Protesting Trump’s “Dystopian” Immigration Policies

Yesterday I joined with hundreds of others in taking to the streets of south Minneapolis to protest the Trump administration’s racist and inhumane immigration polices, including raids by ICE and immigrant deportations. Our core message was a simple one: Immigrants are welcome here.

The rally and march was organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC).

Following are a few of my photographs from yesterday, accompanied by an excerpt from Feven Gerezgiher’s MPR News article about the event.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month, America hasn’t felt the same to Antonio Hernandez.

“I cannot believe it,” he said. “It feels very dystopian.”

Hernandez, a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, joined the ranks of demonstrators in Minneapolis on Saturday to protest President Trump's immigration policies.

Trump, on entering office last month, signed scores of executive orders reversing Biden-era policies and reinstituting plans he set in place during his first term. At least 20 executive orders are aimed at blocking immigration, including directives to stop refugee arrivals, redefine who can become a U.S. citizen at birth, continue building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and bolstering the ranks of federal immigration officers.

Supporters rallied on Minneapolis’ East Lake Street – a vibrant corridor of Mexican, Somali and other immigrant-owned businesses – packing the area on a grey and cold winter afternoon. They carried signs reading “All are welcome here” and “Immigrants Make America Great.”

. . . While “sanctuary cities” like Minneapolis and St. Paul limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and have ordinances in place to prioritize local trust and safety, sanctuary cities have also been targeted by Trump. In January, the president signed an executive order denying federal funding to sanctuary cities and directing his administration to pursue action “to the maximum extent possible under the law.”

The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee organized the protest. “We want to show that we are in solidarity with our immigrant community . . . and tell Trump that we’re not going anywhere,” said Latifah Moss, a MIRAC spokesperson.

Moss said people now know what Trump is capable of and are more prepared to act.

She said MIRAC has ramped up its activism since Trump’s inauguration, offering more “Know Your Rights” trainings aimed at supporting immigrant communities and their neighbors.

– Feven Gerezgiher
Excerpted from “Demonstrators Protest Trump’s
‘Dystopian’ Immigration Policies, Promise to Fight Back”
Minnesota Public Radio News
February 1, 2025

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

2025
• Signs of the Times: The 2025 People’s March
• Bishop Budde Confronts President Trump on His Anti-Trans and Anti-Immigrant Policies

2024
• International Migrants Day

2021
• “The Absolute Gall”

2019
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – January 8, 2019
• Honoring Óscar and Valeria
• Demanding Justice and Embodying Compassion for Separated Families
• Holden Shearer: Quote of the Day – July 12, 2019
• Marianne Williamson: “Today Is a Day of Shame”
• Let Us Be the Wise Ones They’re Waiting For

2018
• “What We’re Seeing Here Is a Tipping Point”
• Jeremy Scahill on the Historical Context of Trump’s “Pathologically Sick” Anti-Immigrant Agenda
• Something to Think About – November 27, 2018
• Christmas in America, 2018

2017
• “It Is All Connected”
• Stephen Mattson: Quote of the Day – January 25, 2017
• Historian: Trump's Immigration Ban is a “Shock Event” Orchestrated by Steve Bannon to Destabilize and Distract
• Something to Think About – January 29, 2017
• 2000+ Take to the Streets of Minneapolis to Express Solidarity with Immigrants and Refugees
• On Holocaust Remembrance Day, James Martin Labels as “Appalling” President Trump’s Plan to Demonize Immigrants
• A Prayer for Refugees

2016
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump
• Trump’s Playbook
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying "No" to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda

2015
• Rallying in Solidarity with the Refugees of Syria and the World
• Sanctuary for Gay Syrians Danny and Aamer

2012
• Something to Think About – June 25, 2012

2007
• Fasting, Praying, and Walking for Immigration Reform
• May Day 2007


Images: Michael J. Bayly (except opening image which is by Ben Hovland of MPR News).

Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup by an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up by a Felonious President”

Marisa Kabas is a Brooklyn-based independent writer and reporter. In June of 2022 she launched her blog The Handbasket “after watching the journalism infrastructure crumble over the last decade.”

Following (with added links) is an excerpt from her latest post, “Did You Hear About the Friday Coup?”

This week felt like the first battle of a long war — and that’s because it was. On Monday the White House Office of Management and Budget announced a freeze on all federal funding, and — aside from that order being blocked by a judge later in the week — it was all downhill from there. The enormity of the week culminated in a deluge of distressing developments on Friday that you may or may not have heard about.

Elon Musk has, for all intents and purposes, taken control of the inner-workings of the federal government. As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he’s been given a mandate by President Trump to severely cut the number of federal government workers by whatever means he sees fit, like pressuring them to retire early or accept a deferred resignation. He’s also been tasked with slashing spending — and if it benefits him personally as well, that’s fine, too.

Friday began with the news that the highest ranking nonpolitical staffer and acting director at the U.S. Department of Treasury was retiring after a dispute with Musk’s henchmen. They wanted access to the payment system that the government uses to disburse trillions of dollars, and David Lebryk, a career civil servant, was not having it.

Lebryk was the only thing standing between DOGE taking control of the system that pays out Social Security and Medicare benefits, federal salaries, tax refunds, among many other crucial systems. And on Saturday, we learned DOGE has, in fact, been handed full access to the nation’s wallet by newly-confirmed Department of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Mr. Musk, who has been given wide latitude by President Trump to find ways to slash government spending, has recently fixated on Treasury’s payment processes, criticizing the department in a social media post on Saturday for not rejecting more payments as fraudulent or improper,” the New York Times wrote. “It is not clear whether the team led by Mr. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, has blocked any payments since gaining access to the system.

“It’s like a bank heist and the bank is America,” a source in the federal government told me. “Not really being hyperbolic to say control of those systems would allow an extremely fast collapse of the economy. Imagine it’s a plumbing system and someone takes a sledgehammer to the central pipe.”

. . . It’s essential to reiterate that all of this is illegal. What remains to be seen is how broadly the legality of it will be challenged, and whether Trump-appointed judges will rubber stamp Musk’s actions anyway.

At the end of a historically hellish Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could only offer toothless posts on Bluesky. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told the New York Times, “If there is a middle of all of this hot mess of division, Americans want us to work together when we can and find common ground.”

The impotence is as staggering as the abdication is sickening. But the current message from elected Democrats is loud and clear: You’re on your own. And the message from the Musk/Trump administration is even clearer: You’re next.

As someone wrote to me today, “The first coup was violent insurrection. The second coup is administrative. We failed to ensure Donald Trump could never return to power again after the first coup; our job right now in this moment is to acknowledge reality and halt the second.”

Organizers are trying to get the wheels in motion for a real opposition. Sunday night at 8pm ET there will be a virtual call hosted by Indivisible, a group that rose to national prominence during the first Trump administration. RSVP here if you’d like to join.

. . . It’s not even two weeks into the second Trump administration, but the breadth of the destruction is clear. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say we’re witnessing a coup by an unelected billionaire propped up by a felonious president, and we must treat it as such. Even if, as some have reported, it wasn’t even featured on Friday’s nightly news.

– Marisa Kabas
Excerpted from “Did You Hear About the Friday Coup?”
The Handbasket
February 1, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Call It by Its Name: A Coup – Robert B. Hubbell (Today’s Edition Newsletter, February 1, 2025).
The Logic of Destruction . . . And How to Resist It – Timothy Snyder (Thinking About, February 2, 2025).
Dictator Donald Thinks He’s Invincible; He’s Not – Ralph Nader (Common Dreams, February 1, 2025).
We Must Create a Broad Anti-Fascist Movement to Fight Back Against Trump 2.0 – C.J. Polychroniou (Common Dreams, February 2, 2025).
Top Treasury Official Out as Musk Cronies Demand Access to Payment System That Funnels Trillions in U.S. Funds – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, January 31, 2025).
“DOGE-Affiliated Goons” Accused of Locking Career Civil Servants Out of Key Databases – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, January 31, 2025).
Trump’s First Week: “Designed to Destroy the United States From Within" – Chauncey DeVega (Salon, January 30, 2025).
Amid Confusion, Panic and Backlash, Trump’s White House Rescinds Funding “Freeze” on Grants and Programs – Chris Walker (TruthOut, January 29, 2025).
Think Trump’s Tyranny Can’t Be Opposed or Stopped? Think Again – Jeremy Brecher (Common Dreams, January 29, 2025).
The Hostile Takeover of the United States by Corporate Raiders Has Arrived in Full – Thom Hartmann (Common Dreams, January 29, 2025).
Trump Is Clearly Moving in an Authoritarian and Potentially Fascist Direction – John Ripton (Common Dreams, January 29, 2025).
What Trump’s Pardons and Retribution Say About His Fascist Threat – Chuck Idelson (Common Dreams, January 29, 2025).
“Trump Is Trying to Collapse Our Economy”: War on “Woke” Revealed as a War on All Americans – Amanda Marcotte (Salon, January 29, 2025).
“We Do Not Consent” Says Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Illegal “Power Grab” as Judge Halts Trump Order – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, January 28, 2025).
Trump Tries a January Coup – Again: The President Wages War on the Separation of Powers – The Ink (January 28, 2025).
Trump’s Most Lawless Action Yet – David Dayen (The American Prospect, January 28, 2025).
Energized Neo-Nazis Feel Their Moment Has Come as Trump Changes Everything – Ben Makuch (The Guardian, January 26, 2025).
Donald Trump Is the Empire Unmasked – Caitlin Johnstone (CaitlinJohnstone.com, January 21, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Signs of the Times: The 2025 People’s March
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• Neoliberalism vs Neofascism: Cornel West on the State of U.S. Politics
• How Empires Are Built and Rebellions Are Born
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
• What the Republican Party Now Stands For
• Venice Williams on How We Get Through the Next Four Years
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’ Faltering Presidential Campaign
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living in Very Serious Times and We Need to Be Very Serious People”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
• History Matters
• Progressive Perspectives on the Crisis in U.S. Electoral Politics
• Will We Let Fascism Come to America?

Image: Artist unknown.