Crossing Borders And Boundaries

For the first time in over a century, migrant workers in the U.S. on June 6-8 protested against the U.S. Government in response to the policies of President Donald Trump.

In May, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services dispatched its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) force to arrest migrant workers who were employed at low wages in crucial industries and services to comply with Trump’s pledge to deport 3,000 immigrant workers a day to keep his promise to Americans to rid the country of undocumented immigrants.

However, immigrant workers are essential workers and fill jobs that most Americans reject due to low and uncertain wages and despotic conditions. Many undocumented workers support their families through remittances and must pay a king’s ransom to work under barbaric conditions.

Many American workers who support the deportation of immigrants are themselves the beneficiaries of their low-wage work in the digital and logistics sectors, food processing, cleaning and other essential services.

The Trump administration has concentrated ICE raids and deportation in states and cities that are typically Democratic strongholds on the East Coast and West Coast—especially New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, demonstrating that he is conducting a war against immigrants at home.

But the ICE raids are intended to placate his political base, who mistakenly believe that migrant workers replace American workers.

The paradox is that the immigration raids are occurring as Trump seeks to pass his “big, beautiful bill” through U.S. Congress. The budget will only benefit the wealthy at the expense of all workers and the poor. Trump seeks to expand his tax cuts that were enacted in his first term, benefiting the top 1 percent of the wealthy, while upending efforts to rein in federal spending.

This could raise U.S. national debt to nearly $2.6 trillion over the next decade as well as send military spending to new heights, profiting the military-industrial complex. In 2024, Trump had the temerity to campaign on raising military spending to facilitate “mass deportations.”

The budget also cuts health benefits for low-wage and jobless workers and increases the cost of buying health insurance under the Barack Obama-era Affordable Care Act.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 13.7 million American workers and their families might lose their health insurance. Undocumented immigrants are essentially the scapegoats who will justify Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that increases the budget deficit higher than ever and lines the pockets of the military-industrial complex—advancing U.S. militarism worldwide.

Raids and uprisings

The recently expanded ICE raids represent the largest militarization of immigration deportation in over 150 years of U.S. history. In the 1860s, the U.S. deported Chinese and East Asian citizens and immigrants in response to xenophobic popular sentiment against foreigners who labored long hours at low wages primarily on the West Coast due to an upsurge of American nativist resentment.

Ironically, California was the epicenter of mass opposition to immigration in the late-19th century and remains the focal point of the ICE raids ordered by President Trump. On August 27, 1873, in the wake of protests against immigration, the San Francisco Chronicle called immigration: “THE CHINESE INVASION! They Are Coming, 900,000 Strong.”

Trump has invoked the same violent rhetoric on many occasions. In August 2019, he referred to immigrants from Latin America as “an invasion of our country.” That same month, Philip Rucker of The Washington Post wrote: “President Trump has relentlessly used his bully pulpit to decry Latino migration as ‘an invasion of our country.’ He has demonized undocumented immigrants as ‘thugs’ and ‘animals.’ He has defended the detention of migrant children, hundreds of whom have been held in squalor.”

On June 6, undocumented workers who were facing arrest resisted ICE law enforcement through skirmishes in Los Angeles for the right to stay and work in the U.S. These minor forms of immigrant resistance to prevent arrests captured the attention of the Trump administration, who called in the California National Guard without the approval of California Governor Gavin Newsom, setting off a cascade of events that culminated in nationwide protests primarily by U.S. citizens in support of immigrants.

Trump’s actions were intended to create a national controversy, and incited popular protests and demonstrations against the president’s indiscriminate ICE raids and misuse of the National Guard and 700 U.S. Marines for what he called a “crisis,” when in reality, any crisis was sparked by his own administration.

Trump has overplayed his hand as most jurists consider his actions to be in violation of federal law. Trump’s lieutenant, Stephen Miller, even called for the suspension of habeas corpus to round up 11 million immigrants without due process, actions that absolutely violate the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court decisions and international law.

By arresting suspected undocumented migrants, Trump has also contravened city and state laws in California and New York State that protect migrants from deportation. Both states have large populations of immigrants and children of immigrants who oppose the president’s call to arms against undocumented workers considered essential to the economies of major cities, where they are employed in industries like ride hailing, delivery, food preparation and home services.

Militarization of immigration

The Trump administration deliberately incited the rising tensions and demonstrations by residents in California who support migrant workers. In fact, Trump called the National Guard and Marines not against immigrants but against U.S. citizens who oppose the deportation of immigrants.

Public opposition to ICE raids escalated as demonstrations and protests grew in the days following the initial conflict in Los Angeles on June 6. Trump’s decision was described by U.S. mainstream media as a political maneuver to demonstrate to his populist base of xenophobic supporters as the midterm elections near in 2026.

U.S. polls show a slight majority of U.S. citizens support Trump’s policies even if they have no bearing on their lives. By calling the National Guard and Marines to intervene against what amounted to be minor public protests primarily by U.S. citizens shows the right-wing electorate that the Trump administration is proactively deporting undocumented immigrants even if his predecessors, Obama and Joe Biden, had also deported millions.

The difference is the spectacle and public display that Trump is arousing through entering workplaces in sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles and New York City, which obstruct federal immigration enforcement, to evoke public outrage and demonstrations, but also to gain national support among conservative Americans who view the demonstrations in the media.

The author is a professor of political science at the City University of New York, Brooklyn, the U.S., and editor in chief of the Journal of Labor and Society, a quarterly peer-review social science publication founded in 1997.