WASHINGTON—In Latin America, people call it Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. They honor and commemorate those who have passed, with processions and solemn ceremonies.
But this year, in the U.S., for people invested in continuing the resistance after the massive October 18 “No Kings Day” protests, November 1-2 will be both the Day of the Dead and The Day of the Disappeared.
And it will shine a light on the most shameful aspects of the white nationalist Donald Trump regime’s mass roundups, arrests, beatings, and dragooning, by ICE agents, of tens of thousands of immigrants and non-immigrants, citizens and non-citizens – all of whom are people entitled to live in America. They’re snatched from their cars, their homes, their churches, and their worksites, even from schools and courthouses. They’ve dropped from sight—disappeared—ever since.
What was believed to happen only in fascist countries overseas is happening now all across the U.S.
Except for 22, who we know have died in ICE custody since Trump turned his ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents loose to prey on the people, we don’t know the status or whereabouts of many of the thousands rounded up.
The point of the Day of the Disappeared protests is about to spread across the country: To shine a light on ICE’s oppression, and Trump’s responsibility for it. Organizers hope subsequent popular outrage will force freedom for the imprisoned people, closure of ICE detention centers and the end of Republican legislative backing for ICE.
The toolkit for the Day of the Disappeared includes the names, ages, native lands and centers where the 22 imprisoned people died. It’s at https://www.mobilize.us/disappearedinamerica/c/disappeared-in-america-weekend/event/create/.
That’s not including Guatemalan immigrant Carlos Roberto Montoya. While fleeing ICE near Los Angeles, Montoya ran out onto a freeway and was hit and killed by a car. The National Day Laborers Organizing Network, in its materials for the day, honors him.
Information about how to participate in such follow-up anti-Trump actions, including new ones, the October 28 coalition will post every Wednesday, is at www.Nokings.org and www.indivisible.org.
Speakers from several union-oriented organizations—specifically the National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON) and the Workers Circle—which were also part of the coalition supporting October 18, co-hosted an instructional seminar on October 22.
The evening Zoom session didn’t draw seven million people from coast to coast, as No Kings Day did. But 1,000-plus activists zoomed in to learn what they could do, where to campaign, who to target, and how to communicate their goal: To free all the ICE prisoners and close its detention centers.
It was one of two seminars www.NoKings.org and www.Indivisible.org hosted that evening. They’re the umbrella organizations that assembled the coalition that produced the massive turnout days before.
Participants could download or will receive a Day of the Disappeared toolkit, complete with graphics to post, a sample letter to lawmakers, and suggestions for appropriate peaceful tactics to follow when making their voices heard and their points about ICE aggression known.
The prime sites for such demonstrations will be Home Depot stores, because that’s where many migrants gather both to get transportation to area jobs or to help shoppers load up their cars. Some of the migrants then accompany the shoppers home to perform back-breaking chores. Some are undocumented people, which makes them top ICE targets.
“The workers are at Home Depots and car washes and work as fruit vendors” on city streets, said Erika Andiola of the NDLON. ICE agents “are going after people who are the easiest to pick up” and who are not—as the jingoistic president says, drug lords and gang members. Those are lies.
And Home Depot has built the presence of the workers, who often congregate in its parking lots, into its sales plan, by providing the labor the firm’s customers need.
“We’re asking [Home Depot] to stop coordinating with ICE, close the parking lots to them, and help the families of workers,” ICE nabs, Andiola said. Even if a particular Home Depot is not a gathering spot for migrants, “we still want to show up” to make store managers realize the firm has a nationwide problem —and get them to call Home Depot’s headquarters in protest.
To publicize ICE’s raids, create sympathy for workers it catches, and aid their relatives left behind, the toolkit includes sample letters to the editor, press releases, video instructions, flyers, and posters.
Day of the Disappeared protesters want publicity, especially on area TV, radio, newspapers, and social media, to expose ICE abuses in communities large and small. “Start by putting together an event and then the messaging before and after it,” Andiola added.
While NDLON concentrates on Home Depot, Workers Circle mounts vigils—loud enough for inmates to hear—at ICE detention centers, said Director of Social Justice Noelle Damico. It began by targeting “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades. “We are in our 13th week of vigils there,” she said.
Migrants inside Alligator Alcatraz, which is a private for-profit prison, “are being subjected to horrifying treatment. And they are ordinary people who have been ripped from their homes and their families and who can be deported and disappeared” at a moment’s notice.
Workers Circle took protests elsewhere, including the state capital, Tallahassee. It has no center, so the group massed on its Capitol’s steps. Right-wing GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis set up Alligator Alcatraz.
In another Florida city, Damico said, members of the Proud Boys, Trump’s shock troops for the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, showed up and tried to start violence. Trained in non-confrontation and de-escalation tactics, the Workers Circle participants cooled them off.
This session marked the start of organized follow-ups to the mass movement of October 18, though speakers discussed events preceding that day. Their events drew what ICE knows is unwanted publicity, especially in Indianapolis, Ind. There, ICE established the “Speedway Slammer.” It’s in the state’s maximum security, Miami (Ind.) Correctional Facility.
ICE got cooperation from GOP Gov. Mike Braun, said Methodist Minister Chris Lantz. It ricocheted against him. Indiana Public Radio, local newspapers, and all area TV stations—even the Fox affiliate —showed up to cover more than 100 clergy who gathered twice for prayer vigils in front of the center. The second protest drew the national president of the Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops.
One newsperson later challenged Braun about why he and Indiana were cooperating with ICE and its oppression. “His answer was tepid at best and theological drivel at worst,” Lantz said.
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