Give Light, and the People Will Fight
Rallying to defend our immigrant neighbors
In February 2025 in Lynn, Massachusetts, ICE grabbed an 18-year-old high school junior from Nicaragua and put her in a cell in Maine, hours away from her family. She had been involved in a minor argument with her 12-year-old brother over a cell phone and pushed him. A neighbor reported a “domestic dispute,” and the police came to the teen’s house and arrested her for assault. The DA dismissed the charges and referred her to counseling. But ICE grabbed her anyway, since she had initially crossed the border illegally—even though she had turned herself in with her family, was waiting for an asylum hearing, and had a legal work permit. It took a cohort of elected officials and pro bono attorneys to get her home after four days in jail.
The abuse got state and even national attention.
Members of the New Lynn Coalition reached out to New Lynn officers with a question: what can we do? And a request: do something! The coalition, a collection of quite different organizations of faith, labor, and community groups, has been together for 13 years, building relationships and working-class power in the city. We had also organized a successful response to Vice President Vance’s racist ramblings about Haitians stealing cats and dogs and eating your house pets a month earlier. This laid the groundwork for a quick and strong response when Trump won the election and began to implement his program of deporting millions of immigrant workers (or maybe just violent criminals, as he and his spokesmen sometimes promised).
Blocking ICE
Our immediate goal was to break through the fear and reassure our immigrant neighbors, with papers and without, that Lynn remains a welcoming city and there are broad forces in the community who have their back. Our migrant neighbors had in some cases pulled their children from school, and even stopped going out altogether. We also hoped to oppose the right-wing groups that were celebrating Trump’s moves and push ICE away from Lynn by encouraging everyone to resist it in any way possible. This can be seen as part of the “Block” part of the helpful paper Liberation Road published: “Block, Broaden, Build.”
Before the election, the challenge was to keep Trump and his New Confederacy forces from winning the vote. Now the task is to prevent Trump from consolidating power, which they did not achieve during the election but are hell bent on doing now. Trump won the popular vote by about 1.2%, but is acting like he won by 90%, which is part of his strategy.
The Coalition and new friends organized a protest at the courthouse and City Hall around the demands “Defend our Community! Defend Democracy! ICE Out of Lynn!” After our partners called on us to act, we facilitated two open planning meetings of 25-30 people on short notice. It would have been more efficient to simply call a board meeting of leaders who already had built trust with each other. But although the broader open meeting was more challenging to facilitate, it brought in new groups and individuals who deepened our understanding of the moment and what we had to do.
While we were doing our urgent planning, an undocumented Dominican was arrested and charged with a brutal murder in Lynn—a restaurant owner was tied up and killed in his own home. The right wing picked up on this as they do, despite the multiple studies demonstrating that undocumented people commit less crime than those of us who were born in this country. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted about the murder, and Border Czar Tom Homan spread the word about the heinous crime and the accused. (By the way, when we finally build a stronger and deeper democratic country, can we finally get rid of this “Czar” thing?) It was all over local Fox News, and local and Boston papers covered the murder as well. Local internet warriors called for vengeance and blamed our Mayor for being too soft on immigrants: “He has blood on his hands!”
Tensions were high. The police called our Executive Director the day before the Tuesday rally and asked us to postpone it for two weeks, at least until after the funeral for the victim. This caused a serious discussion among New Lynn Coalition officers and the wider board and planners. People spoke about being fired on by the militaries in their home countries, and honestly worried about who would take care of their families if something happened to them. There have been Trump rallies and confrontations in the area in the past–we do have blue state fascists, like the eastern Massachusetts-based neo-Nazi group NSC-131. But the police reported no specific threats against us.
We were also concerned that if we went ahead as scheduled, and something bad did happen, the police could reasonably say they had asked us to postpone and we refused. We would take the blame for something that could potentially be tragic.
Nonetheless, we decided to go ahead. It was too late to cancel in any case—the upcoming protest was all over social media so some people would show up regardless, and it would be less safe if we were not there with marshals and larger numbers. A two-week delay would give the fascists more time to mobilize. And fundamentally if we shut down every time Donald Jr. tweeted, we might as well fold up and admit defeat. This is not going to get any easier any time soon.
The rally was successful. The police were out in full force and did a good job of protecting the rally. It felt like the entire city force was deployed, ready for Armageddon. Our main concern was crossing the street between the Courthouse and City Hall, where we might be vulnerable to a car ramming, but the police blocked off the entire two blocks and also the roads approaching the area, so it was safe. There were no incidents. A pro-Trump rally was supposed to take place on the following Monday, apparently in response to ours, and no one showed up. This is still our city.
About 250 to 300 people attended the rally. Speakers at the rally represented faith, labor, youth, and community organizations, and elected officials. A Guatemalan group that we had not worked with previously joined the planning and turnout. Four local Democratic town committees advertised the rally, although they don’t appear to have the muscle to drive turnout. The youth speakers, from El Salvador and Guatemala, were terrific. The elected officials were measured and careful, with several coming despite the warnings, including the mayor. The time of day and the cold and darkness meant a lot of union people and elders couldn’t come, but there was a good representation. Some people did not come out of fear, and some of our nonprofit advocates and adult education sympathizers didn’t show up, probably out of fear for their students, or fear of losing funding. There was a scattering of people from nearby towns. The rally got good press and was considered a success by everyone involved.
Broadening Resistance
As always, we tried to broaden the democratic front as much as possible. To prevent the consolidation of fascist New Confederate rule, we need all hands on deck, including people with whom we have many, and sometimes important, disagreements.
For example, evangelical clergy in the Guatemalan community stood with us at the rally, and both an evangelical and mainstream pastor spoke. These same evangelicals had opposed adding a demand for a ceasefire in Palestine for our annual May Day march last year, and discouraged their parishioners from attending. (“Evangelicals” is a term that covers a lot of ground, and they are not monolithic on this or other issues.) And before May Day the same people, with important influence in their community, had worked with us in the fight to allow undocumented workers to obtain drivers’ licenses. We respect and build relationships with them, even when we disagree.
Elected officials are another example. Prior to the earlier Haiti event, the entire City Council and Mayor signed a strong statement that we wrote, including “We welcome migrants and commit to using every available means to prevent the harassment and deportations of migrants and their families, including Haitians who have faced racist dehumanizing insults from high ranking government officials including President elect Trump and his VP JD Vance as well as openly fascist groups across the country.” The public statement the council adopted after Trump was elected was more cautious and legalistic, and city councilors were emphasizing that immigration was not a local issue. They were explicitly worried about losing federal funds for local projects, etc. In a post-industrial city like Lynn, which only recently started to see some investment after 40 years of neoliberal abandonment, that is not an unreasonable concern. But several councilors marched at the front with us. The mayor attended on his own, and we invited him to speak. While there are different opinions in our coalition on the mayor’s record, our base was glad to see him at the rally and it was comforting to many to hear him speak, and it was the right thing to do.
We specifically reached out to small businesspeople as well. The coalition’s mission is explicitly “to organize all sectors of working-class people in our region into a unified, permanent, political, and economic force.” In one election, one of our partners endorsed a Haitian small businesswoman who opposed raising the minimum wage, and of course the unions would have no part of that and opposed her. But we knew from experience that small businesspeople were likely to be on our side this time. They have deep ties to the immigrant communities who buy their products, with and without papers, including their own families. During immigration raids under the Obama administration, immigrant neighborhoods were shut down, and struggling local businesses suffered. One owner told me that his restaurant is once again suffering– partly because people are afraid to venture out, and also because people are saving money in case they have to pack up and head back to their home countries. So we successfully involved a small businessman to speak at the rally.
These elements of the community may not be with us on the next issue, but it was important to respectfully bring them into joint activity to protect immigrants and defend democracy, including those who have differed with us in the past and will differ with us in the future.
Mass Line, Give Light
Ella Baker, the brilliant veteran mentor of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, told us, “Give light, and the People will find the way.” Her work has influenced me more than any other organizer/leader. Mao Tse-tung, leader of the Chinese Revolution, used the term “mass line,” or “from the people, to the people.” You start with the understanding that people make history, not brilliant organizers or leaders (you know, like me!). You respectfully listen to what people are saying and thinking, find the truth in it (because it is indeed there) and return it to them in a more thought-out form in a program that leads us forward, against the actual enemies that we face. Yeah, easier said than done!
We had a lot of conversations in a very short period of time about what we wanted to say, and did not always agree. But we did not have to agree on everything–it’s a coalition. For example, I had originally proposed to the planning group three slogans: “Defend Our City! Defend Our Country! ICE Out of Lynn!” The idea of the middle slogan was to tie us to the broader movement across the country—we are part of something bigger than ourselves. A Muslim woman objected that this sounded too much like Homeland Security calling for defense of the “motherland” against Muslims, invading children of immigrants, etc. She was right, and we switched to “Defend Democracy!!” at her suggestion. This was also at least a small empirical counterpoint to the argument that working class people don’t care about abstract things like “democracy.” In my experience they do, when it is represented in concrete form.
On the issue of crime, with the murder hanging over us, some people didn’t want to mention crime at all or the murder at all, concerned that it would become the main story in the press and keep us on the defensive the whole time. We decided there was no way to specifically address the murder effectively in the context of our march, but I did argue in my own speech that Trump lied about getting rid of violent criminals: “What does that have to do with snatching a high school junior from her home?” It seemed important to draw that line, since we had heard even from undocumented migrants that Trump was only going to go after criminals, not just anyone who arrived here without proper papers. Often these folks were fleeing violence themselves and were not any fonder of violent criminals than anyone else in this country. I think that was the right approach, but others were concerned that we not jump on the “law and order” bandwagon and support mass incarceration, etc.
Even the day and time of the rally was contested. Some people opposed a Saturday march since it is not as good a media day. I and others wanted Saturday so more employed people like union members and elders who don’t venture out after dark could attend. I still think that, but it turns out democracy doesn’t mean you always get what you want.
Building Organization
Early in this Trump administration I read endless statements from Washington liberal pundits about the lack of protest: “Where is the resistance?” etc. In some cases they bemoaned working class support for Trump, usually overstating it, since they tend to look down their noses at working-class people anyway.
They were looking in the wrong places.
The response to our call for action against mass deportations under dire circumstances indicates that when given a clear opportunity from trusted leaders with a working class perspective and base, people will respond.
More important in the long run, people are building organizations, not just protesting and marching in random ways, although there is plenty of the latter as well. And that’s a good thing!
On the North Shore of Boston where Lynn sits, there is more organizational growth than I can keep up with. Attendance at the labor council has increased. Our council president calls it the “Trump Bump.” The organization Indivisible held an initial reorganizing meeting of 20 people—the next month, they had 100. The Democratic Socialists of America is building a renewed chapter. A coordinator of a new local group Solidarity Rising told me she went to sleep a few nights after the election and 10 new people had signed up for their newsletter when she got up the next morning. The League of Women Voters has organized multiple protests. Undocumented workers themselves organized their own protests before New Lynn could organize one, despite the fear that many people (including me) had of possible attacks from ICE. And it goes on.
After the rally we took a breath, but before long our partners were pointing out that we had no plan beyond the demonstration. One group suggested circulating Know Your Rights cards. Four partners contributed funds and we are printing thousands to be distributed in multiple languages in barber shops, nonprofits, tiendas, etc. For my part I had underestimated the “block” potential of legal resistance, but we saw in places like Chicago that aggressively exercising your rights can stymie ICE.
Another partner is putting together a state-wide hotline in coalition with other immigrant groups, to squash rumors, warn communities, and directly question ICE officers. Sometimes this causes them to leave. We are working on a message for a meeting with our congressman. There is plenty to do, and not enough time and resources to do it.
Most of all, “build” means build organizations of all kinds, from unions to community groups to youth organizing to faith communities to socialist organizations who have a strategic vision and plan beyond only playing defense.
Victory is by no means assured. But give light, and people will fight.
Jeff Crosby worked at General Electric in Lynn, Massachusetts, for 33 years, and was president of his local union and the area Labor Council. He offers this perspective as a worker, union leader, and socialist.
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Excellent. Not just agitation--making one idea clear to many--but also good propaganda work--making more complicated ideas clear to the fewer who think more deeply. Then doing it all in a superb report, full of all the contradictions, among ourselves and with our adversarsies, and all the local color of real life too. Well done.
What Carl said! Seriously, a lot here for people to learn from and to consider applying in their own work.