“No human being is illegal.” “We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us!”

These are well-known slogans in the immigrant rights movement, being voiced by community activists across the U.S.A.

The deportation of immigrants has escalated since the Trump administration took office this year. Reports and visuals of the first batch of 104 Indians shackled and sent home on a military plane in February 2025 shocked many. Close to 400 Indians have been deported so far.

Over the last few months, agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as ICE have detained several student activists who participated in non-violent protests against the destruction of Gaza. The Trump administration has invoked an 18th century Alien Enemies Act to deport close to 300 immigrants to the notorious CECOT or Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo - The Terrorism Confinement Center prison in El Salvador.

There have also been ICE raids against immigrant communities in towns and cities across America, like Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, where locals pushed back to support neighbors and friends and called for due process.

Who does the most difficult jobs?

Immigrant rights organizations, lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Committee are working full time to halt such deportations and courts have been giving some favorable judgments.

America’s population of close to 342 million includes 53.3 million immigrants or foreign-born individuals. Some 15 million are undocumented, disparagingly called illegal immigrants, according to a January report from the Center for Immigration Studies.

Activists are asking who creates wealth in the U.S. and does the most difficult jobs? It is immigrant workers who form the backbone of the economy, as participants of a well-attended seminar agreed. The event, titled Union and Community Activists Unite for Immigrant Rights organised by the activist group Boston South Asian Coalition, took place at the Cambridge Community Center, in Cambridge MA, a couple of months ago but remains relevant as the issues discussed are not only ongoing, but have intensified.

The U.S. construction industry has eight million workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This includes 1.6 million immigrant workers constituting 20% of all construction workers, according to a University of Michigan report, ‘The Perils of Undocumented Construction Workers in the United States’, May 2024.

In some cities like New York, immigrant workers account for 63% of the construction workers of which 40% are undocumented. In Texas, an estimated 400,000 of the construction workers are undocumented. Immigrant workers suffer a higher incidence of work-related injuries as much as 30% more than native born workers, says the report.

American farms contributed to 0.8% of the GDP -- $222 billion, with the combined agriculture and food-related industries accounting for 5.5% of the GDP -- $1.53 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis in 2023. Almost three-quarters of the farm workers, 73% are immigrants who put the food on the tables. Among them undocumented workers make up 50% of the total workers.

In the ‘care economy’ that includes nannies, cleaners, maids and personal care assistants, an estimated 300,000 are undocumented, according to data from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

“Immigrants also fill many support roles in long-term care facilities, with more than 30% of non-direct care workers, such as housekeepers and dietary services staff, being foreign born,” David Grabowski, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School told CNN earlier this year.

“Caregivers are the backbone of long-term care, and foreign-born workers are a big part of that backbone. Without them, we’d have huge staffing shortfalls and individuals’ quality of care and quality of life would be worse.”

The U.S. meat packing industry is a dangerous one, known for its exploitative working conditions and high rates of injury. It directly employs more than 500,000 workers across America, according to the North American Meat Institute, a D.C.-based association representing U.S. packers and processors. The meat industry relies heavily on H-2A and H-2B visa programs to fill jobs, reports the American Immigration Council, referring to temporary, agricultural or nonagricultural, or seasonal worker visas.

According to ‘Death on the Job; The Toll of Neglect,’ a 2024 report by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), 5,486 workers across various sectors, including mining, agriculture and construction died on the job in 2022, of whom 1,248 were Latinos, and 60% were immigrants. The fatality rate for Latino workers was 4.6 per 100,000 workers, 24% higher than the national average. The sectors in the economy affected included agriculture, mining, construction which have large numbers of immigrant workers including those who are undocumented.

Honour role of immigrants

“Teachers and other organized workers can and should organize without fear with members of the community to fight back the attacks against immigrants and all workers by the Trump administration,” Amrita Dani from the Boston Teachers Union told Sapan News. “If we are not bold and willing to take that action, attacks will only continue.”

“It is important to build on the legacy of the International Workers Day and honor the role of the millions of immigrants in the U.S. who walked out on that day in May 2006,” she added.

“Contracts can secure real victories,” Evan MacKay, a Boston-based labour leader and current teaching fellow at Harvard University told Sapan News. MacKay gives the example of Local 5118, the Harvard Graduate Students Union that won pooled funds to support workers facing legal or immigration challenges, funded by the employer.

But a contract alone is not enough. Without active enforcement by the workers themselves, legal language can be just words on a page. Harvard University agreed on paper to eliminate a fine that impacts low-income workers in 2020, but continued to impose it — until worker organizing forced them to stop in 2023, notes MacKay.

Ultimately, union power lives in the membership, and it depends on bottom-up organizing strong enough to get worker demands met.

The Brazilian community has become increasingly fearful, afraid to even attend doctor’s appointments, go to work, or allow their children to attend school, says Heloisa Galvao, the Executive Director of Brazilian Women’s Group in Boston, herself an immigrant.

“As panic spreads, families experience devastating income losses, which has led to skyrocketing rates of homelessness and food insecurity,” says Galvao, who has been involved with working Brazilian women for many decades.

As her organisation tries to scale up efforts to help the communities, she calls for collective action to not only protect immigrant workers and their families but also to create a just world for all.

“Hum Ladenge aur Aum Jeetenge!” We will fight and win!

“Si Si Puede” - Yes, yes, we can!

Union activists and community organizers of different nationalities agree that there is work to be done in neighborhoods and workplaces to keep immigrants safe. This includes working people and families continuing to show solidarity with each other regardless of their immigration status.

(The writer is a healthcare worker in the Boston area who is interested in issues of labor, justice and peace. This feature piece draws upon a seminar she participated in recently in Cambridge MA, Views expressed are personal. By special arrangement with Sapan)