Protesters in Raleigh demand to 'end ICE,' condemn arrests in LA
More than 100 protesters gathered in Raleigh's Moore Square Monday afternoon to condemn the law enforcement response to demonstrations in Los Angeles, with speakers calling for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Those at the Raleigh gathering demanded the release of David Huerta, a California union leader arrested last week at a protest against ICE. Huerta, the president of Service Employees International Union California as well as SEIU United Service Workers West, was released from custody on a $50,000 bond later in the day, according to the Associated Press, and faces a federal charge for impeding an officer.
Activists with the Union of Southern Service Workers, Siembra NC, the North Carolina Association of Educators, and an array of Triangle area civil rights and labor organizations met in the Square for a 'rapid-response' rally to stand in solidarity with the LA protests. Protesters chanted 'Free David, end ICE!' and 'No justice, no peace!' with some wearing union apparel, keffiyehs, and other symbols of resistance.
The protest took place as clashes between demonstrators and police in downtown LA came to an inflection point Monday, with President Donald Trump deploying 700 U.S. Marines to the city in a move that opponents have criticized as authoritarian, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who Trump said should be arrested. Law enforcement have used tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets to respond to the protests against immigration raids in the city, which have seen some demonstrators set fire to self-driving vehicles and throw objects at police.
Nikki Marín Baena, co-founder of immigrant rights group Siembra NC, condemned ICE agents for conducting masked raids of workplaces and schools as part of mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration.
'They feel they are above the Constitution. Do you feel that ICE agents are above the Constitution?' Banea asked, to which protesters shouted no. 'Are you ready to fight back?'
Josh Vincent, executive director of the Southern Vision Alliance, likened ICE agents to the enforcers of slavery in the Antebellum South. And he compared the protesters in LA to groups that played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement, naming the Black Panther Party and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
'The same forces trying to dehumanize immigrants today are the same forces that tried to break us through slavery, through Jim Crow, through mass incarceration, through redlining, and through state violence,' Vincent said. 'This movement isn't new, it's just wearing new clothes.'
Also among the speakers was Claudia De la Cruz, an activist who ran as the Party for Socialism and Liberation's candidate in the 2024 presidential election, garnering roughly 165,000 votes around the country. She attended Monday's protest as part of a 'Freedom Ride' from Newark, New Jersey to Jena, Louisiana — both locations of ICE facilities that have come under greater scrutiny amid the Trump administration's mass deportation operations.
'It's important to understand who the criminals are and who our enemies are — and they're not immigrants,' De la Cruz said. 'If we do not understand an injury to the immigrant community as an injury to us, they will come for us, too.'
De la Cruz called ICE agents 'kidnappers' who are 'terrorizing our people' and said descriptions of the protesters in LA as violent criminals are part of a false narrative intended to deter resistance to deportation efforts. She blamed not just Trump but also his predecessors from both parties as well for constructing an 'economic and political system that has historically separated families.'
'They are taking away entire lives. They are dividing entire families. They are dehumanizing and dismembering people,' De la Cruz said. 'Are we in defense of life? Therefore, we need to be courageous in our defense of life.'
Monday's rally came one day ahead of the North Carolina Senate's scheduled vote on two bills (SB 153 and HB 318) that critics say would target immigrant communities and expand the state's cooperation with ICE.
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