US Workers Want a New Political Party: The Question Is Not Whether to Build It, But How

The monied interests can’t stop the growing working-class understanding of the self-evident truth: The billionaires have two parties; we need one of our own!


Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn, challenger to Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), speaks with students during the candidate forum at the UNO (University of Nebraska Omaha) candidate forum in Omaha, Nebraska on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.
(Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Les Leopold
Jun 28, 2025

Common Dreams

In our YouGov survey of 3,000 voters in the Rust Belt States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, 57% of the respondents supported a new political formation outside the two major parties; Only 19% opposed. This finding is especially notable because these voters were asked to support a very radical statement of anti-corporate populism:

Would you support a new organization, the Independent Workers Political Association, that would support working-class issues independent of both the Democratic and Republican parties. It would run and support independent political candidates committed to a platform that included

Stoping big companies that receive tax dollars from laying off workers who pay taxes;
Guaranteeing everyone who wants to work has a decent-paying job, and if the private sector can’t provide it, the government will;
Raising the minimum wage so every family can lead a decent life; and
Stoping drug company price gouging and putting price controls on food cartels.

Every demographic group supported this proposal, led by 71% of Rust Belt voters less than 30 years of age, and 74% of those who feel very insecure about losing their job.

So How Do We Build It?

The knee-jerk response when hearing about building a new political party is to either think too big or too small, or to think it just can’t be done given the nature of our two-party system.

Some believe a new party will only be possible with the emergence of a charismatic figure who leads us out of the wilderness. They long for a progressive version of President Donald Trump, someone who can capture the Democratic Party—as he did with the Republicans—or smash it into smithereens. As my insightful friend put it: “Needless to say, your new party needs a charismatic leader. Mr. Trump is an entertaining idiot celebrity millionaire with a Borsht Belt sense of timing and a mean streak as deep as the Grand Canyon. Top that! Where is your Fidel or your Lech Walesa or your Jesus Christ?”

That’s exactly what’s wrong with building a new party on the back of a charismatic leader. Good luck finding one.

Imagine if unions and progressives formed an Independent Workers Political Association and fielded dozens of working-class independent candidates in bright red congressional districts.

Others argue for the “go small” approach, running independent progressive candidates to capture local seats on town councils, school boards, and as county supervisors. Local offices are an important part of developing a new party, but it is very hard at the local level, except in large, prosperous cities, to enact policies that meet the needs and interests of working people. Focusing locally often means delivering small or delivering not much at all. It is a start, but it doesn’t speak to the alienation workers feel about national politics.

The biggest argument against third parties, however, is the limitation built into our two-party system. A third party in most cases becomes a spoiler, siphoning away votes that help the worst party win. For instance, if an independent working-class candidate enters a race as a third party, most of their votes will come from the Democratic candidate, and most likely assure victory for the Republican. There are still many, especially among labor leaders, who blame Ralph Nader for the election of Geroge W. Bush in 2000.

This argument is true on a national level, but it no longer applies to many congressional races because much of the country now has a one-party system. Nearly 60% of all House races in 2024 were won by 25% or more. In 132 districts, the Republican won by 25% or more (and there were another 112 similarly lopsided Democratic districts). And between 2020 and 2024, the Republicans won 20 Senate races by 25% or more. You can’t be a spoiler in a one-party race. The terrain for challenges in those contests is wide open.

Dan Osborne Showed How That Could Be Cone in Deep-Red Nebraska

Republican Deb Fisher won the Nebraska Senate seat in 2012 by 15% against Bob Kerry, the Democrat. In 2018, she upped her margin of victory to 19%. In 2024, running for a third term, she was viewed as so strong a favorite that the Democrats decided not to waste resources by running anyone against her—a true one-party race.

Two working-class organizers noticed the vacuum in Nebraska and sought to identify a labor candidate who would run as an independent. After canvassing many state and local labor union people, they found Dan Osborne, a pipe fitter and former local union president who had led a strike against the Kellog corporation. They pitched him on the idea, and he decided to give it a go.

Together they raised funds, designed literature, formulated ads, and traveled around the state speaking to voters about the needs and interests of working people.

It scared the hell out of Fischer and Republicans, who ended up pouring millions of dollars into the race as Osborne gained traction.

Osborne threatened to unseat the three-term senator, but lost by 6.7%, a strong showing compared to the 20% margin by which former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump in the state.

Imagine if unions and progressives formed an Independent Workers Political Association and fielded dozens of working-class independent candidates in bright red congressional districts, especially the 20 one-party districts in the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Our polling strongly suggests those candidates, running on a strong populist economic platform, would do very well.

Would they win? Some might, but even if they all lost, close challenges and strong campaign rhetoric would help elevate issues important to working people and might even lead to concessions on the part of the opposition during the heat of a close campaign. And, as in Nebraska, a credible challenge will force campaign spending into districts where candidates unfriendly to labor are expected to win in a cake walk.

But as Ringo Sang, “You Know It Don’t Come Easy.”

The monied interests in the U.S., with trillions of dollars at their disposal, will make sure the two major parties come down hard on any efforts to build a new working-class political formation. They will spend millions to trash working-class candidates like Dan Osborne. They will try to outlaw third party efforts by making it nearly impossible for newcomers to gain ballot lines. Already, the New York state government, run by Democrats no less, has banned the use of the words “independence” and “independent” from ballot lines.

But the monied interests can’t stop the growing working-class understanding of the self-evident truth: The billionaires have two parties; we need one of our own!

How Do We Move Forward?

I can’t tell you what you should do, but I can share what I’ll be trying to do. I’m not a political organizer. I’m not an elected political or labor leader with a large base. I represent no one. But I am an educator, especially an educator of working people. My job and the job of the Labor Institute is to create educational programs, conduct research, and write articles that engage working people in the discussion of whether a new political formation should be built, and if so, how to do it.

Too many activists see education as a side show, a diversion from the goal of building something new. But every successful movement that has challenged the monied interests, from the anti-abolitionists to the rise of the trade union movement, required an educational core. People not only need to move forward, but they need to understand why.

It’s going to be a fight, and it’s going to take some time. But working people are more than ready for something new.

In the late 19th century, the populists fielded 6,000 educators to build the most powerful anti-corporate movement our country has ever experienced. That educational core helped to build an interracial working-class political formation that fought hard to protect the lives and livelihoods of small farmers and factory workers against the robber barons and Jim Crow. They spread the ideas that eventually led to controls on corporate power. Their dreams became the basis of the New Deal, the growth of the labor movement, and the establishment of working-class power and prosperity after WWII.

Sadly, that power and prosperity has been whittled away over the last generation. The Democrats, once the party of the working class, seemed to have switched sides. Working-class prosperity was transferred to the richest of the rich. Now, we need a new educational effort that addresses how to provide decent jobs and livelihoods for all working people, instead of fattening the wallets of the superrich, (something we have started to do with our Reversing Runaway Inequality educational programs.)

Those with large, vibrant constituencies, like labor union leaders, will have to take on the task of organizational building. They will need to test the waters by fielding independent working-class candidates in one-party districts, and running ballot initiatives that protect working-class needs, like prohibiting compulsory layoffs at corporations that receive taxpayer money.

It’s going to be a fight, and it’s going to take some time. But working people are more than ready for something new. Our polling shows that clearly.

Now is the time to build the politics of the future, instead of coming up with reasons from the past for why it can’t be done.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor Institute and author of the new book, “Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the Working Class and What to Do About It." (2024). Read more of his work on his substack here.
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FIFA Can No Longer Be Silent on Israel's Human Rights Atrocities in Gaza

It’s past time for football federations across the globe to stand up for freedom and legal rights. With tyranny on the rise globally, sport can help raise awareness that we need to draw the line on injustice.

Fans of PSG show the political message Stop Genocide in Gaza during the UEFA Champions League Final 2025 between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Internazionale Milano at Munich Football Arena on May 31, 2025 in Munich, Germany.
(Photo by EyesWideOpen/Getty Images)

Jules Boykoff
Jun 26, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Although you might not know it from reading mainstream media in the U.S., Gaza continues to be under siege. Israel has installed a blockade of humanitarian aid, weaponizing food for everyday Gazans who desperately need it, while the Gaza Humanitarian Organization—a shadowy, Israeli-backed organization that relies on private US security contractors—continues to slow-roll the delivery of food. Securing basic foodstuffs has become akin to “a perverted Squid Games” where all too often death is the outcome, according to Dr. Mark Braunner, a volunteer at Nasser Hospital in Gaza.

With U.S. media attention swiveling away from Gaza and toward Iran, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment. Enter a gaggle of leading legal experts and scholars who this week ramped up pressure on FIFA, the world’s governing body for soccer, demanding that its Governance Audit and Compliance Committee address a well-documented complaint against Israel for holding matches in settlements inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

FIFA has long demonstrated a conspicuous deference toward Israel. FIFA has consistently looked the other way when it comes to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians, even when doing so means ignoring its own stated commitments to human rights.

It’s past time for football federations across the globe to stand up for freedom and legal rights. With tyranny on the rise globally, sport can help raise awareness that we need to draw the line on injustice.

Let’s be absolutely clear: Israel is carrying out human-rights atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank, bombing hospitals, killing Palestinians as they attempt to collect aid, barring doctors from entering Gaza, green-lighting the most aggressive expansion of West Bank settlements in decades. It’s no wonder that Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently characterized Israeli actions as “war crimes.”

On the football front, the Israeli Football Association (IFA) has staged matches in occupied Palestinian territory. Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian players and coaches while engaging in the systematic destruction of sport facilities, even converting Gaza’s storied Yarmouk stadium into a temporary interrogation site. These actions violate numerous FIFA Statutes.

FIFA’s response? One might say crickets, but crickets actually make noise. For more than a decade it has foot-dragged investigating good-faith claims against Israel. As Fair Square, the London-based rights group, asserted, “FIFA’s ongoing failure to enforce sanctions against the Israeli Football Association despite long-standing and irrefutable evidence that the IFA is in violation of FIFA Statutes is further evidence of the organisation’s ad hoc and selective enforcement of its rules.”

FIFA’s inaction is a grim example of what Henry Giroux calls “The violence of organized forgetting.”

FIFA’s free pass for Israel is deeply hypocritical. In February 2022, only a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, both FIFA and UEFA, Europe’s governing body for soccer, moved swiftly to suspend Russian football clubs and national teams from all competition. In a joint statement, FIFA and UEFA insisted that “Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine.” And yet, no such solidarity has been forthcoming for Palestinians.

The main reason FIFA and UEFA stood up in the face of Ukraine’s invasion was that numerous European countries refused to take the field against Russia in World Cup qualifying matches. Leaders from places Poland, Sweden, England and the Czech Republic insisted that the powerbrokers of soccer take principled action, forcing FIFA and UEFA’s hand. The president of France’s football association stated, “The world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral.”

This brings us back to Israel. It’s not too late for soccer barons to take action. And it turns out that UEFA is actually a key player. The Israeli Football Association was originally part of the Asian Football Confederation, given its geographical location in the Middle East. But after Indonesia, Sudan, and Turkey all refused to play 1958 World Cup qualifying matches against Israel, and other countries applied political pressure, the IFA was eventually expelled in 1974. This placed Israel in the soccer wilderness until, in the early 1990s, UEFA invited the Israeli national team to participate in its competitions. In 1994, Israel became a full member of UEFA.

After Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, UEFA halted all matches in Israel for the foreseeable future. This meant that Israel was forced to play recent World Cup qualifying “home” matches in Hungary.

Rights groups—from Human Rights Watch to Fair Square to the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner—insist that Israel has openly violated FIFA Statutes. Therefore, individual Football Associations from around the world need to stand up and press FIFA to follow its own rules.

Norwegian Football Federation President Lise Klaveness moved in the right direction recently when she stated, “None of us can remain indifferent to the disproportionate attacks that Israel has subjected the civilian population in Gaza to.” When Susan Shalabi, the vice president of the Palestinian Football Association, urged FIFA to take action against Israel at its recent meetings in Paraguay, the Norwegian Football Federation issued a statement that it “stands in solidarity with the Palestinian Football Association and supports their right to have this long-standing issue properly addressed by FIFA.” We need more of this sort of political courage.

Sport should not be allowed to supersede human rights. For too long, FIFA has executed behind-the-scenes maneuverings that have allowed it to avoid reckoning with Israel’s human-rights violations. As FIFA whistleblower Bonita Mersiades put it, “True reform demands more than new systems—it requires new values.” At the very least, football honchos and fans alike must align their stated values with principled actions.

With authoritarianism on the march globally, now is the time to fix the limit on human-rights abuses, using sports as a way to immobilize the jackboots. As Nelson Mandela put it, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Jules Boykoff is professor and chair of the Government and Politics Department at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. He is the author of "The Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch US American Social Movements" (2006), "Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States" (2007) and, "Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics" (2016). Boykoff is a former professional soccer player who represented the US Olympic Team in international competition.
Full Bio >

'No, Mr. President—You Don't Know What You're Doing,' Says Ilhan Omar After Trump's Iran-Israel Rant

"While you're playing confused referee, Netanyahu is running circles around you with our tax dollars," said the Minnesota Democrat.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press before boarding Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 24, 2025.
(Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jun 24, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday slammed President Donald Trump's handling of events in the Middle East in recent days, including his decision to bomb Iranian nuclear targets, after the president fumed over Israel and Iran's military exchanges earlier in the day with expletive-laden remarks directed at both nations, who he said "don't know what they fuck they're doing."

"No, Mr. President—you don't know what you're doing," said Omar in response to a video of the president's remarks to reporters outside the White House. "And while you're playing confused referee, Netanyahu is running circles around you with our tax dollars. Americans are watching this all unfold and realizing you're in over your head and we're paying for it in billions."

The president had told the reporters he was upset with both countries when asked about the mutual violations of a cease-fire that Trump had boasted about brokering.


Less than two hours after the cease-fire was announced, Iran reportedly launched missiles toward northern Israel, and Netanyahu's office said soon after that the Israel Defense Forces had retaliated by striking a radar system near Tehran.

Both countries denied violating the cease-fire after Trump's comments.



Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said the reports of the broken cease-fire—which appeared to be holding on Tuesday after the earlier strikes by Iran and Israel—destroyed "Trump's credibility."

"This is exactly what Israel did with all of the cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon. It treats all cease-fires as one-sided—the other side has to stop fighting, while Israel is above the law and above all cease-fires," said Parsi."

"Trump is also starting to discover the core of the problem: Israel doesn't want peace and doesn't want to allow the U.S. to stay out of the war Israel unnecessarily started," he added. "If Trump wants peace and for the U.S. and Iran to strike a deal, he has no choice but to FORCE Israel to accept that America has to put America first. If he doesn't, Netanyahu will make sure that Trump puts Israel first and drags the U.S. into an endless war with Iran."

'Just Killed, for Nothing': Israeli Troops Say They Were Ordered to Shoot Aid-Seeking Gaza Civilians

"Killing innocent people—it's been normalized," said one senior reserve officer. "We were constantly told there are no noncombatants in Gaza, and apparently that message sank in among the troops."

Palestinians mourn over the plastic-wrapped bodies of Gazans killed by Israeli fire while seeking food aid, during a funeral at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Palestine on June 21, 2025.
(Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Jun 27, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Israel Defense Forces commanders ordered troops to shoot and shell aid-seeking Palestinian civilians in Gaza, even when they posed no threat, according to IDF officers and soldiers interviewed by Israel's oldest daily newspaper.

Haaretz on Friday published testimonies of IDF members including senior officers who said that commanders including Brig. Gen. Yehuda Vach ordered troops to open fire on aid-seeking Palestinians in order to disperse them, even when there was no danger to Israeli troops.

"It's a killing field," one soldier said. "Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They're treated like a hostile force—no crowd-control measures, no tear gas—just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire."



The soldier said troops informally call this activity "Operation Salted Fish." Salted fish, or dag maluach in Hebrew, is an Israeli children's game similar to red light, green light. One IDF reservist who just finished a round of duty in Gaza this week said that "the loss of human life means nothing. It's not even an 'unfortunate incident,' like they used to say."

Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report revealed that 244,000 people in Gaza were suffering such "an extreme deprivation of food" that "starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition are or will likely be evident." Gaza officials say at least hundreds of people have already died of malnutrition and lack of medical care since Israel tightened the siege in March. Many of the victims are children and elders. Hundreds of premature infants face imminent death.

Amid such desperation—driven by 629 days of U.S.-backed Israeli bombardment, invasion, and ethnic cleansing that have killed, wounded, or disappeared more than 200,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced over 2 million—Gazans are willing to risk their lives for their next meal.

According to Gaza's Government Media Office, at least 549 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 others have been wounded by IDF troops since May 27 while trying to obtain humanitarian aid amid Israel's "complete siege" of the Gaza Strip that has fueled mass starvation and illness. Dozens or more civilians have been killed in the worst of these aid massacres.

A reserve officer in Vach's Division 252—veterans of which have accused the general of telling them "there are no innocents in Gaza"—told Haaretz that he was ordered to fire artillery shells toward a crowd gathered near an aid distribution site.

"Technically, it's supposed to be warning fire—either to push people back or stop them from advancing," he said. "But lately, firing shells has just become standard practice. Every time we fire, there are casualties and deaths, and when someone asks why a shell is necessary, there's never a good answer. Sometimes, merely asking the question annoys the commanders."

"You know it's not right. You feel it's not right—that the commanders here are taking the law into their own hands," the soldier added. "But Gaza is a parallel universe. You move on quickly. The truth is, most people don't even stop to think about it."

A senior reserve officer who was present when more than 10 aid-seekers were killed said:
When we asked why they opened fire, we were told it was an order from above and that the civilians had posed a threat to the troops. I can say with certainty that the people were not close to the forces and did not endanger them. It was pointless—they were just killed, for nothing. This thing called killing innocent people—it's been normalized. We were constantly told there are no noncombatants in Gaza, and apparently that message sank in among the troops.

That message has come all the way from the top. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including murder and weaponized starvation—has invoked the biblical command for genocide against Israel's ancient enemy Amalek. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the killing of every man, woman, and child in Gaza would be "justified and moral." Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi asserted that "there are no uninvolved people" in Gaza, and "we must go in there and kill, kill, kill." Many other prominent Israelis have made similar statements.

Israel's Military Advocate General has instructed the IDF General Staff's Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism to investigate the killing of aid-seeking civilians as possible war crimes. However, the historical record suggests impunity—or at worst, wrist-slap punishment—will prevail for most if not all of those who ordered and carried out the shooting and shelling of civilians.

One military source who attended a high-level IDF meeting during which the use of artillery on aid-seekers was discussed told Haaretz that "they talk about using artillery on a junction full of civilians as if it's normal."

"An entire conversation about whether it's right or wrong to use artillery, without even asking why that weapon was needed in the first place," the source said. "What concerns everyone is whether it'll hurt our legitimacy to keep operating in Gaza. The moral aspect is practically nonexistent. No one stops to ask why dozens of civilians looking for food are being killed every day."

"This isn't about a few people being killed—we're talking about dozens of casualties every day."

A legal official who attended the meeting told Haaretz that representatives of the Military Advocate General's Office rejected the IDF's argument that aid killings were one-off incidents.

"The claim that these are isolated cases doesn't align with incidents in which grenades were dropped from the air and mortars and artillery were fired at civilians," the official said. "This isn't about a few people being killed—we're talking about dozens of casualties every day."

The near-daily massacres of aid-seeking Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces and Israel's use of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—whose operations have been called a "death trap"—have drawn international condemnation.



Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that "the weaponization of food for civilians... constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law," remarks that came amid the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz rejected the claims in the Haaretz report as "blood libels," while the IDF responded to the exposé in a statement claiming that "any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary."

"The allegations of deliberate fire toward civilians presented in the article are not recognized in the field," the IDF added.

IDF troops have previously admitted to witnessing alleged war crimes including indiscriminate murder of people including women and children in Gaza and torture, sometimes fatal, in Israeli detention centers including the notorious Sde Teiman prison.

Environmental and Indigenous Groups Mobilize to Stop 'Alligator Alcatraz'

"This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.

Stephen Prager
Jun 30, 2025
COMMKON DREAMS


As Florida's Republican government moves to construct a sprawling new immigration detention center in the heart of the Everglades, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," environmental groups and a wide range of other activists have begun to mobilize against it.

Florida's Republican attorney general, James Uthmeier, announced last week that construction of the jail, at the site of a disused airbase in the Big Cypress National Preserve, had begun. According to Fox 4 Now, an affiliate in Southwest Florida, construction has moved at "a blistering pace," with the site expected to be done by next week.

Three environmental advocacy groups have launched a lawsuit to try to halt the construction of the facility. And on Saturday, hundreds of protesters flocked to the remote site to voice their opposition.

Opponents have called out the cruelty of the plan, which comes as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's crusade to deport thousands of immigrants per day. They also called out the site's potential to inflict severe harm to local wildlife in one of America's most unique ecosystems.

Florida's government has said the site will have no environmental impact. Last week, Uthmeier described the area as a barren swampland. He said the site "presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there's not much waiting for 'em other than alligators and pythons," he said in the video. "Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide."

But local indigenous leaders have said that's not true. Saturday's protest was led by Native American groups, who say that the site will destroy their sacred homelands. According to The Associated Press, Big Cypress is home to 15 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites.

"Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons, as some have suggested, the Big Cypress is the Tribe's traditional homelands. The landscape has protected the Miccosukee and Seminole people for generations," Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress wrote in a statement on social media last week.

Environmental groups, meanwhile, have disputed the state's claims that the site will have no environmental impact. On Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Everglades, and Earthjustice sued the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. They argued that the site was being constructed without any of the environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

"The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species. This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.

Governor Ron DeSantis used emergency powers to fast track the proposal, which the Center for Biological Diversity says has left no room for public input or environmental review required by federal law.

"This reckless attack on the Everglades—the lifeblood of Florida—risks polluting sensitive waters and turning more endangered Florida panthers into roadkill. It makes no sense to build what’s essentially a new development in the Everglades for any reason, but this reason is particularly despicable," said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Reuters has reported that the planned jail could hold up to 5,000 detained migrants at a time and could cost $450 million per year to maintain. It comes as President Trump has sought to increase deportations to a quota of 3,000 per day. The majority of those who have been arrested by federal immigration authorities have no criminal records.

"This massive detention center," Bennett said, "will blight one of the most iconic ecosystems in the world."

'Alligator Alcatraz' Denounced as Epitome of GOP Dehumanization and Cruelty Toward Migrants

"There's no clearer illustration of the brutality of the Trump administration than robbing funds from cities supporting asylum-seekers to build... a f*up Floridian replica of one of our most notorious prisons to disappear, isolate, and abuse immigrants."

Demonstrators protest the construction of an immigrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," in the Everglades near Ochopee, Florida, on June 28, 2025.
(Photo: Giorgio Viera / AFP)

Jessica Corbett
Jun 25, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Rights advocates and Democratic officials across the United States this week are condemning the Trump administration and Florida Republicans' effort to construct a migrant detention facility in the Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz."

Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier laid out plans to transform the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport—previously called the Everglades Jetport—into a temporary detention facility for undocumented immigrants in a video posted on the social media site X last week.

The site "presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there's not much waiting for 'em other than alligators and pythons," he said in the video. "Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide."

"Detaining immigrants at a remote airfield in the Everglades, with no clear legal framework or due process, is about fear, not safety."

Citing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Reutersreported that "the Florida facility, estimated to cost $450 million annually, could eventually house up to 5,000 people."

According toThe New York Times, "A spokesperson for the attorney general said work on the new facility started on Monday morning." The effort is directly tied to President Donald Trump's push for mass deportations that critics denounce as devastating for families and the economy.

Trump's homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, toldUSA Today that the facility will be partly funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program. Her department said on X that "we are working on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations. Alligator Alcatraz will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida."


Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier shared a video about a forthcoming migrant detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" on social media on June 19, 2025.
(Image: @AGJamesUthmeier/X.com)

Responding to that post, Uthmeier wrote that "I'm proud to help support President Trump and Secretary Noem in their mission to fix our illegal immigration problem once and for all. Alligator Alcatraz and other Florida facilities will do just that. We in Florida will fight alongside this administration to keep Florida safe, strong, and free."

The plan has been lambasted by some local environmentalists and Indigenous people, as well as Florida Democrats. José Javier Rodríguez, a Democrat running to be the state's attorney general, said in a Wednesday statement that Uthmeier's Alligator Alcatraz "isn't a serious plan, it's a reckless, rushed project that puts lives and resources at risk."

"Detaining immigrants at a remote airfield in the Everglades, with no clear legal framework or due process, is about fear, not safety," he continued. "The most obvious reason seems to be political theater, just trying to get attention in Washington, rather than looking out for the interests of our state and its people."

"Now they're funding it with FEMA dollars—money meant to help us prepare for hurricanes and natural disasters, especially in states like Florida," he added, also noting Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' use of emergency powers to seize the site.

Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) also blasted the plan, saying in a Tuesday statement that "Donald Trump, his administration, and his enablers have made one thing brutally clear: They intend to use the power of government to kidnap, brutalize, starve, and harm every single immigrant they can—because they have a deep disdain for immigrants and are using them to scapegoat the serious issues facing working people."

"They would rather us point fingers at immigrants for the housing crisis, violence, lack of healthcare, and high costs that plague our nation rather than blame the inaction of politicians and greedy corporations," he argued. "This was never about public safety. It was never about putting America first."

Frost continued:
They target migrants, rip families apart, and subject people to conditions that amount to physical and psychological torture in facilities that can only be described as hell on Earth. Now, they want to erect tents in the blazing Everglades sun and call it immigration enforcement. They don't care if people live or die; they only care about cruelty and spectacle.

I've toured these facilities myself—real ones, not the makeshift tents they plan to put up—and even those detention centers contain conditions that are nothing short of human rights abuses. Places where people are forced to eat, sleep, shower, and defecate all in the same room. Places where medical attention is virtually nonexistent.

Anyone who supports this is a disgusting excuse for a human being, let alone a public servant.

Frost wasn't the only federal lawmaker who sounded the alarm this week. Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a fierce critic of the president's anti-migrant agenda, said Tuesday that "there's no clearer illustration of the brutality of the Trump administration than robbing funds from cities supporting asylum-seekers to build 'Alligator Alcatraz.'"

"Nope, that's not an island for bad-behaving alligators your family could visit after Disney," she wrote on social media. "It's a f*up Floridian replica of one of our most notorious prisons to disappear, isolate, and abuse immigrants."


Notably, Trump last month advocated for reopening the island prison of Alcatraz in California's San Francisco Bay.

Trump Admin Terminating TPS for Haitians Slammed as Potential 'Death Sentence'

"Ending TPS for Haitians is cruel and dangerous, and a continuation of President Trump's racist and anti-immigrant practices," said Amnesty International USA.


Protesters in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, once again call for the resignation of the Interim Presidential Council on April 2, 2025.
(Photo: Guerinault Louis/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Jun 28, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Outrage over U.S. President Donald Trump's administration terminating Temporary Protected Status for around half a million Haitians, despite dire conditions in the Caribbean country, continued to mount on Saturday, with critics decrying the decision as harsh and hazardous.

"This is not just cruel—it's state-sanctioned endangerment," declared Haitian Bridge 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said that the Trump administration "just decided to send thousands of innocent people who have been living and working here legally into imminent danger in Haiti. Trump will tear apart families, rip up communities, and leave businesses and nursing homes shorthanded. And no one will be safer."


Warren's fellow Massachusetts Democrat, Sen. Ed Markey, also weighed in on social media Saturday, arguing that "the Trump administration knows Haiti is not safe. This is a callous and shameful political decision that will have devastating human consequences. Saving lives will always be in the national interest."

"This is a callous and shameful political decision that will have devastating human consequences."

TPS was initially granted after an earthquake hit Haiti in 2010. The designation expires August 3, and Trump's Department of Homeland Security announced in a Friday statement that the termination will be effective on September 2. A DHS spokesperson said that "this decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary."

"The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," the spokesperson added. "We encourage these individuals to take advantage of the department's resources in returning to Haiti, which can be arranged through the CBP Home app. Haitian nationals may pursue lawful status through other immigration benefit requests, if eligible."

While the DHS statement claims Haiti is safe, ignoring the deadly gang violence that has engulfed the country, the Trump administration's official notice has another focus, as some critics highlighted.

The notice states that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "has determined that termination of TPS for Haiti is required because it is contrary to the national interest to permit Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) to remain temporarily in the United States."



The Miami Heraldreported that the U.S. Department of State currently "warns Americans not to travel to Haiti 'due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited healthcare.' This week, the agency also urged U.S. citizens to 'depart Haiti as soon as possible' or 'be prepared to shelter in place for an extended time period.'

According to the newspaper:
And just on Thursday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau questioned the lack of action at the Organization of American States to address the crisis in Haiti.

"Armed gangs control the streets and ports of the capital city, and public order there has all but collapsed," he said. "While Haiti descends into chaos, the unfolding humanitarian, security, and governance crisis reverberates across the region."

The Miami Herald reached out to the State Department, asking the agency to explain its recommendations. A State Department spokesperson said the department does not comment on deliberations related to TPS determinations and referred questions to DHS.

"The administration is returning TPS to its original temporary intent," the spokesperson said. "TPS is a temporary protection, not a permanent benefit."

Noting the discrepancy between the two departments, Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) denounced the termination as "a deliberate act of cruelty."



Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said that "this is an act of policy violence that could literally be a death sentence. We should NOT be deporting anyone to a nation still dealing with a grave humanitarian crisis like Haiti. I stand with our Haitian neighbors and urge the Trump administration to reverse course."

Also urging the administration to "reverse this inhumane decision immediately," Amnesty International USA said that "ending TPS for Haitians is cruel and dangerous, and a continuation of President Trump's racist and anti-immigrant practices. Haitian TPS holders have built lives here—working, raising families, and contributing to their communities—all while fleeing unsafe situations in Haiti."

The termination came just two weeks after Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said that "at this time of untold suffering and fear, I reiterate my call to all states not to forcibly return anyone to Haiti, and to ensure that Haitians who have fled their country are protected against any kind of discrimination and stigmatization."

Jayapal Slams ICE for Targeting Law-Abiding 'Moms, Dads, Grandparents'—Not Criminals

"ICE isn't going after the 'worst of the worst' like Trump promised," the progressive congresswoman said. "They're disappearing asylum-seekers, families, and relatives of citizens—many with no criminal record."


U.S. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) speaks to protesters near the White House in Washington, D.C. during May 1, 2025 rally against the Trump administration's deportation policies.
(Photo: Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Jun 26, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Progressive U.S. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on Thursday hosted a "shadow hearing" on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's targeting of asylum-seekers, families, relatives of American citizens, and other law-abiding people for deportation—policies and practices that belie President Donald Trump's claim that his administration would focus on removing undocumented criminals.

Jayapal (D-Wash.)—the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security, and Enforcement and an immigrant—convened the panel, called Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump's Weaponization of Immigration Courts. The shadow hearing "examined the disturbing trend of broad efforts to erode access to legal services and due process in immigration proceedings, especially as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been targeting immigrants showing up for legal proceedings—following the requirements set for them by courts."

"These actions are a direct attack on the legal immigration system and the people who are trying to follow all the legal steps."

A sampling of the more than 65,000 people arrested by ICE since Trump reentered office in January reveals people including a beloved resident of a staunchly pro-Trump town, a decorated combat veteran, a child with cancer, anti-genocide protesters, and a woman with an American husband and child who's lived in the U.S. for nearly 50 years.

While the Trump administration claims that "3 in 4 arrests were criminal illegal aliens," most people caught up in Trump's mass deportation drive have no criminal records or have only committed minor offenses including traffic violations. According to the libertarian Cato Institute, 65% of people taken by ICE had no criminal conviction whatsoever and 93% had no conviction for violent offenses.

"Republicans like to talk about how they support immigrants who quote 'do things the right way,'" Jayapal said during the hearing. "Now that they control Congress and the White House, they should be putting their money where their mouth is and ensuring that the legal immigration process remains open to those who pursue it—but that's not what's happening."

"They have arrested people at their citizenship interviews, their check-in appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and increasingly, at immigration court," Jayapal continued. "These actions are a direct attack on the legal immigration system and the people who are trying to follow all the legal steps."

"These actions only serve to make the immigration system even more chaotic and unjust than it already is," she added. "Just when you think this administration cannot sink any lower, they get out a shovel and keep digging."

House Democrats Judy Chu (Calif.), Jesús "Chuy" García (Ill.), Sylvia Garcia (Texas), Glenn Ivey (Md.), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (Ga.), Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Mark Takano (Calif.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) took part in Thursday's hearing.

Speakers on Jayapal's panel included retired immigration judge A. Ashley Tabaddor, National Immigrant Justice Center policy director Azadeh Erfani, Acacia Center for Justice chief of staff Bettina Rodriguez Schlegel, andImmigrant ARC interim director of programs Gillian Rowland-Kain.

"Due process in a courtroom means that every part of the system functions fairly and in concert. That requires an independent judge, a level playing field, and a safe, accessible forum for all participants," Tabaddor said. "Yet noncitizens have no right to appointed counsel—even in life-or-death matters."

"Now, the Trump administration claims that immigration judges are effectively at-will employees, directly undermining their independence," she continued. "At the same time, immigration courts are being transformed into enforcement zones, deterring participation and eroding public trust."

"As a former judge, I can tell you: When even one part of the machine breaks—when judges are undermined, when legal support disappears, or fear keeps people from appearing—the entire system collapses," Tabaddor added. "And when that happens, it doesn't just fail immigrants. It fails all of us."

Erfani said: "Nothing is off the table for ICE to meet Trump's arrest quotas and build the largest mass detention system in recorded history. First, they took away all legal services so no one could represent themselves. Next, they raided the courts and took away access to judges. And lately, they have set traps at ICE check-in appointments, where individuals with pending cases trying to comply with their proceedings are shackled and disappeared into remote jails."

"As ICE tramples all semblance of due process and the rule of law, they are terrorizing our communities," she added.

Rodriguez Schlegel noted how "the Trump administration's attacks on due process have upended the lives and futures of our families, neighbors, and friends."

"In addition to the profound impact on our communities, ending legal access programs has further exacerbated the limited capacity of the immigrant legal services field," she said. "Alongside our inspiring network of legal service provider partners, we will continue to fight for these lifesaving programs to be restored so that families, children, and adults aren't forced to navigate our country's increasingly dehumanizing immigration system alone."

"As ICE tramples all semblance of due process and the rule of law, they are terrorizing our communities."

Stressing that "this is more than a policy shift," Rowland-Kain called the Trump administration's actions "a coordinated effort to sideline due process and deport people without giving them the opportunity to present their case."

"What should have been a space for due process is instead a site of fear," she said. "Masked and armed federal agents are arresting and intimidating people who attend court. Volunteers and attorneys are being surveilled. Every day, our members are in those courtrooms—often the only ones there to stand beside immigrants facing an unjust system. We will continue to do our work and to push back."

'No Secret Police Act': Democratic Bill Would Ban Trump's Masked Federal Agents

"If you uphold the peace of a democratic society, you should not be anonymous," said Rep. Adriano Espaillat.


Masked federal agents stand outside a gate of Dodger Stadium on June 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jun 26, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

From the abductions of foreign students Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil to the violent accosting of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander as he was trying to shield an immigrant from arrest at a courthouse, the images have become familiar to many Americans: masked federal agents descending on communities across the U.S. and arresting citizens and immigrants alike.

Two Democratic lawmakers on Thursday demanded an end to the Trump administration's use of "secret police," introducing legislation that would require all law enforcement officers and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents—including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—to clearly display identification and their official badges when detaining or arresting people.


"If you uphold the peace of a democratic society, you should not be anonymous," said U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.). "DHS and ICE agents wearing masks and hiding identification echoes the tactics of secret police authoritarian regimes—and deviates from the practices of local law enforcement, which contributes to confusion in communities."

Espaillat was joined by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) in introducing the No Secret Police Act, which would also direct Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to conduct research and development to enhance the visibility of official insignia and identification.

"Across the country, plain-clothed federal agents in homemade face coverings are lying in wait outside immigration courts to snatch law-abiding, nonviolent immigrants going through our legal system the right way," said Goldman. "This isn't about protecting law enforcement, it's about terrorizing immigrant communities."

The legislation was introduced a day after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed during a Senate hearing that she hadn't been aware of federal agents' recent practice under the Trump administration of wearing masks while completing law enforcement work.

Todd Lyons, ICE's acting director, also said recently that the agency's officers "wear masks for personal protection and to prevent doxxing."

But as New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote Wednesday, "ICE has no right to anonymity."

"All people engaged in public service, from the president to an officer of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are bound by the nature of a public office to act with some fidelity to the public interest," wrote Bouie. "At a minimum, they must be accountable to the people they serve, ready to accept responsibility when they abuse their power or violate the trust of the public."

Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said that by granting ICE agents anonymity, the Trump administration has begun "a war on immigrant communities carried out in the shadows... an unconstitutional campaign of terror."

"Armed, unmarked federal agents are stalking immigrants outside courtrooms and targeting people who are following the rules and fighting for their lives. These tactics are ripped straight from an authoritarian playbook," said Awawdeh. "We will not be silenced nor intimidated by these actions. We are on the right side of the law and we will fight tooth and nail to end this assault on our people and our democracy. We call for the swift passage of the No Secret Police Act."

Gestapo: You Guys Look Like Fucking Criminals


ICE thugs raid a popular swap meet in southern California.
Screenshot from KTLA

Abby Zimet
Jun 25, 2025

COMMON DREAMS

New war hysteria looms, yet still armed, masked, unnamed stormtroopers roam the land, keeping us safe from "the worst of the worst illegal alien criminals" by abducting nefarious landscapers, car wash workers, Wal Mart greeters, tamale makers, swap meet fans and distraught mothers of children with cancer. As glorified "state-sanctioned intimidation" turns some terrified Latino neighborhoods into ghost towns, "Day by passing day, we are watching what amounts to a national police riot by ICE."

In our new Police States of America, the chilling images are everywhere: Throngs of burly, ill-trained, rifle-toting bullies cosplaying as soldiers, storming a car wash or Home Depot in their fearless face masks, headphones, neck gaiters, camo helmets, armored vests, mirrored sunglasses, dime-store badges, tight t-shirts and tough-guy walkie-talkies to round up and terrorize whatever brown-skinned innocents they can find into unmarked cars and then, whoosh just like Fast and Furious, into unknown, possibly illegal, probably distant detention camps. Who are these louts? Nobody knows. Operating under an ominous "shroud of opacity" lacking any accountability, they could be any racist losers with a penchant for violence: For an entry-level "frontline" ICE gig, they just need a driver's license and have to be a U.S. citizen, eligible to carry a firearm, younger than 40. They can apply online.

Rumors abound: They are Proud Boys, Patriot Front, J-6 warriors, former goons of Erik Prince's malignant Blackwater, which would be "quite the callback to Season One of Fascist Celebrity Apprentice." Some are likely former cops gone flabby or fired for excessive force. Many are likely garden-variety white nationalists, friendless basement-dwelling incels weary of playing Call of Duty and eager to up their ugly game by arresting brown people. To a point: Despite being giddily kitted out in over-the-top, Bagdad-ready military gear, they've reportedly been advised to avoid all the seriously gangsterish areas around L.A., which is why we've seen virtually no videos of amateur-hour Nazi thugs confronting gang members who might actually punch or shoot back - just manhandling pregnant moms, elderly farmworkers, dazed young skinny guys wiping down windshields at car washes.

Starting years ago with a heinous orange guy pronouncing all Mexicans rapists and murderers, it keeps getting worse as guard rails drop. His marauding agents of chaos can now go after frightened targets in once-safe spaces: schools, courts, hospitals, places of worship. They often skip warrants, mask up, refuse to identify themselves, grab U.S. citizens or witnesses (legally) recording - reminiscent, many note, of Gestapo on the streets of Poland. They just further limitedoversight by ending lawmakers' unannounced visits to detention facilities and requiring at least 72 hours' notice. And now - thanks Goebbels - the "heat's on to (go) after the devils who are taking away the jobs." No wonder stories of random bigots impersonating ICE - "Don’t be speaking that pig-Latin in my fucking country!" - are soaring. Also, kudos to Gloria Johnson on her "unhealthy toddler impersonating a President."


And so to harrowing videos of working people suddenly assaulted, cuffed and whisked away by mobs of jumpy, bellicose hoodlums in what newly arrested New York Comptroller Brad Lander calls "a proceeding that bears no resemblance to justice." Like the 238 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador, at least 75% have no criminal history; most of the rest have paltry traffic or immigration violations before being "effectively disappeared." They grabbed a young Afghan interpreter for U.S. troops who invaded his country; he was at court, checking in as instructed. They pinned a pregnant U.S. citizen to a truck, detained the baby's father, then let her go to give birth four days later. They cuffed, interrogated and pulled a gun on a U.S. citizen in Chicago who, driving past thugs accosting a woman, "gave a little honk (to) be there for my people"; said thugs claimed he tried to kill them.

ICE rampages are nationwide. Here in Portland ME, an immigration legal advocacy group gets over 60 calls a day from people too scared to go to work, Hispanic kids only go out to play after dark, and abduction stories spread. In Oregon's wine country, thugs nabbed and put in chains Moises Sotelo, popular 2020 winner of the Oregon Wine Board's Vineyard Excellence Award, who's lived and raised a family there for decades. In a statement, ICE got all the facts wrong about Sotelo; when a friend tried to visit him in detention, he'd vanished and an official insisted they didn't have to tell him to where: "I told him I thought that sounded wrong, and he said, ‘Well, that’s the way it is.'" The Guardian managed to find out Sotelo was shipped to Arizona; when they asked for ICE confirmation they're under no obligation to tell family or attorneys where prisoners are, they responded, "That is correct."

Clearly California, and especially majority-Latino L.A., are the hardest hit. One resident tries to describe it: "Imagine vans roll up to your local Hobby Lobby. Heavily armed men pour out, body armor, masked, no I.D. They immediately move to every white person they see. They handcuff them, assuming they're Jan. 6 rioters." In Pico Rivera, they mobbed and took down a scrawny 20-year-old Wal-Mart worker and U.S. citizen when he tried to stop them from grabbing an older worker; the community loudly protested. In Huffington Park, a half-dozen cars filled with armed, masked, cosplay soldiers barged into the home of a pregnant mother of four; they were looking for her husband David; she said her husband's name is Jorge, and he wasn't there. Nazi Barbie stood outside, ready for the cameras; instead, they left empty-handed, after which the kids got to go back into their now-trashed house.

In Santa Fe Springs, a DHS copter circled overhead as about sixty armed, masked, geared-up brownshirts-in-jeans surged across a crowded flea market as vendors and customers fled in terror. After dragging out people from bathrooms and harassing whoever they found for I.D's, they cuffed and hauled off two victims. Another mob of about 20 masked, psyched, uber-armed hooligans went aftera 60-year-old woman selling tamales outside a Lowe's; after she had a panic attack and collapsed, chaos ensued: Sirens, air horns, brave furious swarms of locals, cell cameras held high, yelling, "You guys are fucking terrorists!" and "What the fuck are you doing here?" As one chubby jerk lifted his rifle, they shrieked, "We don't need fucking guns here! Go get some bad guys!" "What a bunch of weak-ass cowards," said one. "If kidnapping the Tamale Lady doesn't wake you up, you're dead inside."

In Santa Ana, in video that's gone viral, hoodlums brutally beat, punched and pepper-sprayed a 48-year-old landscaper and father of three U.S. Marines before dragging him so hard into an unmarked van they dislocated his shoulder; one son said over 24 hours later his father had gotten no treatment, water or food (but thank you for your service). In Pasadena, a power-drunk thug leapt out of his car, drew his gun and (illegally) pointed it at the head of a guy taking a photo of his (illegally) glare-guard-obscured license plate. Comments on a hyper-militarized GI-Joe wannabe with zero accountability: "Needs to deport: illegal, paranoid, jumpy," "Where can I report a masked man pulling a firearm on a civilian while stopped in traffic in the middle of the day?" "In hindsight, maybe empowering thugs to become American Gestapo might not have been so wise," and, "I think we're officially a shithole country now."

In what passes for mercy these days, an El Monte mother of a 21-year-old daughter battling bone cancer - the mom filmed weeping as she was dragged off - was released on bond on "humanitarian" grounds after outraged "Free Yolanda" marches; in an interview, she stoically displayed her ankle monitor. But that was a rare, small victory. Much more common are surreal scenes like the geared-up punk in Santa Ana, part of a raid outside the Little Market, seeing an observer recording from a nearby car and swiftly sticking his rifle in her face. Later, the woman, part of a local, grassroots rapid response team, calmly posted video of the encounter with helpful information: "You are legally allowed to record an ICE raid from a safe distance, for you and them. They are NOT supposed to draw any type of weapon at you for simply recording...With that said, move with caution.",

In his Doomsday Scenario, Garrett Graff argues the regime's anti-immigrant machinery has "switftly transformed itself into the closest thing the US has ever had to a secret police at the heart of our democracy" - an entity more culturally akin to the Klan nightriders of Reconstruction than any legit law enforcement agency, and one that does not believe it will ever be subject to any meaningful legal oversight or restraint by people in power wholly indifferent to public perceptions of their abuses. Given that indifference, the S.S.-like Goebbel push for 2,000 arrests a day, and soaring assaults on California's farm workers, day laborers, street vendors and other "easy targets" in easily accessed outdoor jobs, local lawmakers and rights advocates are doing what they can to tweak the laws, educate and protect the most vulnerable, and stem the authoritarian tide.

In response to all the documented abuses, two Bay Area legislators just introduced a bill to bar all law enforcement from wearing masks; it also requires them to identify themselves with badges and names. Arguing, "These are not lawful arrests," Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores has also called on local police to verify identities of gun-in-your-face yahoos carrying out "masked abductions," and to enforce vehicle codes on visible license plates and agency markings. Still, with many rights advocates charging there's often distance between Dems' rhetoric and reality - LAPD is "protecting (ICE), not protecting us" - local organizers have ratcheted up advocacy efforts with groups like CLEAN Carwash Worker Center and Community Self-Defense Coalition, offering residents rights workshops, “Know Your Rights” cards, and “adopt a corner” programs to warn workers of raids. Lone patriots have quietly stepped up.

In L.A., protests continue, tow trucks are reportedly hauling off ICE rigs in solidarity, and cowboys did a unity ride because, "Nobody is going to save us. We have to come out and stand up." Elsewhere, there are No Sleep For Ice protests - drums, cans, trombones - at hotels where they stay. A new “Dictator Approved" sculpture appeared in D.C. featuring a fat, gold, thumbs-up hand crushing the crown of Lady Liberty and mock tributes from despots: "Trump is a very bright and talented man."The Onion did a special issue - sample: "Think Tank Called Himmler Institute Assures Nation This All Legal" - thanking a craven Congress for doing nothing as we "stand in the smoldering ruins of our democratic government...slipping smoothly into the warm bath of authoritarianism...Now more than ever, our nation needs your cowardice." Then they stuck a print copy in every congressperson’s mailbox.Still, the horrors mount, brutality upon brutality. Goons abduct a woman en route to school with her kids, left sobbing; a reporter covering “No Kings” protests; a pregnant woman who suffers a stillbirth when she's denied care in custody; 15 workers on a flood control project in flood-prone New Orleans. They devise Alligator Alcatraz, a migrant concentration camp of tents and misery in Florida's Everglades, where if they escape, a baleful video leers, alligators and pythons await them. And they swarm Bubble Bath Car Wash in Torrance CA, where the owner yells, "Get outta here You guys look like fucking criminals, and you act like criminals." A defiant woman out front joins in, berating them as bounty hunters. "Who are you guys? You need to fucking identify yourselves - this is a kidnap," she shouts. "Fucking racial profiling is against the law, motherfuckers. Get the fuck outta here, assholes." Deflated thugs stand dumbly, then slink away. "Fuck them, assholes," she spits. There are monsters among us. There are also saints.

Update: On Tuesday, MAGA's own Goebbels, reflecting his racist cabal's meltdown that Zohran Mamdani, a brown person (Muslim yet), won the New York City mayoral primary, blamed the catastrophe on "unchecked immigration." He called Mamdani's rise "the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration," noting a third of New York City's residents are foreign-born and almost two-thirds of its children live in a foreign-born household. Sounds pretty cool to us.