Organizers Demand Justice for Immigrants in Week of Action From California to DC

Part of the Series

Communities Beyond Elections

As the Republican Party gears up to support Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportation campaign, it’s up to grassroots resistance across the country to define the future of immigration policy and justice. From December 10, which marked International Human Rights Day, through International Migrants Day on December 18, communities nationwide are taking action to demand an end to Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians and recommit to protecting immigrants in the United States. “Journey to Human Rights,” hosted by American Friends Service Committee, Detention Watch Network, and partners, is an invitation for communities and individuals to join the Week of Action by supporting immigrant rights, opposing immigration detention and deportation, advocating for humane immigration policies and standing in solidarity with oppressed populations globally.

In New Jersey, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to triple detention capacity despite decades of local resistance, immigrant rights advocates are rising up and joining a multistate coalition against immigration detention. On December 18, the “March to Defend Immigrant Lives” in Philadelphia will demand the closure of ICE detention centers in the region and pressure President Joe Biden to reverse course on the expanded detention and deportation system he is handing Donald Trump. In cities, such as Washington D.C.; Boston, Massachusetts; Decatur, Georgia; San Diego, California; Aurora, Colorado; Norfolk, Virginia; and Jacksonville, Florida, friends and neighbors will host press conferences, congressional drop-ins, posadas (which, in the context of advocacy or protests, can be adapted as symbolic actions to highlight the struggles of immigrants and others seeking refuge or justice), film screenings, report releases, and more.

This Week of Action is a call to fight back against a system of cruelty and demand justice for all immigrants. Together, we have the power to hold leaders accountable while disrupting and dismantling the machinery of detention and deportation. We must organize, march and demand investment in our communities — not in prisons or deportations.

While we are preparing for the attacks on immigrant rights that we expect to come from the Trump administration, we also know that the Biden administration is still in a position of power, and must be treated as such. The current administration must be held accountable for continuing the construction of the southern border wall, as well as for handing over a bolstered deportation machine to the Trump administration.

President-elect Trump and his “border czar” Tom Homan have made clear their intent to conduct raids on workplaces and community spaces to detain and deport people. Meanwhile, federal policy influences anti-immigrant rhetoric at the state level and has direct consequences that go far beyond the legislative realm. For example, Mayor Eric Adams announced yesterday that New York City will close the migrant shelter at Floyd Bennett Field ahead of Trump taking office. Understandably, the shelter has faced intense community scrutiny for being unsafe for migrant families and children, but its closure poses the question of where migrants will go. Trust, resources and safety are vital for newly arrived immigrants and the community spaces that welcome them. We must fight back against the dehumanizing rhetoric that teaches us to fear our neighbors. Heartbreakingly, just last week, a 17-year-old migrant child named Yeremi Colino was brutally attacked in New York City and died from his injuries; his attackers reportedly asked if he spoke English before stabbing him.

From coast to coast, anti-immigrant state laws are escalating at alarming rates. In Tennessee, legislation is advancing to color-code driver’s licenses to distinguish citizens from noncitizens at a glance — yet Tennessee already bars undocumented people from driving. This type of policy is nothing but a nonsensical hierarchy that values citizens over noncitizens and pressures undocumented people to drive without licenses. This kind of legislation is discriminatory, dangerous and dehumanizing — and it must be resisted. It is these forms of legislation that funnel people into the criminal legal system and, relatedly, the immigration detention system.

While some states are doubling down on anti-immigrant policies, others are fighting back. Immigrants in Michigan once had the right to a state driver’s license. The immigrant rights group Movimiento Cosecha, which was heavily involved in driver’s license bills in New Jersey and Massachusetts for undocumented people, along with 78 organizations in the Drive Michigan Forward coalition, are organizing to restore this right and join 19 other states that have expanded driver’s license access to undocumented immigrants. Without reliable public transportation, undocumented workers must drive to survive — to get to work, school, medical appointments, and more. Expanding access to licenses isn’t just practical — it’s a matter of dignity, equity and need in places across the Midwest.

But state efforts alone aren’t enough. The federal government continues to work around state laws to impose its anti-immigrant agenda as it has in Texas, where we saw 26 state laws bypassed to allow for the expansion of the southern border wall. From the desecration of sacred Indigenous land to further militarize the border, to the horrific abuses in immigration jails, the federal government’s actions have been nothing short of draconian. Thousands of children lost due to family separation policies, women forcibly operated on without consent, and countless deaths in detention — this is a system designed to punish, impose and profit.

For decades, administrations of both parties have poured billions into ICE, empowering private prison corporations and enabling a trail of abuse and medical neglect. This detention machine is a moral failure and an indefensible expense for U.S. taxpayers. It must be dismantled. Immigration detention doesn’t just destroy lives; it fuels deportations, breaks families apart, and tears at the heart of our communities.

Resistance at the state and community levels is critical and federal accountability is nonnegotiable — but will only be possible as more people continue to rise up to defend themselves and their communities. This is what we are trying to do, and we invite people to join us.