Eric Adams has declared himself an energetic collaborator with the fascist Trump's promised war on undocumented immigrants. Here he meets with Trump's "border czar," Thomas Homan, December 12, 2024. Photo: AP
Eric Adams is the immigrant-bashing, flag-waving, and police brutality-defending Democratic mayor of NYC. Over the last two weeks, he has declared himself an energetic collaborator with the fascist Trump’s promised war on undocumented immigrants.
The Trump program calls for massive raids and round-ups of undocumented immigrants; cruel and life-threatening detention; mass deportation; and heartless family separations, or simply deporting the children of non-citizens with their parents. All on a scale and with a ferocity unseen before, including using the U.S. military to carry out this terror... now that the fascists will have their hands on the key levers of state power.
Trump’s designated appointee to oversee this onslaught is Thomas Homan. In Chicago, he read the riot act to Democrats: “come to the table” (to facilitate this program) or “get the hell out of the way.” And Eric Adams cheerfully met with him last week.
To find out how a new socialist government brought about through an actual revolution would approach immigration and immigrants, go here.
It is this program that is setting the terms for how American cities are supposed to be run—and which the Democrats have no real answer to. And the fascists want to intimidate decent people who stand against injustice into accepting this—proclaiming that this is “what the American people want and voted for.” The Democrats have repeated this in so many different ways. No, as Bob Avakian has analyzed, America is really “‘two countries’ within this country,” and millions upon millions of people DON’T want the fascist program and onslaught of Trump.
The lives of millions of undocumented immigrants are at stake.
This brutal assault has to be powerfully opposed RIGHT NOW with the immediate goal of defeating this Trump/MAGA fascism!
Adams Reports for Fascist Duty
Immigrants wait to register at the Roosevelt Hotel, which is being used by New York City as temporary housing, August 1, 2023. Photo: revcom.us
Eric Adams has been trumpeting his intention to find “common ground” with Trump fascism. He has repeated the mantra that the American people voted to “fix immigration,” and declared that he’s “open to anything [our emphasis] to get criminals out of our city.” A quick box score of his eager cooperation with fascism:
—On December 3, Adams declared that undocumented immigrants are not entitled to the right to due process (like the right to a trial) under the U.S. Constitution. “The Constitution,” he proudly asserted, “is for Americans.” Actually, due process is supposed to apply to anyone on U.S. soil, even non-citizens. Adams then went on to suggest that undocumented immigrants who have been accused of crimes should straight up be deported... never mind the niceties of the right to a trial. Adams is not just going along with the fascist program, he is mouthing it and adding his own touches!
—Adams announced that he wants to scale back the city's “sanctuary” laws. These are rules that put some very limited restrictions on the ability of federal authorities to round up undocumented immigrants. These include preventing NYC’s police and jails from turning over most detained immigrants to the federal government and agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
—Adams rushed to lick the boots of Trump’s fascist enforcer on immigration, Thomas Homan. Adams requested and got a special meeting on December 12 with Homan, Trump’s newly designated “border czar.” Adams said, “I’m not going to be warring with this administration” and had the “same desire” to crack down on undocumented immigrants. He instructed his legal team to seek out new lines of communication and cooperation with the new Trump administration.
Adams’s moves and rhetoric are a blatant and dangerous threat to the fundamental rights and lives of all immigrants in NYC. He’s paving the way for Trump’s country-wide assault on undocumented immigrants—especially sweeping into major cities of the U.S. beyond the U.S.-Mexico border, like Chicago and Los Angeles.
This from the Democratic mayor of the country’s largest city, a city with an undocumented immigrant population of some 500,000! This from the mayor of a city that has over 3 million immigrants... that is a major destination for immigrants from all over the world seeking asylum (protection from human rights violations) and life-threatening circumstances they suffer in other countries.
Adams says that he’s only going after the “criminal elements.” But two things about this. First, he hasn’t backed down from his position that these “criminal elements” do not have to be convicted of any crime. Second, this focus on “criminal elements” is the doorway to widening and rationalizing the terror net. The first Trump administration employed the practice known as “collateral arrests.” This meant taking into custody immigrants in the same place as those who were targeted for arrest by ICE.
Meanwhile, Eric Adams has been working overtime to pit different sections of people against the undocumented: U.S.-born people against new immigrant arrivals, legal immigrants vs. the so-called “illegal,” Black people against immigrants. Ridiculously, he bellowed, “I'm not a person that snuck into this country. My ancestors have been here for a long time.” Yeah, brought here as slaves in fucking chains.
Clarity on Why Migrants Come to the U.S.... No Human Being Is “Illegal”
Migrants and refugees are driven to the U.S. by the workings of and the suffering caused by the imperialist system. The so-called “invasion at our borders” has everything to do with the U.S. propping up brutally repressive regimes and sponsoring death squads in Central America. It has everything to do with the operations of U.S. agricultural corporations taking over agricultural lands, and with trade agreements imposed on these countries that have ruined small farmers in Mexico and elsewhere. The so-called “immigration crisis” has everything to do with imperialist invasions, wars, and occupations, from Iraq to Haiti—and financial strangulation of regimes they don’t like, as in Venezuela.
We do NOT have an “immigration problem.” What the people here and around the world have is an IMPERIALISM PROBLEM.
And what we have, very immediately and urgently, is a fascism problem, one that will take things to an even worse level of horror—unless people move, and move quickly and in growing and massive numbers, with actions beginning now, to oppose this horror.
How a New Socialist Government Would Approach Immigration and Immigrants
The following is an excerpt (pages 60-63) from the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian.
H. Immigrants, Citizenship and Asylum.
1. Throughout its history and its development into an imperialist power, the United States of America depended on the exploitation, often in extreme conditions, of generations of immigrants, numbering in the many millions, who were driven to the USA as a result of oppression, poverty, war and upheaval. These immigrants–including those from Europe who came to the USA during the latter part of the 19th and the first part of the 20th century, or at least several generations of them–were also subjected to discrimination and demeaning treatment, although after a period of time many of these immigrant groups were integrated into the larger “white European” population in the USA and, on the basis of expansion and conquest by U.S. imperialism, and the spoils acquired in this way, many were able to rise from the ranks of the working class and poorer sections of the population and become a part of the “American middle class,” with a more or less privileged position in relation to especially the lower and more exploited sections of the proletariat and the masses of Black and Latino people and others concentrated, and forcibly contained, within the decaying and repressive confines of the inner cities of late imperial America. At the same time, and in a heightening way through the end of the 20th and the first part of the 21st century, as a result of the domination and plunder carried out by U.S. imperialism throughout most of the Third World in particular, and the devastation and massive dislocation that resulted from and accompanied this, great numbers of immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, as well as other parts of the Third World, were driven to the U.S., many of whom were not able to secure legal entry and consequently were forced to live in the shadows and remain vulnerable to extreme exploitation as well as to discrimination and to violence and terror carried out by the state and by mobs encouraged by reactionary policies, actions and statements of the government and government officials. And the ruling forces of the imperialist USA seized on this situation to further tighten control over, and unleash more terror against, these immigrants and to subject many of them to even more extreme exploitation, while whipping up a xenophobic and fascist anti-immigrant atmosphere.
The defeat and dismantling of the imperialist USA and its machinery of violent destruction and repression has radically changed this situation. In this revolutionary struggle, and its victory, large numbers of immigrants, as well as masses of Black people and other oppressed nationalities within the former imperialist USA, played a crucial role, and they can and must continue to play a vital part in the continuing transformation of society, and the world as a whole, as part of the backbone of the New Socialist Republic in North America.
2. At the time of the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, all those residing within the territory of this Republic–with the exception of those who played a leading role in opposing the revolution which brought about the establishment of this Republic, and/or who may have been found guilty of war crimes and/or other crimes against humanity–shall have been accorded citizenship in this Republic, with the rights and responsibilities of citizens, in accordance with this Constitution. And, from that time forward, all those born within the territory of the New Socialist Republic in North America, as well as all those, wherever they are born, who have at least one parent who is a citizen of this Republic, shall be citizens of this Republic.
3. The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic, as set forth in this Constitution and in laws and policies which are established and enacted in accordance with this Constitution. From the time of the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, anyone residing outside of the territory of this Republic who wishes to enter its territory, and any such person wishing to become a citizen, or a permanent resident, of this Republic, must follow the relevant laws and procedures which have been established on the basis of this Constitution. Anyone who applies for asylum in this Republic and, through the relevant procedures that have been established for this purpose, is found to have been persecuted, or to have a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of having taken part in just struggles against imperialist and reactionary states or other reactionary forces, or on account of scientific, artistic, or other pursuits which have brought them into conflict with reactionary powers and institutions, shall be afforded asylum in the New Socialist Republic in North America, so long as they pledge to act in compliance with the Constitution of this Republic, and do act accordingly. Provided that they do not engage in any serious violation of the laws of this Republic, people granted asylum have the right to remain within the territory of this Republic for as long as they choose to do so, and shall be accorded the same rights as citizens, with the exception that, so long as they have not become citizens, they may not vote in elections or be elected or appointed to public office. They shall have the right, after a certain period, determined by law, to become citizens of this Republic, with the same rights and responsibilities as all other citizens. The citizenship process, as well as review of the asylum status of all those granted asylum, shall be carried out in accordance with the laws and procedures established for these purposes.
4. Anyone who is discovered to have entered the territory of this Republic without following the relevant laws and procedures, shall be detained and provided with a timely hearing, conducted by the government institution with the relevant responsibility, to determine the reasons for their presence within this Republic. In connection with this process, such persons may apply for asylum or seek residency on some other basis, and these requests will be considered in the light of the basic orientation and principles set forth here. If, however, evidence emerges which would indicate that the person, or persons, in question have entered the territory of this Republic not only by means that are in violation of its laws, but also with the intent to further violate the law in an effort to carry out sabotage or otherwise do harm to this Republic and its people, then criminal proceedings shall be instituted against such a person, or persons, in accordance with laws and legal procedures established on the basis of this Constitution.