot count on opportunist politicians to represent us and fight for us. We can only rely on ourselves, the working class. Organization is key to fighting for the only way out of this system: a revolution where the working class takes power and can control society.
DEVELOP THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST MOVEMENT IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS!
IT IS RIGHT TO REBEL AGAINST ICE!
DOWN WITH ALL REPRESSION, MILITARIZATION, AND REACTION! ORGANIZE, FIGHT, AND RESIST!