We are fast approaching day one of the second Trump presidency. The Legalization for All (L4A) Network will resist Trump’s vicious and racist attacks on immigrants from day one, and we call on everyone to join us. We hope to unite with all people and organizations locally and nationally in our collective fight. If you want to get involved, reach out and join us.
Statement by the Legalization for All Network
We encourage you to join us to protest in cities around the country on January 20. This is Trump’s inauguration day, but is also Martin Luther King Jr Day. We will carry forward MLK’s fight for justice by fighting against attacks on all immigrants and defending our communities from immigration raids.
The Trump Threats
Serious attacks are coming. With politicians like Governor Greg Abbott in Texas and their apparatus across the nation preparing for mass deportations, Trump’s threats are serious. We must be organized if we want to stop the terror and threats.
The centerpiece of Trump’s election campaign was bashing immigrants, like Venezuelans and Mexicans, wrongly blaming them for what the rich class themselves have done to the economy. Trump spread vicious, racist lies about Haitian immigrants in Ohio and Venezuelan immigrants in Colorado. He repeats these lies over and over. At the Republican National Convention and at his rallies, crowds of people held up signs that read “mass deportations now!”
Trump promises to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to start with mass detentions, mass deportations and family separations beyond what we’ve seen under the prior presidents.
He bizarrely says he will end birthright citizenship (meaning anyone born in the U.S. who are automatically citizens), which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This amendment was passed after the Civil War to assure that formerly-enslaved Black people would be citizens, and later court rulings have repeatedly held that this applies to children of immigrants. Trump has no authority to change the Constitution.
Trump promises to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and other protections for immigrants. These attacks could be devastating blows to our families and communities. We must organize within the Chicano, Latino communities and broadly in solidarity with other immigrant and oppressed under attack; like Palestinians and Arabs, African Americans, and others.
It is through the peoples’ struggle and the peoples’ movements that we will resist Trump and the racist institutions that he will try to use to attack us. Our rights and our place in these lands were not given to us, but won through protracted and sharp struggle. Whether we were born here or if we came here as immigrants, we have every right to exist here.
We must organize in our neighborhoods for defense and stop any attempts by the Trump administration to attack our people.
Join us in the streets on January 20 and until we win legalization and full equality for all. Listed below are places where L4A chapters are taking part in J20 protests opposing Trump’s reactionary and anti-immigrant agenda:
- Chicago, Illinois – 11:00am – Federal Plaza, 230 S. Dearborn Street, Downtown Chicago
- Dallas, Texas – 2:00pm – The Square, 110 W Hickory St., Denton, TX
- El Paso, TX – 9:30 am Free Speech Area next to Federal Courthouse, E San Antonio/S Campbell
- Los Angeles, California – 12:00pm – Mariachi Plaza
- San José, California – 4:00pm – Stevens Creek & Winchester Blvd.
- Saint Paul, Minnesota – 12:00pm Car Caravan at 389 Hamline Ave North, 1:30pm Rally at St Paul College, 2:30pm March to State Capitol
- Santa Rosa, CA – 3:00 pm Andy’s Park
