New England DSA protests ICE detentions

Last week, the Maine Coalition for Palestine organized a protest of ICE detention of Columbia University student leader Mahmoud Khalil. Since then, ICE has operated as the Trump Administration’s secret police, abducting a growing number of immigrant organizers for exercising their right to free speech and protesting the U.S.-sponsored genocide in Gaza. The list includes Rumeysa Ozturk, Yunseo Chung, Badar Khun Suri, Momodou Taal, Ranjani Srinivasan, as well as farmworker organizer Alfredo Juarez Zerefino. Maine DSA member and Portland District 2 City Councilmember Wes Pelletier spoke at the Portland Mahmoud Khalil protest and DSA chapters around New England issued a joint declaration reprinted below against the ICE abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk.

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New England DSA chapters demand freedom for Rumeysa Ozturk

Yesterday, ICE agents abducted Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student and pro-Palestine activist at Tufts.

The kidnapping comes after almost 400 ICE arrests in Massachusetts, as well as the doxxing of Ozturn by the pro-Isreal website Canary Mission.

ICE’s abductions—of Ozturk, Khalil, and many others—is an unprecedented attack on basic civil rights in the name of U.S. Empire, whether those detained are peaceful political activists or undocumented migrants seeking safety, jobs, and a better life.

We must stand up against this brazen attack on Palestine, free speech, and the right to protest.

We must stand in solidarity with our neighbors and communities under attack from Trump, ICE, and all agents of imperialism.

Governor Healey, the courts, and the Democratic Party establishment are not coming to save us—we must mobilize, agitate, and organize in our workplaces and campuses to defend working-class rights.

In Solidarity,

Berkshires DSA, Boston DSA, Boston University YDSA, Cape Cod DSA, Connecticut DSA, Maine DSA, Northeastern YDSA, River Valley DSA, Simmons YDSA, Southern New Hampshire DSA, Upper Valley DSA, Worcester DSA

[Listen next: Maine DSA podcast on Bowdoin College Gaza encampment]

Wes Pelletier speech at March 18 rally for Mahmoud Khalil in Portland

I’m here to lend my voice to everyone here to call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil who was illegally detained and is facing deportation. This is part of a sadistic assault on working-class immigrants across the country. It’s part of a broader attack by this administration. In fact, the attack has been going on for a long time, but there’s also something new. This casual separation of families, this destruction of Black and Brown lives has been going on for years but what’s new is that the veneer is off, the idea that these are not white supremacist policies has fallen away. We now have a government that is hell bent on creating fear and uncertainty among everyone.

These are obviously very frightening circumstances. We’re facing a clear and present danger, but it’s also an opportunity. We have a lot of people who are not used to the machines normally reserved for others now turned on them. Yes, it’s scary, but there is an opportunity for solidarity. That solidarity does not come automatically and it’s going to take a lot of work. We need to do what’s right. Meanwhile, the liberal institutions that we count on, the Democratic Party and universities like Columbia are immediately acquiescing to fascism and it’s creating this vacuum.

So we need to turn to each other. Here’s what I’m asking everyone here to do. You need to create community, to build organization. You need to find and join an organization that’s got clear rule and decision-making structures that are democratic so you can create organizations that can help tackle these problems. The time to quibble over small differences has passed. We need to come together against a unified enemy. We need to unify to win this fight. We also need to come together in our communities. We need to go out and knock on neighbors’ doors and join community gardens and create tenant unions and more. This is the kind of community that will protect us because fascism thrives on fear of our neighbors. That’s something we see over and over. They want people to be afraid of the people around them. The poor people, Black and Brown, so you will support the people who will crack down on them. We need to create networks to resist that.

This moment is ours. It’s an opportunity even if it’s dangerous. We’re on the precipice of something, but we can get through this. We can create a stronger, more agile, more powerful working class that’s made up of everyone. We will have something bigger if we do it. So I call on you to contact your representatives, even if I don’t know that they’ll do anything! But it’s good to at least be a pain in their asses.

But more than that, get involved in local politics. Call on Mayor Dion, call on the city manager to stop slow rolling a bill that will prevent police from collaborating with ICE. That’s been kept off the agenda for months. Call the sheriff to end the Cumberland County Jail’s contract with ICE. Get involved at every level of your local government because it feels like something where you can feel your own agency. Together we can effect change in our state, in our county, in our towns. And it creates power and it creates community and it creates resistance. I appreciate you all for coming out tonight. Free Palestine!