Sarah Lazare

The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.

If the immigration enforcement apparatus of the US were its own national military, it would be the 13th most heavily funded in the world. This puts it higher than the national militaries of Poland, Italy, Australia, Turkey, Canada, and Spain — and just below Israel.

The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.

“If the immigration enforcement apparatus of the United States were its own national military, it would be the 13th most heavily funded in the world.“

- @sarahlazare.bsky.social & Lindsay Koshgarian, @inthesetimes.com

inthesetimes.com/article/ice-...

The surge in federal violence has been met with an outpouring of organizing in Chicagoland, where rapid response networks have been equipping communities with knowledge and skills to help protect residents. That organizers are up against such a huge force underscores how brave they are.

The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.

If Trump's deportation machine were an army, it would be the 13th largest on earth, ahead of Poland, Canada, Iran. The funding increase kicked in Oct 1, as federal agents unleash violence on the Chicago area, raiding communities and brutalizing protesters. By me & Lindsay Koshgarian, 📷 Steel Brooks.

This is how federal agents are showing up to protests against ICE. This is from Friday am, on 25th around the corner from the Broadview detention center. Looks like an invading army.

A note of caution to journalists: Don’t report ICE claims as fact. They lie all the time. And they have a huge propaganda apparatus to spread their lies. Don’t be part of it.

When you help ICE violently repress protesters, you enable them to do what they did in Chicago today: detain an alder trying to protect someone in a hospital, teargas a 2 year old in Logan Square, kidnap people from the street, terrorize workers and kids and neighbors just trying to live their lives

Pritzker told us to take out our phones and record ICE. But what do we do when it’s his own state police force brutalizing protesters, pinning them in so that federal agents can beat them? Illinois state police were standing shoulder to shoulder with ICE at Broadview today.

Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes' office has released video of federal agents handcuffing her at Humboldt Park Health, as she asked them to present a judicial warrant for another arrest.

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor While Chicago sees a surge of ICE detentions, workers are facing retaliation as immigrants when they advocate for their rights.

· ICE’s campaign of terror is “chilling speech and chilling organizing…among immigrant workers” prospect.org/labor/2025-1... @sarahlazare.bsky.social @prospect.org

Seen earlier today on 25th near Harvard, close to Broadview immigrant detention center, where protests were taking place.

Just to be clear, numerous local police departments were working in tandem with federal agents this morning to shut down protests against the Broadview ICE detention center. ICE and cops (and other federal agents) were shoulder to shoulder, doing maneuvers together to violently repress the crowd.

My husband was detained by ICE today

Juan Muñoz, an American citizen, father of 2, and local government official, was peacefully protesting w. other elected officials. He was assaulted and taken away

I have had zero contact or updates since

#SOS
@duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov

Here are all of the police departments out here at Broadview ICE detention center, confirmed by me and photographer Steel Brooks: Broadview, Oak Brook, Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff

Illinois state police armed like this while they surround and confine protests at Broadview ICE detention center

Out here at Broadview ICE detention center. Illinois state police are doing “crowd control” of the protest and I just saw an individual detained and put into a van that said “Cook County Sheriff” on its side. It drove away with the person inside. Seems like police collaborating with ICE.

Gaza’s Nightmare Gaza is becoming a graveyard without the luxury of graves.

"Gaza is becoming a graveyard without the luxury of graves."

All eyes on the Global Sumud Flotilla. The tracker is here: globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker/ And the 24/7 livestream is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEN2...

How Microsoft Workers Helped Halt a Major Contract With the Israeli Military A grassroots campaign successful pressured the tech monopoly to take an unprecedented step toward suspending its complicity in the Gaza genocide

Read this piece by @maximillianalvarez.bsky.social.This is a remarkable story, and these workers are AMAZING.

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor While Chicago sees a surge of ICE detentions, workers are facing retaliation as immigrants when they advocate for their rights.

"Unlike the immigrants now being abducted off the streets, employers rarely find themselves the target of immigration enforcement, beyond fines that are already factored into their cost of doing business." — @sarahlazare.bsky.social @workdaymagazine.bsky.social via @prospect.org

@rebeccaburns.bsky.social's recent piece (also published by @inthesetimes.com) illustrates how pension funds can be used to inhibit or advance the interests of the many.

Bargaining for the Common Good approaches like CCG's will be key. cacommongood.com/pension-strategy

bsky.app/profile/sara...

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor While Chicago sees a surge of ICE detentions, workers are facing retaliation as immigrants when they advocate for their rights.

Before Laura Murillo, a street vendor, was detained by ICE, she had saved for a year to take her daughters on a four-day trip to Wisconsin; they took the trip in late June.

I spoke with one of her daughters, 19, who said, “My sister needs her. We need her."

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor - Workday Magazine This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The American Prospect. CHICAGO – The last time Regina heard from her mother, Laura Murillo, she was calling from inside the ICE detention ce...

This article is a joint publication of @prospect.org and @workdaymagazine.bsky.social. You can see the Workday Magazine version here.

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor While Chicago sees a surge of ICE detentions, workers are facing retaliation as immigrants when they advocate for their rights.

ICE is terrorizing immigrants—and being used as a tool to discipline labor. A witness in a wage theft case was detained. Immigrant warehouse workers face discrimination. Day laborers and street vendors are being targeted, and so are rapid response networks. My latest.

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor While Chicago sees a surge of ICE detentions, workers are facing retaliation as immigrants when they advocate for their rights.

We have an on-the-ground report from Chicago, where the ICE blitz has been met with a community response to protect residents. But some employers are using the abduction campaign to retaliate against and silence worker organizing. From @sarahlazare.bsky.social and @workdaymagazine.bsky.social:

42 Students and 1 Adult: Minneapolis Educators Demand Safe Staffing - Workday Magazine Union and community members rallied in support of Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59 before the union went into mediation with Minneapolis Public Schools.

"The school board shared in an email with Workday Magazine the specific raises that some administrators are receiving, and the highest is a 19.57% raise of $27,955. According to the union, that raise exceeds what some union members make in an entire year." Important reporting from Amie Stager.

I've learned so much over the years from @blbalthaser.bsky.social's scholarship on Jewish left anti-zionism, and I can't wait to dig into this book that just arrived.

Financing Our Own Destruction How workers’ pensions fuel attacks on the working class—and how to reclaim them for the common good.

"Because of a patchwork, highly financialized retirement system, union pension dollars have been implicated in almost every manner of attack against the working class." Excellent piece by @rebeccaburns.bsky.social. inthesetimes.com/article/fina...

Two women stand amidst a crowd at a protest, raising fists and shouting passionately. Others hold signs, creating an atmosphere of determination and solidarity.

"This is about realizing ICE is a national police force. It is literally a set of people who are armed who are law enforcement and under the directive of the executive branch, meaning the president of the United States."

“Abolish ICE” doesn’t mean rebranding or shifting its powers elsewhere—it means ending the deportation, detention & incarceration machine targeting immigrant communities.

Read @sarahlazare.bsky.social's 2018 piece on the demand’s roots & meaning:

inthesetimes.com/article/abol...

The Trump admin is trying to shock us with (admittedly terrifying) images of militarized federal agents rolling through the downtown of a "sanctuary city" kidnapping people. But there are other images coming out of Chicago, too, like this one of communities rallying to defend day laborers this am.