Pushing Back Against Abuses of Power

On this President's Day, we reflect on the wisdom of great Americans and spotlight people in New York and Chicago who are vigorously opposing the injustice of the Trump regime

Demonstrators at a recent rally against the Trump regime’s attempted deportations in Chicago. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Andalou via Getty Images)

On this President’s Day—when we are confronting a lawless, felonious president and his gleeful co-conspirators bent on dismantling our democratic way of life—I am reminded once again of the prophetic warning of our first president, George Washington, in 1796. Fearing the dangerous rise of factionalism and lawlessness, he worried about “cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men [who] will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

Washington understood the desire to subvert the power of the people would be “sharpened by the spirit of revenge,” leading to “a frightful despotism”—and the resulting “disorders and miseries” would cause people to “seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.” Such an individual, he warned in his farewell address after two terms as president, would turn “this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”

You would think that Washington had a telescopic lens extending to our own day. While his words from over two centuries ago don’t provide solutions for this ruinous moment, I take strength in his understanding of the human condition and the tragically enduring potential of bad men to abuse power for their own selfish purposes.

In the spirit of the day, we also can take encouragement from the bracing request from Abraham Lincoln amid conditions more deadly and ominous than our own. It is our duty, he explained, to ensure that the many dead at Gettysburg “shall not have died in vain” and that we must remain dedicated to a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Yes, such words are particularly hard to digest as we face the demolition of democracy by Trump and his oligarch accomplice in crime, Elon Musk. But we should also recall the wise and hard-earned guidance of Frederick Douglass, who never knew his own actual birthday but chose Feb. 14 for its celebration. In 1857, after surviving unspeakable torture as an enslaved man and fighting back for his freedom, Douglass offered this strategic and utterly relevant advice:

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

It bears repeating as we consider the nature and quality of opposition to our current hostile takeover: The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

In the last few days, you may have seen that seven prosecutors in the Southern District of New York chose to resign rather than carry out an order authorized by Attorney General Pam Bondi to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Their act of honor and courage is a strong rebuke of a corrupt Justice Department’s demand to halt what they believed was a strong case for political purposes. It also sheds light on Trump’s desire to exploit a beholden Adams to assist his hateful attack against undocumented immigrants in New York.

Here’s how Danielle Sassoon, an interim U.S. Attorney for SDNY, described it in her resignation letter. “Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed,” she wrote, adding, "Rather than be rewarded, Adams’s advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case."

And what did Trump’s so-called “border czar” Tom Homan have to say about Adams’s promise to let Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents operate at New York’s Riker’s Island prison? "If he doesn’t come through,” Homan said, "I'll be back in New York City and we won't be sitting on the couch. I'll be in his office, up his butt saying, 'Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'"

All around America, this mass deportation plan and early actions by agents of ICE have stoked fear, particularly in major cities with large immigrant populations. You may recall that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said this in the first days after Trump’s election: “To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior. You come for my people, you come through me.”

That pledge is being tested by the Justice Department, which filed suit last week against the City of Chicago, the County of Cook and the state of Illinois over its sanctuary laws that limit cooperation with immigration agents. The suit accuses them of “making it more difficult for, and deliberately impeding, federal immigration officers’ ability to carry out their responsibilities.”

In fact, Illinois’ TRUST Act was passed in 2017 under a Republican governor and is consistent with federal law. “We look forward to seeing them in court,” Pritzker said in a statement. Added Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, "We are firm in that our police department will not intervene or participate in any way" in immigration enforcement. "Whether you're undocumented, whether you are seeking asylum or whether you're seeking a good paying job, we're going to fight and stand up for working people."

Yet to better understand both the fear and the response to Trump’s deportation agenda, Chicago-based America, America researcher and reporter Jose Abonce talked to both undocumented immigrants and advocacy group leaders in Chicago fighting to minimize the damage.

The fear is palpable in neighborhoods like Little Village, a vibrant community near downtown Chicago known as the “Mexico of the Midwest.” A local city council member, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, explained that ICE raids have created a climate of terror, causing residents to skip medical appointments, stay away from school and limit visits to local businesses. Sigcho-Lopez described a father with no criminal record who was arrested by ICE after dropping off his child at school.

 “They [ICE] grab a father. They grab a neighbor,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “That's who they grab. And we got to know that the next one will be one of us. Because we think differently. Because we look different.”

One local resident and mother, Chela, talked about an undocumented woman who is paralyzed on the right side of her body from a stroke and lives with her. “She’s terrified [of being deported] and she’s put in 40 years of work here,” she said, noting that she’s missed scheduled doctor visits. “She doesn’t want to leave the house…She's been in the house already like a month and she's terrified to come out.”

Chela, who is a leader of the Little Village Community Council, also talked about the fear of her own 10-year-old daughter. “I'm born here. My daughter's obviously born here. She's 10 years old and she's like, ‘Mommy, are they going to deport me?…Cause they know you, Mom, they see you out there. Are they going to come get me?’”

The fear, Chela said, “is in the neighborhood, but it’s also in the household. It’s extreme in the household.”

But Chela refuses to be passive. She is part of a rapid response team that patrols Little Village looking for ICE agents in order to inform the community about their presence. She says these volunteer groups have blocked ICE vehicles and are even willing to lay down on the street to block the vehicles.

They are not alone. They are part of a broader network of advocacy efforts in Chicago. Another such group is Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), which describes itself on its website like this: “We’re a group of undocumented, unapologetic and unafraid organizers building a resistance movement against deportations and the criminalization of immigrants and people of color in Chicago and surrounding areas.”

One of the group’s co-founders, Antonio Gutierrez, said OCAD used to receive about five calls a week on its hotline before the election and now fields as many as 150 some days. To address the Trump regime’s actions, the group has developed 23 neighborhood response teams with about 800 volunteers who verify and share information about ICE activity.

While Tom Homan originally threatened to arrest 2,000 people during a two-day operation in Chicago, they weren’t even able to arrest 200, according to Gutierrez. Homan subsequently complained that local residents are “very well educated” with “Know your rights” pamphlets and information. “They’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE.”

A little over a week ago, more than 1,000 people marched in the Little Village neighborhood, despite rain, snow and frigid temperatures. At a rally that day for community residents and immigrants rights advocates, demonstrators held signs saying “No More Raids” and “Abolish ICE.”

“We are not what they think we are,” said one labor organizer, who is undocumented and spoke to the crowd in Spanish. “We are simply workers. We should not be treated like criminals. We feel like they [Trump’s administration] are violating our human rights.”

Here’s how Abonce summarized what he learned from his reporting: “While legal challenges remain an important tool, the strength of the movement lies in grassroots mobilization, rapid response networks and community solidarity. OCAD and its allies are committed to protecting immigrant communities, resisting unjust enforcement and ensuring that sanctuary policies remain intact.”

Put another way, courtesy of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will…The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” In the months ahead, we will continue to spotlight people who refuse to buckle under pressure from the oppressive demands of America’s tyrants.

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