GENERAL STRIKE NOW TO STOP THE REPRESSION AND PERSECUTION OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS AND COMMUNITIES AND BUILD WORKERS’ POWER!
FULL RIGHTS FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS!
Build Solidarity With Our Undocumented Neighbors and co-Workers and Demand Justice for All!
On June 26, 2025, Hilary Rivers, a beloved San Francisco drag performer, was abruptly arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents following an immigration court appearance. Just one day earlier, on June 25, Rivers had performed in the Miss and Mr. IFR pageant, a vibrant cultural celebration and a 30-year cornerstone of Latinx queer pride in San Francisco. Mere hours after this joyful event, he was detained. His only apparent “crime” was his immigration status. This raises serious questions about why someone so visibly engaged in community life was targeted by such harsh enforcement.
Rivers’ detention, occurring just two days before San Francisco’s Gay Pride celebration on June 29, sends a chilling message. Even those celebrating their culture and identity are not safe. The timing appears intentional, especially as Latinx LGBTQ+ youth are beginning to organize, resist, and challenge systemic injustice.
Despite warnings that attending the hearing could lead to arrest, Rivers chose to appear and continue the legal process. He is currently detained at the Golden State Annex, an ICE detention facility in McFarland, California, approximately 270 miles from San Francisco.
This incident reflects the Trump administration’s escalating assault on immigrant communities. Rivers was arrested despite following legal procedures, showing that ICE is now targeting even non-criminal immigrants to fulfill arbitrary detention quotas.
The administration’s executive orders and ICE’s enforcement tactics have created a policy landscape that systematically disrupts and terrorizes immigrant communities under the pretense of “security” and “order.” These actions violate core rights, including protection from discrimination, due process, freedom of assembly, privacy, and the right to seek asylum. This is not accidental. It is a calculated strategy based on lies meant to divide us, instill fear, suppress activism, and criminalize dissent. Organizers, immigrants, and marginalized communities are all in the crosshairs.
Socialistas Without Borders unequivocally condemns this intensifying repression. Since January 2025, ICE has deported over 200,000 immigrants through raids, the “Alien Tracker” surveillance app, and public tip hotlines. On March 15, the Alien Enemies Act was invoked to expel approximately 10,000 Venezuelans, most without any evidence of criminal activity and with no due process.
Between 11 and 13.7 million undocumented people in the United States now face heightened risk. Conditions in newly built detention facilities have already led to eight reported deaths in 2024. Racially discriminatory policies such as visa bans affecting 19 majority non-white countries, denial of housing and healthcare, and increased policing of sanctuary cities all point to a systemic racial agenda. These policies disproportionately harm Latinos and Muslims. With 10,000 troops stationed at the border and the use of 737 Section 287(g) agreements to deputize local law enforcement, the government is aggressively escalating its campaign to silence and punish immigrants. The threat to invoke the Insurrection Act adds another layer of fear designed to suppress organizing and protest.
Furthermore, the executive order signed on January 20, 2025, aims to eliminate birthright citizenship. This measure directly violates the 14th Amendment and risks creating thousands of stateless children. It represents one of the most extreme assaults on immigrant rights in modern U.S. history.
These attacks are not new. For decades, both Republican and Democratic administrations have failed to deliver meaningful immigration reform. Nearly 40 years of inaction have left millions of undocumented people unable to regularize their status. In the United States, 5.62 million U.S.-born children live with undocumented parents and now face constant anxiety over potential family separation. This bipartisan neglect laid the foundation for today’s intensification of repression. The system exploits immigrant labor, keeps wages low, breaks unions, and denies basic protections to workers who support entire industries for the profit of the capitalist class. The only path forward is to build a united front of working-class organizations and communities to fight back.
Socialistas Without Borders believes that true change will not come from within the political parties of the ruling class. It will come from the organized strength of workers and oppressed communities.
We issue an urgent call to all community organizations, students, labor unions, and especially LGBTQ+ groups and allies to stand together and confront this repression. It is time to put aside our differences and build a powerful national and international movement that demands the release of all detainees and the dismantling of the repressive apparatus now being reinforced by the Trump administration.
Only through independent mass organization, massive mobilization, and the collective action of the working class can we bring about a system that guarantees freedom, justice, and an end to all forms of exploitation and oppression.
Shut down detention centers and release all the immigrants!
Abolish ICE! Stop the kidnappings and detentions!
Defeat the Attacks on Birthright Citizenship!
Full Rights for All Immigrants! Papers for All!
Socialists Without Borders