Media narratives about a Latinx shift to the right obfuscate ongoing anti-Trump insurgencies led by Latinx communities.
By Paul Ortiz ,
August 18, 2025
People march in support of immigrant rights and against mass deportation on the streets of Los Angeles as part of International Day of Action and Solidarity with Migrants on December 18, 2024.Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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The recent escalation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and armed state attacks on immigrants in Los Angeles and other cities is in large part a reactionary response to democratic insurgencies led by Latinx workers in the wake of the 2024 presidential election.
From the antebellum period through the Haymarket insurrection of 1886 to the present, immigrant workers have presented grave threats to the rule of capital by engaging in labor internationalism, union organizing, and coalition building with progressive elements of the middle class. While ICE and other federal authorities have used incarceration and deportation as weapons against immigrant organizing campaigns for over two decades, today’s war on workers is a renewed effort by capital and the state to keep Latinx workers in a state of abject terror and powerlessness. The outcome of this struggle will most likely decide the fate of the labor movement as well as the future of the anti-MAGA resistance in the United States.
Foiling media narratives of a “Latino turn to the right,” Latinx workers have led the resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency from early days, helping organize protests against the incoming government’s anti-labor policies in over 100 cities in the weeks after Election Day. These direct actions drew the participation of human rights advocates, small business owners, labor unionists, students, and others to demonstrate against President-elect Trump’s threat to deport upwards of 10 million immigrants from the United States. Understanding that Latinx workers have been in the vanguard of the struggle to save democracy is a necessary step in creating a broad-based freedom movement.
The Latinx working class registered its outrage at the outcome of the 2024 presidential election by engaging in a wide range of protest activities including hunger strikes, boycotts, rallies, teach-ins, and countless “stay at home” actions in the weeks after November 7, 2024.
Today’s war on workers is a renewed effort by capital and the state to keep Latinx workers in a state of abject terror and powerlessness.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) called for a “Day of Action and Solidarity”on December 18 to overlap with the United Nation’s “International Migrants Day.” Announcing rallies in Atlantic City, New York City, Houston, Trenton, Philadelphia, and other cities, Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of NDLON, declared:
Our fight is not for dignity. Because we already have enough of that, in abundance. Our fight is for respect and equality. Both friends and adversaries benefit from our labor, but you don’t want to accept our humanity. Our fight is to ultimately remind you of this: if you take our labor, you must respect our rights. You must accept our humanity. And if you ignore it, we will make you see it.
Thousands of Angelenos answered NDLON’s call and organized a march on December 18 from La Placita Olvera near the center of historic downtown Mexican Los Angeles (founded in 1781 by Afro-Mexicans) to the nearby ICE center to register their dissent to Trump’s promised war on the immigrant working class. Marchers carried homemade signs reading, “Protecting immigrants and destroying walls,” “Immigrants’ rights are human rights,” and “Migrant workers do the work.” Teacher and union member Angélica Reyes described herself as an “Indigenous immigrant on this continent.” Reyes asked her students at Santee High School “to reflect on Trump’s election and his threats to separate families.”
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Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size.
The recent escalation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and armed state attacks on immigrants in Los Angeles and other cities is in large part a reactionary response to democratic insurgencies led by Latinx workers in the wake of the 2024 presidential election.
From the antebellum period through the Haymarket insurrection of 1886 to the present, immigrant workers have presented grave threats to the rule of capital by engaging in labor internationalism, union organizing, and coalition building with progressive elements of the middle class. While ICE and other federal authorities have used incarceration and deportation as weapons against immigrant organizing campaigns for over two decades, today’s war on workers is a renewed effort by capital and the state to keep Latinx workers in a state of abject terror and powerlessness. The outcome of this struggle will most likely decide the fate of the labor movement as well as the future of the anti-MAGA resistance in the United States.
Foiling media narratives of a “Latino turn to the right,” Latinx workers have led the resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency from early days, helping organize protests against the incoming government’s anti-labor policies in over 100 cities in the weeks after Election Day. These direct actions drew the participation of human rights advocates, small business owners, labor unionists, students, and others to demonstrate against President-elect Trump’s threat to deport upwards of 10 million immigrants from the United States. Understanding that Latinx workers have been in the vanguard of the struggle to save democracy is a necessary step in creating a broad-based freedom movement.
The Latinx working class registered its outrage at the outcome of the 2024 presidential election by engaging in a wide range of protest activities including hunger strikes, boycotts, rallies, teach-ins, and countless “stay at home” actions in the weeks after November 7, 2024.
Today’s war on workers is a renewed effort by capital and the state to keep Latinx workers in a state of abject terror and powerlessness.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) called for a “Day of Action and Solidarity”on December 18 to overlap with the United Nation’s “International Migrants Day.” Announcing rallies in Atlantic City, New York City, Houston, Trenton, Philadelphia, and other cities, Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of NDLON, declared:
Our fight is not for dignity. Because we already have enough of that, in abundance. Our fight is for respect and equality. Both friends and adversaries benefit from our labor, but you don’t want to accept our humanity. Our fight is to ultimately remind you of this: if you take our labor, you must respect our rights. You must accept our humanity. And if you ignore it, we will make you see it.
Thousands of Angelenos answered NDLON’s call and organized a march on December 18 from La Placita Olvera near the center of historic downtown Mexican Los Angeles (founded in 1781 by Afro-Mexicans) to the nearby ICE center to register their dissent to Trump’s promised war on the immigrant working class. Marchers carried homemade signs reading, “Protecting immigrants and destroying walls,” “Immigrants’ rights are human rights,” and “Migrant workers do the work.” Teacher and union member Angélica Reyes described herself as an “Indigenous immigrant on this continent.” Reyes asked her students at Santee High School “to reflect on Trump’s election and his threats to separate families.”
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The first Latinx strikes aimed at President-elect Trump’s vows to incarcerate and deport millions of immigrants were announced before Christmas. Sam Ruiz was one of many Latinx activists who deployed social media to register their dissent against the president-elect’s immigration policies. Ruiz used his TikTok platform of more than 146,000 followers to spread messages in Spanish and English calling for a general work stoppage of migrant laborers between January 11 and January 18. Ruiz channeled the Latinx anger surging across social media platforms in the weeks after the election:
When my community speaks, it says it feels like they’re trying to make migrants look like the new modern slaves. So we’re planning a strike 10 days before Trump takes office. A week without work to see if they can turn around and look at our community and how we contribute to this country … We have truckers, construction workers, field workers, restaurant workers, and hospitality workers. In Las Vegas, we’re creating a pretty big movement and it feels bigger than what happened in Florida with Ron DeSantis after SB 1718 was passed.
Over 1,000 people rallied in St. Louis on February 1 carrying picket signs saying, “Immigrants Make America Great.” Latinx workers and their supporters used the rally as a springboard to organize a weeklong strike of Latina/o labor and businesses in the greater St. Louis area between February 11-18.
“Our fight is not for dignity. Because we already have enough of that, in abundance. Our fight is for respect and equality. Both friends and adversaries benefit from our labor, but you don’t want to accept our humanity.”
Businesses participating in the strike included landscaping workers, bakeries, clothing boutiques, markets, and nightclubs, among others, as I documented in my Labor Studies Journal article on “Latino Workers, the 2024 Presidential Election and the Future of the Labor Movement.” Reflecting on the money he would lose during the weeklong strike, Antonio García, owner of La Tejana Mexican Store and Taqueria, said, “No amount of money can replace peace of mind.” García planned to “dip into his business’ emergency funds to pay his workers. ‘We were going to lose some money that week, but we’re going to gain a lot more.’” Reportedly more than 50 St. Louis-area businesses participated in the strike.
The St. Louis actions were part of a national “Day Without Immigrants” demonstration that was held the week of February 3. Latinx workers, their families, and supporters carried signs at rallies and marches held across the country demanding an end to deportation, detentions, and labor exploitation. According to Mike Elk of Payday Report, strikes of Latinx workers and demonstrations were held in at least “120 cities, 40 states, and Puerto Rico…” Grassroots participation was so widespread that many businesses shuttered in solidarity with the protests. In Kent County, Michigan, Mary Martinez, a restaurant proprietor, paid her workers for time off to participate in the protest. In an interview conducted for my scholarly article in Labor Studies Journal, she said: “We are hard workers. We have support in this community. We have a business, we have a house, we have a good family, no bad record, so we are good people in this community … but afraid that this [federal anti-immigrant action] will go to another level.”
A small restaurant owner in Redwood City, California, said: “We stand with our immigrant communities. They are the backbone of the food industry. Without them, it wouldn’t exist.” Workers and small businesses organized protests in small towns, rural areas, and big cities. Carlos Solorzano-Cuadra, CEO of the Hispanic Chambers of Commerce of San Francisco, California, reported that out of “…approximately 11,000 Hispanic/Latino businesses registered in various Hispanic chambers in the Bay Area … We have approximately 65 percent of them closed today in support of the Day Without Immigrants.” Solorzano-Cuadra estimated that nearly half of the 90,000 Latinx-owned businesses in California were closed on February 3 in solidarity with “The Day Without Immigrants.”
In West Chicago, one small business posted a sign in English and Spanish stating, “In support of our immigrant people, on Monday February 3, we will be closed.” The Chicago Tribune reported:
In the shadow of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, some business owners and workers from Elgin to Chicago Heights took action Monday: They closed their businesses and stayed home from work. The goal they said, was to send a message about the contributions immigrants make to their communities and local economies.
David Fernández, a board member of the area Chamber of Commerce said on February 3 that, “18th Street is empty, no foot traffic. I counted 34 closed businesses in a 2-mile drive on 18th Street between Damen and Halstead.”
Latinx resistance had an immediate impact. When Trump targeted sanctuary cities that offered protections to undocumented workers, Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called border czar, complained that mobilizations of workers and their communities in cities like Chicago and Denver were making it difficult for the federal government to incarcerate immigrant workers. “Sanctuary cities are making it very difficult,” Homan noted. “For instance, Chicago … they’ve been educated on how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE.”
If we are serious about building a “resistance” that can take back the republic, we must join immigrant workers wherever we are and start fighting back.
The Day of Action and Solidarity and the Day Without Immigrants actions constitute part of a long history of Latinx labor and political organizing in the United States, including Gilded Age Mexican American railway strikes, activism in the Industrial Workers of the World and leadership in the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in the 1950s. Latinx communities and their allies organized the historic El Gran Paro Estadounidense, on May 1, 2006, in response to congressional efforts to criminalize immigrant workers. This was the largest general strike in the history of the Americas.
Between 2016 and 2024, Latinx workers contributed to Black Lives Matter protests, and engaged in union organizing campaigns with the Amazon Labor Union, the California Fast Food Workers Union, home health care drives in Florida and many other industries. These emerging freedom movements have also revived a venerable tradition of cross-class solidarity hearkening back to years when support for workers from businesses, students, and the middle class played a critical role in the industrial unionism of the New Deal era as well as in United Farm Workers unionizing drives of the 1960s and later.
Trump’s invasion of Los Angeles, the militarization of ICE, and initiatives like Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” seek to stamp out these incipient social movements and to crush democracy wherever it appears. The values that immigrant workers, their communities, and their allies express when they organize together — values such as empathy, mutual aid, and solidarity — threaten the power of ruling class Americans such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Stephen Miller. If we are serious about building a “resistance” that can take back the republic, we must join immigrant workers wherever we are and start fighting back.
This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.
Paul Ortiz is a professor of labor history at Cornell University. He is the author of An African American and Latinx History of the United States, which has recently been banned by the Department of Defense and a growing number of libraries and school districts. His forthcoming book, A Social Movement History of the United States, will be published by Beacon Press.
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