By Cesar Antonio Nucum Jr.

TACOMA, Washington – An International Migrants Alliance (IMA) composed of 850 migrant organizers and allies from all across the U.S. gathered in front of the Northwest Detention Center to launch the Defend Migrants Alliance on Labor Day.

This came after they concluded a political conference that brought together different organizations and groups impacted by the increased ICE detentions and mass deportations, galvanizing them into a united grassroots migrants resistance movement in the U.S. that began in Portland, Oregon and culminated in a caravan at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.

The action brought together over 97 organizations including Comunidad Sin Fronteras, La Resistencia, Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ), Voz, and Tanggol Migrante Movement member organizations such as BAYAN and the newly formed Families of Filipinos in Detention (FFIND) with the crowd chanting “One struggle, one fight! Migrants of the world unite!” throughout the program.

“We need to understand why our people are forced to leave their country to come here only to be kept in what is effectively a concentration camp,” explained Perla of La Resistencia, “More and more people are attempting suicide because they don’t know what will happen and an ambulance comes once a week. We cannot allow the deaths and disappearances to continue.”

Speakers also highlighted private corporate interests in the detainment of migrants. “[The Geo Group] is depriving [detainees] of sleep, basic medical care, and feeding them moldy food and charging the U.S. government a 300% mark up for it,” reported Washington Congressional representative candidate Melissa Chaudry, whose husband, Zahid Chaudry, a decorated Army veteran has been detained at the NWDC since ICE arrested him at his naturalization hearing to become a U.S. citizen on August 21.  

The establishment of the Defend Migrants Alliance is significant as the organizations recognized the common struggle all migrants and workers have under the rising fascism in the U.S. under Trump.

“We formed this alliance to harness the organized strength of our community, and we now total around 50 organizations, alliances, churches, offices, and more that represent over 250 organizations across the country united to defend migrant workers, to build power among our ranks, to hold governments to account, and to grow our movement even larger because the times call for it,” disclosed Andan Bonifacio, Chairperson of BAYAN USA, adding that the current challenges back at home  creates the conditions of poverty that force millions of Filipinos to migrate abroad in search of livelihood where they risk their status, endure exploitation.

Action participants and organizers included formerly detained migrants like Maximo Londonio, and the family members of detainees and deported migrants such as Fran, brother-in-law of Jose Gregorio Medina Andrade, a Venezuelan migrant arrested in Washington who was transferred to various jails across the U.S. before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“He remains separated from his family here in the U.S. Is this justice? No. That’s why we have the campaign for Justice for Jose,” imparted Fran. “Not just for him, but for all the migrants who are separated, detained, and tortured, who only want to support their families and have a better life. I am here to fight to ask for justice and I lift up his campaign so that others can support!”  

“We speak of how the attacks of ICE are tearing our families apart, but the first separation occurs when we are forced to leave our homelands to begin with,” cited Jessica Rojas, of IMA.

“What happens [in the U.S.] echoes everywhere,” stressed keynote speaker and IMA global chairperson Eni Lestari. “When Trump enacts family separation, the world watches, and it emboldens other governments to follow suit. But when migrants in the U.S. rise up, organize, and resist, the world also watches—and it inspires.”