Newark, NJ, May 9—“Ho ho, hey hey, Carimer is here to stay!”  “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!”  So chanted a multiracial crowd of 300 students, union members, church leaders, and community fighters in support of Carimer Andujar, a 21-year-old student at Rutgers University at risk of deportation.
Carimer had been summoned to appear at a hearing at the Federal Building before ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) that might have resulted in her detainment and deportation.  At the age of 4, Carimer immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic along with her sister and mother, who was fleeing from domestic abuse.  Though Carimer is in the Obama-era DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), she was still vulnerable to being deported.
Carimer is a founder and current president of a campus organization called “UndocuRutgers,” a support group for students with DACA status; her being summoned before ICE was widely interpreted as an attempt at political intimidation.  But Carimer contacted the faculty union, the AAUP (American Association of University Professors).  The union spearheaded a spirited rally to defend Carimer outside the Federal office where the ICE hearing was held.  She rejoined the crowd after 2.5 hours and a five minute hearing, telling them that no further action was being taken in her case.  She thanked the crowd warmly for their support, saying that had they not been present the case might have turned out very differently.
The rally displayed both strengths and limitations.  
On the plus side: (1) The militancy of the crowd at the rally exemplified what “sanctuary” has to mean at this time.  While lots of cities and university campuses have designated themselves as “sanctuary” zones (that is safe areas for people in danger of deportation), this doesn’t necessarily mean anything when push comes to shove.  Rutgers President Robert Barchi, for instance, made a big deal of declaring Rutgers a “sanctuary” campus soon after the 2016 election, but he did not lift a finger to defend Carimer.  It was up to students and workers to take up her cause.  (2) The multiracial make-up of the crowd, and its rejection of racist immigrant-baiting, constitutes the kind of defense that is needed in these increasingly perilous times, when the ruling class is vigorously promoting racism and US nationalism.  (3) Some of the speakers were pretty radical!  One pastor of a church with many Indonesian members who have been detained and deported declared, “I am a man of God and am not supposed to hate anyone.  But I HATE the government symbolized by that [Federal] building!” (4) Members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) distributed some 150 leaflets and copies of Challenge newspaper to the crowd.
On the negative side: (1) Only the PLP leaflet connected the attack on Carimer and the wave of attacks on undocumented immigrants with the larger crisis of capitalism and the designs of U.S. imperialism. PL’ers need to get more deeply involved in these pro sanctuary organizations and fight for a revolutionary, class based analysis that explains that it’s “the whole damn system” and a better world is possible.
 (2) While a few speakers alluded to the millions of deportations that occurred under the Obama regime—“This situation is nothing new”—in general the Democratic Party (DP) got a free pass by the organizers of the rally.  A number of prominent DP politicians sent their warm wishes to Carimer, even though they have done nothing to combat the wave of state terrorism against predominantly immigrant communities in New Jersey.
(3) Even the most militant speakers embraced U.S. nationalism, proclaiming the multiculturalist credo that immigrants have always “contributed” to “America” and are the source of its “greatness.” This kind of seemingly progressive patriotism is a sure loser for the working class.
So self critically, we need more PL members more deeply involved in the organizations that are defending NJ’s undocumented population from racist attacks.  We were not able to have a PLP speaker at this rally though we did speak at a small May Day rally on the Rutgers campus the week before. We were able to expose the hypocrisy of President Barchi’s inaction around and explained the need to abolish the capitalist system that is at the core of all social injustices.  But we need to get our revolutionary ideas out more often and in more places. We need to be more deeply involved in various NJ immigrants’ rights organizations; including those defending DACA youth. At the Federal building rally, PL was present only in our leaflets and newspapers. Our revolutionary class analysis would have made a big difference and would have been well received. You have to be in it to win it!