Today Trump signed an order to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities, which refuse to check for immigration status or to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants due to their immigration status.
As a workers’ representative, as a socialist, as an immigrant woman of color, I stand with all my sisters and brothers in saying we refuse to be intimidated. We will not be complicit in allowing Trump to gather information on or deport our immigrant sisters and brothers. To counter federal funding cuts for social services, we can do what this city should have done years ago: tax Trump’s rich friends and big corporations to pay for and expand those services.
The surveillance state has long been out of control. Now with the ascendance of the dangerous Trump administration, the Seattle government must urgently take measures to no longer allow federal agencies to install surveillance cameras on City property. I’ve proposed legislation to have those warrantless cameras taken down, and we must build a movement strong enough to force the City Council to pass the bill as soon as possible.
Trump is seriously overstepping. The historic marches last weekend, coupled with the dismal outpouring of public support at the inauguration, prove his mandate is non-existent.
Regular working people have the power to stop his bigoted, right-wing, anti-worker agenda. This will require the 99% to get organized and build a sustained mass movement in the streets, including protests and mass non-violent civil disobedience.
We must also be prepared to find concrete ways to challenge those companies and departments which support and enforce Trump’s malicious plans at the City level. One example of this is our current movement-driven effort to divest $3 billion from Wells Fargo over their sponsorship of the Dakota Access Pipeline and their long history of corruption.
Elected officials have a duty to stand up to Trump’s plan, and I intend to hold Seattle’s elected officials to their word.