Protests against Trump are spreading — and creating a labour movement
Ordinary Americans behind some of an expected 1,500 rallies planned for Saturday
While much of the attention on immigration raids and the protests against them have been focused on Los Angeles, rallies are popping up in cities across the United States as protest and labour movements against the Trump administration continue to grow.
On Monday, demonstrations organized in part by labour unions were held in at least 13 American cities, including Austin, Tex., San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.
More rallies are planned for this weekend.
On Saturday, more than 1,500 "No Kings Day of Defiance" events are expected to take place across the United States. The rallies are meant to counter U.S. President Donald Trump's planned Flag Day parade in Washington, D.C.
Black dots crowd a map on the No Kings website showing the dozens of places protests are planned across the U.S.
"The flag doesn't belong to President Trump. It belongs to us. We're not watching history happen. We're making it," the group wrote on its website.
Armida Vicente-Sanchez, a 29-year-old welder, is organizing the No Kings rally in Dalton, Ga., the city of about 30,000 where she lives.
Earlier this spring, Vicente-Sanchez had been paying close attention to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids at schools and workplaces. People in her family have feared they could be targeted.
"Once anybody messes with my family or with anybody that I love, that's all you need to set a fire in me," Vicente-Sanchez told CBC on Tuesday.
Vicente-Sanchez added that Latino people in her community, regardless of their citizen status, have been fearful of ICE because the raids have resulted in the detention and even deportation of people with legitimate immigration statuses.
'Only difference … is that my skin is brown'
Vicente-Sanchez was born in New York State, but whose family is from Guatemala. "I have papers just like you. The only difference between me and you is that my skin is brown," she said.
She said message groups are used to alert others to the possible whereabouts of ICE agents, who are often not in uniform when carrying out raids. Vicente-Sanchez said she has approached suspected agents in public places like Home Depot and asked who they work for.
"I have every right to do that," she said.
Her Saturday protest is planned for noon outside a small commercial building in Dalton. Vicente-Sanchez said the aim is for a peaceful show of solidarity.
"We're not trying to start anything like riots or nothing like that," she said. "It has nothing to do with what's going on in L.A. Like, this is our own protest."
Legal scholars and democracy watchers have raised concerns about the Trump administration's response to the protests, especially the president's weekend decision to federalize California's National Guard without consent from the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, and to send 700 marines to Los Angeles.
Newsom has sued the federal government for its action, but some say the president's proclamation deploying the National Guard is so vague that he could easily repeat the move again and again in other states where there is dissent.
"The legal language that Trump is using is in fact ambiguous on whether it's a requirement that he goes through the governors," said Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at Princeton University who specializes in new autocracies.
Scheppele and other democracy experts that spoke to CBC worry Trump is trying to escalate clashes between protesters and law enforcement to justify using even more force against them.
The No Kings Day organizers appear aware of this possibility.
"Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance," the group wrote on its website.
"They've defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too far…. We're taking action to reject authoritarianism."
When Trump was asked Tuesday about the protests, he said he hadn't "even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force."
Meanwhile, citizens like Vicente-Sanchez aren't alone in their fight.
A burgeoning labour movement has popped up alongside anti-ICE protests as unions decry the federal agency's targeting of workplaces.
On Monday, thousands of protesters gathered in at least 13 cities to call for the release of David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California, who was arrested last week during a protest against an ICE raid at a garment warehouse.
Huerta was released Monday but faces a federal felony charge of conspiracy to impede a federal officer.
'Threat to our democracy'
Barry Eidlin, an associate professor of sociology at McGill University, researches social change in the U.S. and Canada, with a particular focus on labour movements. He said that unions joining in calling an end to the raids are giving protest movement legitimacy.
"It makes it much harder to dismiss the protesters as just a bunch of malcontents intent on rioting," said Eidlin, who splits his time between Montreal and L.A.
In coming days, he plans to attend the protests in L.A. He noted that if movement continues to grow, "it could really alter the balance of power" against Trump.
Erik Berg, the president of the Boston Teachers' Union, attended one of Monday's #FreeDavidEndRaids rallies calling for Huerta's release. He said this is "an important moment in organizing history."
"We have a federal government that is going after people who disagree with them politically. That's a threat to our to our democracy," Berg said.
"When faced with threats to democracy, labour movements around the world have always stood up and refused to be silent," he added. "We need to continue to do that."
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