Meeting the Moment Requires Reading the Moment
As Trump’s administration changes tactics in Minnesota, but clearly not their overall national strategy of dominance, it’s critical that we take the right lessons from what happened in the Twin Cities. To end the administration’s reign over our lives, we must understand the meaning of what is taking place—not just for ourselves, but for the broader coalition we need to align in order to win. And we cannot let Trump being less obvious about violence make him more acceptable.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I heard from organizers in Minneapolis during the height of the Trump invasion there. What they described to me wasn't about a policy debate or focused on an “issue” as we think of it in professional circles. They were talking about something much more visceral—that people were afraid to live their lives. They couldn't make plans. They couldn't rely on their everyday routines. They felt like the government may attack them at any moment; any infraction or insult could cost them their lives. It was chaos. The fundamental freedoms of everyday life that people took for granted no longer felt guaranteed.
It didn’t sound that different from what many Black communities face (except for the ‘taking freedoms for granted’ part). But the widespread physical nature and scope of it clearly made it feel different.
So what were most people in Minneapolis resisting when they fought back? Was it the attacks on immigrants, or was it the changes in their lives that resulted from those attacks? Was immigration the line Trump crossed, or did ICE symbolize crossing a different line altogether?
We’ve Been Here Before
During Trump's first term, we faced the Muslim ban and kids in cages, and there was a lot of public pushback. Both were immigration issues—on their face.
Many leaders across our movement believed people were getting newly activated on the issue of immigration. They thought public opinion on immigration was shifting in big ways. They thought people were rallying around a cause with staying power, that an immigration movement revival was in the making. But they were wrong. And they misread or ignored evidence to the contrary. Misreading that moment is part of how we wound up back in an even worse situation right now.
In reality, most people were activated against Trump, not for immigration. Immigration was the domain in which Trump demonstrated cruelty, lawlessness, moral transgression, government overreach and carelessness in putting so many children and families in danger—all in the most in-your-face ways. Those things motivated people.
The meaning of immigration didn't change in that moment. But the actions the administration took on immigration changed the meaning of Trump. (Even then, I'd argue his actions on Covid changed the meaning of Trump far more than immigration did, having a much greater effect on decreasing his support and convincing people that change was necessary in 2020.)
We cannot afford to misread the meaning of the moment again.
It’s not easy. I needed to be just as sober in understanding the opportunity created by the racial justice uprisings in 2020. New commitments were possible. But what were people really committing to? Under what conditions could they be reversed, and were we ready to reckon with that reality? It was essential to understand the meaning of the moment—not what we hoped it meant but what it actually meant. Most people also missed the nature of people’s activation related to racial equity back then, and therefore their motivations, as well as the relative ranking of those motivations. Much like with immigration, just as many thought we were on the verge of major progress, we saw the biggest regression in a generation come at us with full force just a few years later.
The Door They Enter Isn’t Always the Door We Use to Throw Them Out
Immigration is one of Trump's levers for rehearsing and advancing authoritarianism. But that does not make it our best lever for effectively fighting back. It has opened up space for more people to join the opposition, but it is not necessarily the underlying idea or banner cause we should adopt to drive the opposition forward and keep people engaged, aligned and active. Different events will symbolize the true through-line motivation for people, the one that will sustain their drive to fight back. But it will evolve. It’s not about a single issue like immigration.
Will it be violence against non-immigrants? Will it be taking away essential healthcare? Will it be affordability? Will it be throwing everyday life into chaos? Will it be all of these, in sequence?
In 2003, the supposedly scientific evidence of weapons of mass destruction was the pretext for going to war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But the war wasn't about science, and the opposition to it wasn't about that big lie so much as the big cost in terms of money, lives, and the neglect of domestic needs—not to mention the failure of the war itself. The Bush administration’s lever of advancement and our lever of opposition were not the same.
Today, immigration is the easiest entry point for Trump to expand state violence. Yet, what people are experiencing goes far beyond the issue of immigration. Citizens, including white people, are being detained, home-invaded, and otherwise violated by Trump's quest for power and control. People aren't just afraid for their immigrant neighbors. They are afraid for themselves.
That’s the change in norms that crosses the line and feels unbearable. The one people don’t want to vote for. The one people can’t stand by and watch without getting involved. The one certain Trump enablers realize they do not want to be associated with years from now—or even next year.
Freedom Isn't an "Issue"
People don't like lawlessness and unpredictability, the kind of personal chaos that Trump and his cast of out-of-control characters have forced into their daily lives, much like during Covid. That's what ICE now represents for many people.
A hard truth: We haven’t been successful at turning people around on immigration, and what’s happening now is not going to be a shortcut. Far more than we want to admit, most people will still tolerate an orderly assault undocumented immigrants, even if it goes too far and makes them uncomfortable. But what's been happening in LA, Minneapolis and so many other places that have not yet reached mass public consciousness—but could, if we make it—is different.
Changing norms of taste and values is one thing. But taking away every guarantee of the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth,Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments is another thing. Most people don't know those amendments by number. But they know the fundamental freedoms those amendments protect—and the sense of right and wrong they stand for. They know what it means for their lives and futures if those freedoms are no longer reliable.
That puts everyone in a panic and it makes it impossible to live normally.
Freedom isn't an issue. But it’s something people need to feel they can win or lose, in order for them to take action at a new level of disruption they never thought they would.
Investing in the Right Kinds of Leadership
Right now, we must invest in the leadership of those who know how to use the cause of freedom to bring people out, to make it universally motivating. We must look to people fighting for their own lives, in ways that millions of people feel is fighting for their lives, too. What's happening now may be giving many Americans a taste of what it's like to live as an immigrant in this country. But the response can't be to focus on immigration as an issue.
In the Twin Cities and elsewhere, we have seen people finding new ways to participate. It takes a lot of people cooperating to get done what Trump’s team is trying to do. Every point of cooperation is an opportunity for disruption: warehouse purchases, state and local government collaboration, neighbors watching in silence, corporate contracts, media disinformation, grand jury votes and more. Supporting the formal and informal leadership driving interventions in each and every one of those areas is our essential work right now.
Investment isn’t just money. It’s amplification, cheerleading, material support, participation, network-building, leadership development and engagement-driven storytelling.
The full story of what's happening on the ground isn't reaching enough people. Masses of Americans should know and feel what was described to me, as I heard stories from organizers on the ground. They need to feel that reality in their bones, and see where they can plug in. But the story is incomplete right now, and that's limiting how many people are being moved to act.
We have to find the symbols and stories we can popularize—the ones that show this is more than what people expected and can tolerate from Trump, in ways that are motivating. We have to ensure people know what's going on. Not as an immigration debate. Not as a policy argument. But as a story about whether the freedoms they rely on to live their lives are still there, and about the big and small ways they can stand up for what they believe—and need.
