On October 21st, multiple federal agencies—ICE, DEA, DHS, CBP, and the FBI—raided Canal street in an operation targeting a street market and immigrant vendors. This comes two days after right wing influencer and Turning Point USA contributor Savanah Hernandez posted a video documenting the market and vendors, calling for ICE to “check this corner” in a viral tweet. 30-40 men were kidnapped in this raid—a continuation of the ongoing war against immigrants. Five comrades were arrested during protests organized in response to the raid. Four were held overnight inside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. All were released without charges.

These raids are meant to intimidate, destabilize, and pressure immigrants into self-deportation. The United States is intentionally carrying out these raids in broad daylight, with dozens of armed agents and armored vehicles, as a show of force and power—to appease their fascist supporters and backers, and to scare people away from resistance. It is understandable and normal to be afraid in these moments, but fear cannot dictate our response. We are months past the Los Angeles uprising and the anti-ICE demos in NYC earlier this year. We know that symbolic rallies and press conferences with politicians are not freeing people in ICE custody and detention facilities. We know that solidarity is about action and material defense. It is not enough to chant for people to be released when they are already grabbed, We need to actively intervene before, during, and after.

Anti-repression is community defense, and this can only come from developing relationships with immigrants of all backgrounds. In Los Angeles, rapid response was communicated through an infrastructure built on sustained community relationships and mutual aid organizing. We must get to the point where organizing and community work are synonymous. Our current rapid response networks have many organizers who did not grow up in the communities they are responding; who do not speak their languages. The intentions are honest, but limited due to a lack of local knowledge and relationships necessary for effective defense. Community defense must be led by and organized alongside people who live with, work with, and understand the community.

Organize and practice blockades and de-arresting. Understand the physical and psychological tactics of the police. Work with your comrades and develop strategies to take action. Confronting the pigs—whether it’s the NYPD or ICE—is a necessity. It is okay to freeze, to hesitate, and to second-guess yourself, but to give into that fear is to let the state win. It allows the state to kidnap, torture, and kill without consequences. Every moment that passes without resistance is another moment that they win.

Those arrested at demonstrations on Monday were released without bail and currently have no charges. In places like DC, Portland, and Chicago, the state makes a big show out of arresting people—only for those people to be released without charges or later having them dropped.

Still, in cases like that of the Prairieland 17+, we do see a coordinated and disastrous repression campaign, where comrades are now charged with multiple felonies including attempted murder and Antifa-related domestic terrorism. This is the State testing what it can do to leftists, but it is also a test to see what we will allow them to get away with. In cases like this, we must coordinate a united national anti-repression strategy in support of our prisoners and those who resist.

We close with a reminder that ICE is but one tentacle of the repressive apparatus of the state. It is not some great evil that is different than the evils of NYPD, FBI, IOF, or any other fascist militia. ICE and Trump’s escalations are not going against the values of the US. They are carrying out the entity’s genocidal operations as planned. Borders and deportation are tools created to uphold colonialism and imperialism, and they work to uphold capitalist and fascist interests in continuing the genocide of those deemed expendable: the Black, indigenous, and third world nations.