ILWU Statement of Policy Condemning Attacks on Migrants
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) unequivocally condemns attacks on migrants by the federal government and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ongoing federal immigration raids across our country are brutal and destructive actions designed to terrorize and destabilize migrant communities — not to keep our country safe. The ILWU stands in solidarity with all migrant workers and calls on the labor movement to stand up, once more, against these often violent, unnecessary escalations.
Recent immigration raids are unjustly targeting workers
Since January 2025, federal immigration raids have increased in magnitude, targeting migrants at schools, workplaces, and even churches.[1] Contrary to the current administration’s claims that the focus is on migrants with criminal records, the majority of the nearly 100,000 people detained by ICE since January have no criminal convictions.[2] Tens of thousands of hard-working community members, many of whom have lived in the United States for decades, are having their lives turned upside down — just trying to meet White House advisor Stephen Miller’s alleged quota of “3,000 arrests a day.”[3] We do not support a national policy that destroys families, destabilizes our communities, and does nothing to make anyone safer.
Everyone’s civil rights are threatened by this extreme federal overreach — not just migrants
The federal government’s unprecedented actions in Los Angeles, throughout Southern California, and across the country pose severe threats to everyone’s civil liberties. Deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles was a dangerous escalation of force designed to instill fear and stifle dissent. The right to peaceful protest is a bedrock of American democracy and must not be infringed on. Far-right immigration policies proposed in Project 2025 (a political initiative with close ties to the current administration), such as an intensified nationwide deportation machine, the expansion of migrant detention centers, and a harsh crackdown on asylum seekers, are quickly becoming our reality. People are being snatched off the street by unidentified and/or masked ICE agents, denied due process, and sometimes deported to countries they have never even been to. These actions are an assault on basic civil and human rights and an affront to rights afforded by the United States Constitution. The current administration’s statements and actions resemble the fascist regimes of Europe in the 1930s.
Aggressive, reckless immigration enforcement is a wedge used to divide workers and weaken our collective power
Anti-migrant rhetoric and policies turn struggling U.S.-born workers against their migrant neighbors, rather than against the employers who exploit workers and keep wages low. ILWU’s Third Guiding Principle states, “Workers are indivisible. There can be no discrimination because of race, color, creed, national origin, religious or political belief, sex, gender preference, or sexual orientation,” and our Fourth Principle states, “To help any worker in distress must be a daily guide in the life of every trade union and its individual members. Labor solidarity means just that.”
Honoring our Guiding Principles means opposing any actions or rhetoric that pit workers — no matter where they were born — against each other. Any attack on migrants is an attack on the working class. We stand in solidarity with migrant communities and workers across this country in the face of these escalating acts and call on our union brothers, sisters, and siblings to mobilize in defense of our fellow workers. We also call for bipartisan federal legislation to create a fair, humane, and functional immigration policy that protects human rights. An injury to one is an injury to all.
Download a PDF of the statement here.
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[1] https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2025/07/ice-targets-immigrants-church-grounds/
[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-detentions-non-criminal-immigrants-violent-crime-convictions-analysis/
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-28/trump-immigration-officials-set-target-of-3-000-arrests-a-day