Latinx youth lead anti-Trump protests in Los Angeles

Organizers from the Harriet Tubman Solidarity Center gathered on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on the morning of Feb. 7 to send a message that the people will not tolerate landlord price gouging in the wake of the recent wildfires. That was how the day began, but not how it ended.

Roughly five minutes into the press conference, a large, organized group of high school students approached City Hall carrying homemade signs and flags from various Latin American countries. The demonstration was entirely composed of local Latinx teenagers who attend a high school about a mile from City Hall.

Once the march arrived, the Harriet Tubman Center emcee, John Parker, took the initiative to combine the two events. He invited anyone interested to speak using the center’s amplified sound system. Many of the young people accepted the offer.

Most of those who spoke identified themselves not only as Latina, Latino or Latinx, but also proudly announced themselves as queer, gay or trans. So why had these students taken to the streets?

This demonstration followed a week of similar protests by Latinx youth, all denouncing Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy. The speakers at the Friday demonstration made it clear that they, too, took to the streets to protest what they called Trump’s fascist deportations directed at the Latinx community.

These are quite literally the children of people being deported. The week leading up to Friday, Feb. 9, saw protests of thousands that blocked highways, walked out of schools, and directly confronted police forces. All of these actions were organized and carried out by Latinx youth.

At the peak of the demonstration, Harriet Tubman Center organizer John Parker led the students in anti-Trump and anti-Elon Musk chants. Another political point raised at the demonstration, which had echoed throughout the week, was: No one can be illegal on stolen land.

What is now called the U.S. state of California is, in fact, stolen Mexican land. In 1846, the U.S. military invaded Mexico under the orders of President James K. Polk. The invasion’s goal was no secret. The U.S. invaded Mexican land in Texas and California to expand its markets fueled by slave labor and to strengthen the position of slave states as opposed to free states.

Further, anti-immigrant deportation policies did not begin under Donald Trump. The U.S. has a long history of xenophobic laws and violent anti-immigrant raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its predecessors. In fact, President Joe Biden broke Trump’s deportation record just last year.

For the U.S. government, whether led by a Democrat or a Republican, to deport anyone from land stolen from their ancestors for the purpose of strengthening chattel slavery is as evil as it is ludicrous.

All progressives must join the Latinx community in resisting Trump’s mass deportation policy. This expansion and escalation of Manifest Destiny cannot be tolerated, whether it is aimed at Indigenous, Palestinian or Latin American communities.