First they come for the illegal immigrants...

Y'all know the rest.

Reminder: Writing letters to your senator, signing petitions, posting on facebook, and attending rallies are in now way an exercise of power.

"In some cities, activists said that ICE had set up roadside or neighborhood checkpoints, where ICE agents, often in unmarked cars, appeared to be asking people at random for proof of citizenship or identification."

I hope this is fake news.

And following children home from school, to their undocumented parents. Who are then taken away, from their children who were used.as Judas goats.

Not only guarantees nightmares for the now-parentless child, but should give the rest of us nightmares, as well.

What happens when Mad King Trump runs.out of indocumented immigrants?

Remember he's only three weeks into his presidency, and if Jill Stein has her way this is going to be a long 8 years under an insane emperor with ADD.

This is evil.

And I expect already there are tens of thousands of good, God-fearing 'Murkins who have been complaining about "all the illegals taking our jobs" even now rushing in to their local employment offices ready and eager to fill the low-wage, menial labor positions suddenly opening in the wake of these mass deportations.

'member when republicans were losing their shit about Obama "fundamentally changing America"??

@6: Jill Stein? I think she's fizzling out.

I wonder how long before they start setting up roadblocks.

@2 Sportlandia, I think you have a typo that makes the meaning of your comment a bit ambiguous. However, I'll offer the following thought:

If the powers you're fighting try to discourage you from engaging in a certain form of resistance, that probably means it's effective. So whatever they don't want you to do, do more of it. If they belittle protest marches and make up lies about paid protestors, keep marching. Etc.

@8 bingo. Alabama and Georgia had to back off their super strict employment verification laws because people wouldn't work those jobs. This is just creepy. Can't we pick on the real criminals? Like the businesses who hire them?

Weren't there just reports of airport immigration 'police' defying the restraining orders? Is there some cabal in immigration that's willing to let Trump leapfrog over legal limits to his childish will?

If there were real penalties to American employers hiring undocumented workers, illegal immigration would decrease to a trickle.

Capitalism, especially in the USA, depends on cheap/free labor. Why do you think we had slavery for 250 years, then segregation for another ~90? Even before slavery there was indentured servitude keeping people trapped in cycles of poverty and free labor.

These crackdowns only ensure poverty and economic violence in the American Caste system.

"Keep 'em scared, they'll work for less!"

"Capitalism, especially in the USA, depends on cheap/free labor."

Certain models of capitalism do (just as certain models of socialism have) but the great thing about this policy is it will expose the blatant hypocrisy which continues to inf…:

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.

(H/t to commenter Ima Dunce at HA.org.)

We've dishonestly depended upon cheap, undocumented labor in our country for a very long time. It's time to end the practice, by ensuring a real path to citizenship exists for all persons who labor for us here. These abusive raids are, paradoxically enough, a good place to start.

@17:

In principle, I certainly agree with your position, but it's going to be a different story when those same 'Murkins who were shouting "BUILD THE WALL!" a few months ago suddenly see the price of produce in their local grocery store shoot up a couple hundred percent, either because there are no longer enough migrant workers available to harvest crops, thus creating shortages; or conversely, agri-businesses suddenly are forced to pay living-wage compensation in order to get other 'Murkins to do the work formerly performed on-the-cheap by all the migrants who've been deported. The looks of shock, turning to confusion, and then to anger as the realization slowly dons on them that this is a direct result of the very immigration policies they so vociferously supported will be worth it - even if it means paying $4 for a single avocado or head of lettuce.

...suddenly see the price of produce in their local grocery store shoot up a couple hundred percent...

I'm actually looking forward to that. As I am to the owners of large farms and orchards in Eastern Washington who voted for Trump having to pay $$$ to keep their crops from rotting at harvest time.

Elections, consequences, etc.

This could be the incentive to reform both our immigration and agricultural policies.

Is Trump going to raid his hotels?

@12 I don't know his intended meaning either, but the sorts of protests we are seeing right now actually will be effective in the long run (if we can keep them up). But many of the things Sportlandia mentioned are in fact futile, especially sending emails or signing online petitions etc.

Phone calls help. So does showing up at local legislative halls to speak as a witness against bills or sign against a bill - there are a lot to eliminate sanctuaries and give local power to ICE, etc. Also the sort of demonstrations we've seen are helpful both in networking, solidarity and in sending a signal to legislators, but the really important tactics are going to be actually going to your reps' offices in a group and going to town halls in groups AND most importantly filling up your local dem precinct with progressives who will not cooperate with Trump and running them in the midterms. It's too much for one person to do, especially if you have a career and family responsibilities, so the best thing to do is find a local progressive or leftist or resistance organization in your area- there are hundreds of them right now around the country. If you don't know of one, contact your local Dem office and ask if the former Bernie supporters have a local org (this isn't about Bernie, just that those people are very well organized and are actively getting citizens involved) or if your city has a local BLM, ACLU or indivisible chapter you can contact them and ask what org you can join to get involved in progressive Dem politics or resisting Trump. At the very least you can be kept in the loop about when to call legislators (put them on your speed dial, do it during your commute) and when there are demonstrations or protests. Good luck guys! Thanks for caring about immigrants!

As someone who helped undocumented immigrants pro bono in Fair Labor Standards Act cases, a couple notes:

"Jobs Americans just won't do" is a total myth. More like "jobs employers just won't hire Americans to do."

It's fairly easy for an employer to fake a labor shortage on paper to get authorization for guest workers. They do so because Americans have a pesky habit of enforcing their rights, since they can't be intimidated with threats of deportation like either guest workers or undocumented immigrants. @3 is absolutely right.

Google, for instance, the Signal International human trafficking case.

This is slavery. It's not humble, hard-working people who are willing to do jobs Americans are too spoiled to take, or to do them for less. (It's no coincidence that there are higher rates of unemployment in areas with guest worker programs and undocumented workers.)

It's rampant fraud, baiting people to come based on one set of terms, then switching it with duress and extortion.

Those who lose their jobs because they can't compete with slavery have legitimate grievances. To brush them off as merely racist or lazy is ignorance borne of privilege, akin to saying "let them eat cake." Just because you're too well-heeled to want such a job does not mean no American does.

Of course, Trump's raids are the worst form of victim-blaming. The solution is more stringent prosecution of the employers, more stringent enforcement of the FLSA for all workers regardless of immigration status, and to educate the undocumented so they realize they have rights, too, and they shouldn't have to be afraid to step forward and enforce them.

But in order to propose an alternate solution to the problem, liberals have to acknowledge that there is a problem, and that American citizens are being hurt by the current situation, too, instead of writing off many of those who lost their jobs as being motivated by nothing but racism.

Thanks Xiao, that's such a good point. Likewise, when liberals refuse to acknowledge the existence of the problem, it does play into the hands of the right because it denies people's real life. The right offers an explanation- an unethical xenophobic manipulative explanation, but nonetheless it addresses the problem. In addition to the things you named, we can't address the problem of illegal immigration and how to deal with it without addressing American foreign policy and violent interventions in the region, trade deals, and drug policy. Likewise, illegal immigration is also a drain on public ed in some areas and on health care- two more massively broken systems that won't be fixed by a policy as simple as deporting people. Also issues with current immigration raids and proposed deportations exist beyond illegal immigration- the problems associated with feds having more influence on local policy, for profit detention centers, militarized police, breaking apart families, etc.

There is this odd concept in American politics. We describe people, including ourselves, as liberal or conservative, rather than our ideas.

If human beings are inherently liberal or inherently conservative, there is no way to change their nature. Their ideology is no longer movable, its fixed, permanent.

Yet, that's clearly untrue. If it were true, voting patterns would never change, except generationally. In 2008, just 8 years ago, North Carolinians voted for a liberal candidate. and then again in 2012. Do you mean to tell me that there was such a huge population shift in that state that greater than half its population who was inherently liberal just four years ago fled the state in such numbers that now greater than half are inherently conservative?

Of course not. There is no such thing as an inherently liberal or inherently conservative person. People change their points of view. New issues arise and old issues fade away. And sometimes people are conservative on some issues and liberal on others. Some folks are neither conservative nor liberal on anything.

Mostly, people vote according to their feelings. If you scare them or insult them, they will vote in reaction to that fear or pain. Does it make any sense to verbally assault the voters? Attack electeds if you want, sure, but the electorate?

I want to see the wall come down. I want open borders, and freedom of movement for all persons. We have a massive population of baby boomers who are retiring in waves. They vastly outnumber the Millenials and Xers who comprise the workforce. If you know anything about how Social Security works, you should look at that and see a demographic landslide that endangers all of us. We have two options: Logan's Run, or open borders. Open the borders, and you'll get workers who pay into the system faster than the Boomers can drain it. Keep the borders closed, and the only way to keep the system viable is to kill grandma, so she doesn't drain the system faster than it can be replenished.

Want to retire? Then you'd better start liking Mexicans a whole lot. I recommend judiciously kissing their asses and apologizing, because if they decode not to forgive us and stay away, we're fucked.

However, to get that wall to come down, we have to convince granny to stop voting for anti-immigration bigots. She's not listening to the scorn and derision we've been slinging at her from the coasts. Her and the rest of Kansas or Indiana or Nebraska have decided that we've hurt their feelings so much, they're not listening to what we have to say.

Be nice to granny. Appeal to her emotions. Make it feel good to oppose the wall. Stop calling her an ignorant bigot. Start reminding her of her own immigrant parents. Show her how hard working and family oriented these people are. They're willing to go through all the crap we put them through just because they love their kids and want those children to have good lives when they grow up. Isn't that what family values is all about?

Give granny a kiss on the cheek, not a slap in the face. We need her vote. And you won't get it by insulting her.

@3: "Give them rights and stuff and they will become just another bunch of fat lazy Americans."

Yeah, but it takes a while. I had a fascinating discussion with the coach from California at a national math competition. We'd each brought our best-four-in-state math students to compete at the highest level. He said, "Most people look at my four and think, 'Asian-Americans'. I (a 4G and 5G Asian-American) look at them and think 'first-generation Asian Americans'."

He went to say that he didn't see a difference in multi-gen Asian-American and Euro-Americans in achievement, work ethic, or becoming a mall-rat. It was those who immigrated themselves and the next generation who are so obsessed and successful at working hard to get ahead.

It was eye-opening, because I too grew up in California, and while I'm suspect of anecdotal data, out of scores of Asian individuals I've known personally, I struggle to find an exception to that rule. I do see exceptions on the Euro-American side. 1 in 20 or 1 in 50 will strive to succeed, so it isn't universal or pre-determined, but damn, it's a strong correlation.

@24 - Thank you. Liberals do the same thing with free trade agreements, too; [retend there is no problem so that Republican bullshit solutions sound better than the nothing we are offering. For a party that supposedly supports working class families we sure do like to pretend their problems are imaginary.

Thank you Emma Liz and XiaoGui for adding thoughtfully to this discussion.
And thank you to Balmont Guy for the funny.
I wonder what you do if you're a large agricultural business owner, and the executive's inherently contradictory policies put you in a bind? Start raising honeybees?