With the recent rise of government agencies using authoritarian tactics at the behest of an administration that shows no restraint in using force, many Americans across the country are asking, “What can I do?”
On Oct. 24, one event will provide several answers for the Santa Cruz community.
The “People of the Americas Unite” rally and musical event begins at 6pm at the Vets Hall in Downtown Santa Cruz.
“Everyone is looking for a solution right now because we feel underwater,” says one of the event organizers, Daniel Paul Nelson. “The event is to offer some testimony to the resilience of the democratic spirit.”
The event will feature three keynote speakers, Camilla Chavez of the Dolores Huerta Action Fund, attorney Chase Iron Eyes of the Lakota People’s Law Project and attorney Danny Sheehan of the Romero and New Paradigm Institutes. Sheehan is also Nelson’s father. Each will speak about their expertise as social and legal activists as a way to inform the average citizen to know what to look out for—and fight—racist immigration policy enforcement.
“We want to offer a proactive solution that’s not negative,” explains Phoenix Rose of HeartTribe Presents, one of the event’s other organizers. “One that is unifying versus polarizing.”
Following the discussions, Brazilian artist Poranguí will play a special performance with Nelson joining for several songs. Prior to the main event, there will be a two-hour rally beginning at 4pm at the clock tower.
“The rally will be an opportunity for anyone and everyone to attend and express themselves,” Nelson says.
For Sheehan the time for action is now.
“We’re dealing with the classic analogy of the frog in the water and the heat’s just being turned up,” he says.
Sheehan graduated from Harvard Law School in 1970 and has been fighting on behalf of worker and human rights ever since. His career history boasts some of the largest cases in 20th-century America such as the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate break-in and the Iran-Contra scandal, among many more. In 1992 he and his wife, Sarah Nelson, were chosen to lead the Romero Institute, a nonprofit law and public policy center named after the activist Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero.
He says the administration’s use of fear tactics—from deploying the National Guard into cities to Homeland Security Secretary Kristie Noem’s various photo opps—are effective ways to make people stay home and disengage.
“It’s frightening to see it but you can’t allow yourself to be frightened by these people,” he argues.”The reason we’re having this event is to rally people to realize that what we’re doing isn’t working. I.C.E. is coming into the community with these big military vehicles and sweep people off the streets. Then everyone stands around and watches and takes videos but nothing happens after.”
As of this writing the federal government has been shut down for 20 days with no end in sight. The last time this happened—in December 2018 during the first Trump Administration—it lasted 35 days, the longest shutdown in 50 years. And this time, the administration is threatening to cut even more jobs and budgets as political retribution, say the organizers.
Organizers add that Armed and masked ICE agents patrol the streets in American cities across the country detaining and arresting people at their homes, work and even outside of their immigration status court hearings. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s data, over 2 million immigrants have been deported since January 20th. This includes 1.6 million people “self-deporting” in addition to the over 400,000 government-forced deportations. Analysts estimate that number will be over 600,000 by the end of the year.
Adding fuel to the fire Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which adds $75 billion to ICE’s budget making it not only the most heavily funded government agency in the country but also makes ICE outspending every other countries’ defense budgets with the exception of only 15. Many Americans are calling these increases and arrests racists, arguing they often only target Black and Brown Americans.
Just to up the ante, Trump and the Department of War are sending National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, just off the heels of troop deployment to Washington D.C. in September Los Angeles in June. The White House claims it’s in response to rising chaos amid immigration and Anti-Ice protests while protesters argue the administration is creating unrest and trying to escalate tensions with the increase of ICE and military troops in the streets.
Like authoritarian governments have done before, the current increase in community enforcement along with unprecedented moves by the president and federal government make individual people wonder if it’s all hopeless. Which is precisely the point.
For Iron Eyes the Trump Administration’s current tactics are history repeating.
“We have to recognize we are all confronted by the same corporate, fascistic forces that excorporated Native Americans,” he says. “They stole our land, subjugated us and put us in a slow genocide. But now those same threats are coming for all Americans.”
As a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Iron Eyes has spent his career fighting for Native American rights. He is also the director and lead counsel for the Lakota People’s Law Project. Founded in 2004, the Lakota People’s Law Project started as a subsidiary of the Romero Institute but separated in December of last year. They were a lead organization fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 during the Obama Administration.
“We are rising to the moment,” he continues. “We feel there is a clear and present danger to the American Constitution. The rise of corporate rule and the tendencies towards fascism places us in a sense of heightened awareness that now–more than ever–we need to come together and create a sense of unity.”
Chavez believes change can be two-fold, from the top down and bottom up.
“People need to step out of their comfort zones at this time,” she says. “There are so many people reading this article who know what is happening is wrong but aren’t necessarily the ones out in the streets. Everybody needs to be doing something. If you are against this you need to be doing something.”
She says citizens can get involved on a number of levels from non-cooperation—withholding labor, buying power and other forms of participation—to establishing Rapid Response Networks. That way when the most vulnerable in the community are detained or arrested by I.C.E. or other government agents, there’s already a support group and plan ready to step into action.
For Sheehan, Rapid Response Networks are one part of a multi-tiered plan.
“People need to start meeting and providing much more aggressive support for those who are being taken,” he states. “If the Sheriff and his deputies don’t protect you against an unconstitutional, illegal, unidentified force of people coming in, then you should remove them and replace them with sheriffs and deputies who will protect you.”
However, the common thread between all the speakers at the People of the Americas Unite event is one of hope.
“We can never believe that we’re beyond redemption,” Iron Eyes says. “We must always continue to redeem ourselves and try to do the right thing. It’s our sole purpose as human beings and Americans.”
INFO: Friday, Oct. 24, 6–10pm at Veterans Memorial Building, 846 Front St., Santa Cruz.
