How the fight began:

DON’T WALK ON BY!

The night of June 11, 2017 was Detroit’s most valiant struggle to date against Trump’s racist regime of deportations. That morning, dozens of Chaldean Christians and Iraqi Muslims, refugees who had escaped genocide and war in Iraq and lived in the US for decades, were rounded up by I.C.E. to be deported back to their deaths. On that night, at the Detroit I.C.E. office, protesters (most of whom were family members of those detained and including Detroit and Ann Arbor BAMN members) boldly confronted the police and I.C.E., clashing on the street as the I.C.E. agents attempted to drive away with a bus full of refugees. In order to halt the bus’ departure, protesters stepped in front of its path. Over and over again, the police shoved protesters aside, and each time, protesters swarmed the front of the bus, to stop it from going forward. All this drew the attention of residents and people driving by, who supported the protesters by honking, shouting curses against Trump and the police, and some, getting out of their cars to join the protest. This continued for almost an hour, and even though the bus was finally able to gain enough momentum to speed away, the brave stand by protesters that night set the standard for what it means to stop deportations, by any means necessary.

We urgently need to remobilize our mass movement now in the streets. In the face of recent I.C.E. raids in Northern and Southern California, we need bold collective action with the militance of that night of struggle ‪on June 11‬ and the mass demonstrations in the weeks that followed, including the mass airport shutdowns that defeated the first Muslim ban. Only this can shift the power to our side to win a definitive victory to free our people. If we don’t, then Trump, his I.C.E. thugs and Jim Crow courts will become even more emboldened to terrorize our immigrant communities and deport our family members, friends and neighbors. We can win. It’s time to finish this fight the way we started it, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!