The Raids… and the Resistance

Summary

Trumpland with Alex Wagner: Episode Summary – "The Raids… and the Resistance"

Release Date: January 30, 2025
Host: Alex Wagner, MSNBC
Episode Title: The Raids… and the Resistance

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1. Introduction to Newark and the ICE Raid

Alex Wagner opens the episode by transporting listeners to Newark, New Jersey, the state's most populous city with over 300,000 residents. She accompanies Rafael Chavez, an organizer for New Labor, a group dedicated to immigrant rights and worker protections, through the usually bustling streets of February Street, now eerily empty.

Notable Quote:

Rafael Chavez [00:39]: "It was empty. It's not like regular Saturday or Sunday."

The emptiness is attributed to a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at the Ocean Seafood Depot in Newark’s Ironbound section, which left the community shocked and unsettled.

2. Escalation of ICE Operations Under the Trump Administration

Wagner delves into the significant increase in ICE activities since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency. Statistics highlight a dramatic rise in daily arrests:

• Under Biden: Average of 282 ICE arrests per day (September last year).
• Under Trump: Average surged to 753 arrests per day, with some days reaching up to 1,179 arrests.

This escalation is part of President Trump’s intensified deportation campaign, aiming to detain up to 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay, as announced by Trump later that week.

Notable Quote:

Ras Baraka [04:01]: "Most people don't even know about it."

3. The Ironbound Community: History and Demographics

Ironbound, a neighborhood with a storied history of immigration, has evolved into a predominantly Latino area, especially with a large Ecuadorian population. The area is known for its diverse restaurants, reflecting its multicultural heritage.

Notable Quote:

Rafael Chavez [05:03]: "Yeah. A lot of national popular restaurants in here."

According to the 2022 U.S. Census, over 34% of Newark’s residents were born outside the United States, significantly higher than the national average of approximately 14%.

4. Community Response: Education Workshops

In response to the heightened fear and uncertainty, immigrant rights organizations like Make the Road New Jersey are hosting workshops titled "Know Your Rights." These seminars aim to educate immigrants about their constitutional protections and how to respond during potential ICE encounters.

Notable Quote:

Nnedi Amorsi [12:00]: "Why are we here tonight? Por ques ta mos aqui esta noche?"

These workshops incorporate role-playing exercises to help participants practice their responses when approached by ICE agents, emphasizing the importance of not providing information without proper warrants.

5. Personal Stories: Gloria and Maria

The episode features intimate conversations with immigrants Gloria and Maria, who share their fears and experiences amidst the rising ICE raids.

Gloria's Story: Gloria expresses profound fear and uncertainty about her safety and that of her family. She discusses the difficult conversations she has with her children about the possibility of deportation and the emotional toll it takes on her.

Notable Quote:

Gloria [15:50]: "I tell her we're in this together."

Maria's Story: Maria, a community leader, speaks about her proactive approach in educating her children and community members about their rights. Despite her fears, she remains resolute in advocating for unity and resilience.

Notable Quote:

Maria [16:55]: "We are not us and them, we are all equal."

6. Mayor Ras Baraka's Perspective

Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark provides a critical viewpoint on the federal raids, emphasizing their unlawful nature and the unnecessary fear they instill within the community.

Notable Quotes:

Ras Baraka [04:01]: "They violated people's Fourth Amendment rights."

Ras Baraka [21:23]: "No. The people at the store, they were not criminals. They were not gang members, rapists."

Baraka condemns the broad and indiscriminate tactics of ICE, highlighting the detrimental impact on Newark’s diverse and hardworking population. He also expresses concern over the Trump administration’s disregard for constitutional protections.

7. The Broader Struggle: Sanctuary Cities vs. Federal Policies

The episode underscores the tension between sanctuary cities like Newark, which resist cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies. High-profile figures, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and talk show host Dr. Phil, have publicly aligned themselves with the administration’s crackdown, further polarizing the issue.

Notable Quote:

Ras Baraka [23:54]: "Most Americans are not cynical. They're not white supremacists. Like, they believe in immigration."

Baraka criticizes the Democratic Party for lacking a cohesive response to these policies, urging for a unified stance to uphold constitutional rights and protect immigrant communities.

8. Community Resilience and Resistance

Despite the pervasive fear, the episode highlights the resilience of Newark’s immigrant communities. Workshops and community gatherings serve as pillars of support, fostering a sense of solidarity and empowerment. Organizers like Nnedi Amorsi emphasize the importance of unity in the face of adversity.

Notable Quote:

Nnedi Amorsi [26:45]: "The only way that we're going to find our liberation is together."

The episode concludes on a hopeful note, showcasing the collective strength and determination of the community to resist oppressive policies and safeguard their rights.

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Conclusion

"The Raids… and the Resistance" offers a comprehensive and poignant examination of the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration policies on Newark’s immigrant communities. Through personal narratives, expert insights, and the unwavering stance of local leaders like Mayor Ras Baraka, the episode paints a vivid picture of fear, resilience, and the ongoing struggle for justice and equality in America.

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Transcript

[Amen Mohadin]

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[Alex Wagner]

What was it like here on the weekend?

[Rafael Chavez]

It was empty.

[Alex Wagner]

Empty.

[Rafael Chavez]

Empty. It's not like regular Saturday or Sunday. And February street, which always is packed. Yeah. People in the restaurant, people in the stores, families always around here. But you see right now, yeah, there's no one around. There's no one around.

[Alex Wagner]

It's a Monday afternoon in Newark, New Jersey's most populous city and home to just over 300,000 people. I'm driving around with Rafael Chavez, an organizer for New Labor, a group fighting for immigrant rights and worker protections. The reason this usually bustling street is so empty during the Monday lunch hour, according to Chavez, is because last Thursday, just a few blocks away, there was a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, better known as ice. It was really just a matter of where and when Immigration and Customs Enforcement would strike. And that raid at a seafood distribution company in Newark's Ironbound section yesterday around noon, was nonetheless a shock and a.

[Ras Baraka]

Stunning for the owner, the people who work there.

[Alex Wagner]

The raid happened at a local fish market. ICE officers entered the back of the Ocean Seafood Depot and detained several workers, including a United States citizen who also happened to be a military veteran. He was detained despite showing ICE officers his military ID as colonization.

[Rafael Chavez]

We try to get there faster we can.

[Alex Wagner]

A witness at the scene called Chavez's organization right away, and he rushed over.

[Rafael Chavez]

We were trying to look around the business. Where is the ICE car? You know, within singles we're looking for. Immigration is there, but we don't see nothing suspicious.

[Alex Wagner]

The raid, says Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, was done without a single warrant. In other words, without justification.

[Ras Baraka]

They violated people's Fourth Amendment rights. They violated due process. They violated a lot of the things that we stand on on this country, why people came here in the first place.

[Alex Wagner]

It's not yet clear what exactly the Newark raid on Thursday represents. After all, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Last month, while President Biden was still in office, ICE officers made 33 arrests in the city. And last year In New Jersey, ICE officers took some 1,300 undocumented immigrants into custody. But it seems evident that something, something very Significant has changed since Donald Trump became president. In the last week, NBC News reports that the average daily number of ice nationally was 753. In September of last year, Under President Biden, that number was 282. During that same week, ICE agents made 1,179 arrests in a single day. A post on ICE's website calls these arrests enhanced targeted operations that are taking place in cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Atlanta. According to the Washington Post, Trump has been disappointed with the scale of his mass deportation campaign thus far. As a result, senior administration officials have directed ICE officers to aggressively ramp up arrests from a few hundred to up to 1,500 arrests per day. And later on in the week, President Trump announced he would sign an executive order instructing Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to prepare a 30, 000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.

[Ras Baraka]

Most people don't even know about it.

[Alex Wagner]

We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad, we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back. So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. When he was running for president, Trump was clear that his immigration crackdown would include sanctuary cities. That would be a municipality that limits or denies cooperation with the government in enforcing immigration law so that the municipality can protect its citizens. Newark is one of those cities. And this neighborhood specifically has been a home for immigrants for centuries. Migrants from Ireland and Germany flocked to this part of newark in the mid-1800s. Then came the Italians, followed by the Portuguese and the Spanish. So this neighborhood is called Ironbound. Ironbound. And it's like. Would you say it's majority right now?

[Rafael Chavez]

Majority Latinos? Yeah, mostly from Ecuador.

[Alex Wagner]

Mostly Ecuadorian migrants.

[Rafael Chavez]

Yeah. A lot of national popular restaurants in here.

[Alex Wagner]

So, like Ecuadorian food and things like that.

[Rafael Chavez]

Used to be a Portuguese area, an Italian area. So most of the restaurants they still own, some are Brazilian, some are Italian restaurant, and now it's turning more like more Spanish.

[Alex Wagner]

According to U.S. census data from 2022, over 34% of Newark's residents were born outside of the United States, which is much higher than the national average of roughly 14%. Rafael Chavez is one of them. In 2009, he made the decision to leave Mexico for the United States, crossing the border without papers. In the years since, Chavez was able to legalize his status, and today he's an American citizen, Chavez was quick to point out that every president he has lived under, including President Barack Obama when Chavez first arrived, has deported a large number of migrants. But Chavez also recognizes that Trump 2.0 represents something inherently different. Numbers aside, there has been a change in both tenor and tactics since January 20th. 24 hours after his inauguration, President Trump lifted longtime restrictions on sensitive locations, including schools, churches, and hospitals. That means ICE arrests can be made while people are dropping their children off at kindergarten or in the middle of a Sunday service or at a hospital after medical treatment. That change unleashing federal agents in areas previously deemed off limits. According to our established social compact, that change is representative of the new administration's zeal for deportation. All over social media, you can find stylized videos and photos of immigration officials in tactical gear with big block letters spelling Police, ice and Homeland Security. Kristi Noem, the newly minted Homeland Security Secretary, joined ICE raids in New York City this week wearing that very outfit. We're in New York City this morning. We are getting the dirt bags off these streets. Celebrity Talk show host Dr. Phil announced he too would join Trump's new border czar for raids in Chicago. The DOC posted a video of an arrest on X alongside a promotion for his Merit TV app.

[Ras Baraka]

This is an example of sanctuary cities, right? We got an illegal alien convicted of sex crimes involving children. This is what we're dealing with. Yeah. You've been charged with sex crimes with children.

[Alex Wagner]

Not really.

[Ras Baraka]

Not really.

[Alex Wagner]

Chavez says he understands all of this to be a show of force from the new president and a coordinated effort to sow fear.

[Rafael Chavez]

I think this week he is what he wants. People get scared, people get afraid. And this is what he want. People of the community get scared to not come out or leave, you know, leave the country. This already happened, so people leave the country.

[Alex Wagner]

I would assume you as an organization, you don't want to advocate for people to feel scared, but it sort of sounds like staying home is a good idea right now.

[Rafael Chavez]

Yeah. Get prepared, you know, get prepared in case happen. You know, we don't want to say like, oh, it's going to happen to you, but get prepared. If you had your old illegal documentation, passport, birth certificate. So get those documents ready and talk about these things to your kids, because it's very important, you know, tell your kids nicely who you want to call, who's going to take you from the school, who's going to take your kids at some point in case someone.

[Alex Wagner]

In case you're taken. That's a hard conversation to have.

[Rafael Chavez]

Well, unfortunately, you have to have that conversation. You have to.

[Alex Wagner]

That's what you have to do.

[Rafael Chavez]

You have to do it.

[Alex Wagner]

This is Trumpland with Alex Wagner. On this week's show, we head to New Jersey, a state with the second highest migrant population in the US to hear from the people who feel most at risk under President Trump's new immigration policies.

[Gloria]

Esta yindo mucha informacion por la reyes.

[Maria]

There is a lot of misinformation, and she doesn't know what to believe at this point. And after the raid last week, everyone is very, very on the edge.

[Alex Wagner]

And the killer community leaders pledging their protection.

[Ras Baraka]

This is unlawful and it's not supposed to happen. How can you tell the difference between who's documented and who's not, who's a criminal, who's not just by looking at them?

[Amen Mohadin]

Amen on MSNBC is now available as a podcast. Every Saturday and Sunday, host Amen Mohadin reads between the lines of the week's biggest stories, spotlighting the pressing issues facing our country, our world, and those fighting to solve them.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

We are tracking the fallout across the Middle East.

[Amen Mohadin]

Tonight, search for Amen wherever you're listening and follow. And for ad free listening to this show and other MSNBC podcasts, subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

We're going to start with a few phrases. Y voya pedirque user repeaters. Okay, I'm gonna ask that you repeat after me. I am. I am somebody. Somebody. And I deserve. And I deserve full equality. Full equality here and now. Here and now. Yo soy. Yo soy.

[Alex Wagner]

On Monday afternoon in the city of Elizabeth, just outside Newark, an immigrant rights organization called make the Road New Jersey is hosting a seminar called Know youw Rights. Four days after the highly publicized raid at the fish market, Nnedi Amorsi and Eliana Fernandez are leading the workshop. Fernandez is speaking in Spanish and Morsi mostly in English. We're in the basement of an old school, one that Alexander Hamilton apparently once attended. The most famous migrant founding father in American history. There are about 70 people here seated in a semicircle facing the front of the room.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

What we want to go over now is we want to go over some photos because oftentimes people are unsure about how to identify what is ICE versus the police.

[Alex Wagner]

Workshops like these are popping up across the country. The goal is to help immigrants understand exactly what their constitutional rights are, regardless of their immigration status or whatever documentation they happen to have. The Trump administration seems aware of this trend. Earlier this week, border czar Tom Homan called out these type of trainings saying, quote, they call it know your Rights. I call it how to Escape Arrest. Elizabeth is just one train stop away from Newark. If you're taking New Jersey transit, the city has a little over a third the population of Newark, but has a much larger Latino community. According to the census, Elizabeth's population is nearly two thirds Latino, while newark is around 37%.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

Why are we here tonight? Por ques ta mos aqui esta noche? Ques esta pasando en o estres comunidades. What's happening in our communities?

[Alex Wagner]

There is a lot of practical information offered at these workshops, but inside the room it's clear that the space is serving a purpose bigger than that. The organizers ask people to share why they are here.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

I came here tonight so I can have a first hand experience of what my rights are and what I can do. I'm a teacher here in the city of Elizabeth and I came here tonight because many students have been asking me, what do I do? What are we supposed to do? And I don't know what I'm supposed to tell them. I feel like if immigration comes, whether you have status or you don't have status, they'll come and they'll take us all.

[Alex Wagner]

The organizers then ask what questions people have.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

Que cumentos yo de nos y bar conosotros. What documents should you carry with you and what should you not carry with you? What if I have all my documents, everything's in order and I get stopped by immigration? It doesn't matter. They decide that they're still going to arrest me and they're still going to detain me. Like what happens then?

[Alex Wagner]

These fears are very real for this community, whether people are here legally or not. One of the main ways the workshops aim to mitigate these fears is through what Morsi calls practice. In this case, she means role playing, where immigrants are exposed to the kinds of tactics they might encounter from ICE agents and then practice their responses. They start by asking for two volunteers. Someone to play a person of interest visited at home and someone to play the ICE agent standing at the door.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

So I'm going to paint the scene. She doesn't have a keyhole, but she does have a window. The door does have a lock, and there is nobody in the home that has a deportation order.

[Alex Wagner]

So Coneso, in this scenario, the volunteer playing law enforcement is trying to get the other volunteer to open her door. He asks repeatedly in different ways. The exercise trains attendees not to give out information and to ask ICE agents for a warrant and not to let law enforcement in without one. It's Role playing. But for the people in the room, this is not theoretical. An ice agent showing up at the front door is exactly the scenario they most fear, and one that also happens to be unfolding in cities across the country. And yet, despite the weight of that fear, the overwhelming anxiety of the present moment, as the role playing continues, people begin to laugh.

[Rafael Chavez]

You speak English?

[Ras Baraka]

No.

[Rafael Chavez]

Oh, immigrante. Yeah.

[Alex Wagner]

In the next scenario, the volunteer makes a mistake revealing where he's from, and the audience lets him know. Morsi calls a timeout to break it down.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

Right. Very often people ask you, where are you from? And it just sort of comes out of you. Right. It's instinctual. So it's so important that we practice because these are questions that people ask you every day.

[Alex Wagner]

As the workshop continues, we're able to move to a room nearby to speak with a few of the attendees. A woman named Gloria, who did not want us to use her last name, tells us that even though she's uncertain about what lies ahead, the event has made her feel less alone. She's found community. Do you have a plan if something happens?

[Maria]

Right now, I don't have a plan, but I didn't know it was going to be this fast. I knew something was going to happen, but I wasn't expecting things to move really fast. So I'm working and listening from organizations like this one, and now I know a little bit more about my rights and what I can do if something happens, but I'm still working and putting that plan together.

[Alex Wagner]

What do you tell your daughter?

[Gloria]

Que not en camido?

[Maria]

I tell her not to be afraid. I tell her we're in this together.

[Alex Wagner]

And she's still going to school?

[Gloria]

Not yet. Yes.

[Alex Wagner]

Do you think it's possible that you would ever pull her out of school.

[Maria]

If things get worse? I'm not sending her to school.

[Alex Wagner]

And are you still going out to the grocery store? Are you still. I mean, are you staying home?

[Gloria]

No, I stay home. I only go to work. I'm home.

[Rafael Chavez]

Work.

[Gloria]

I'm afraid.

[Alex Wagner]

How does this make you think of America? It feels like life changed very dramatically for you. And I wonder what you think of this country now. It's okay. I'm sorry you have to go through this.

[Maria]

I'm questioning myself. I'm questioning if this was a good decision, to leave everything behind to give my kids a better future.

[Alex Wagner]

You can hear Gloria getting emotional as she tells me she's unsure if coming to America was worth it, leaving everything behind, even if it was for a better future for her children. But Gloria tells me she's going to keep fighting. She came to America to make things better. Another mother, Maria tells me about the conversations she's having with her kids about safety despite her own fears. Do you think about ICE coming to knock on your front door? And do you think in that moment you'll know what to do?

[Gloria]

Ahora mismo. Estoy completamente segura y lo que se poy.

[Alex Wagner]

Maria tells me she's sure of what to do and what not to do, thanks to organizations like make the Road, where she works as a community leader. Maria wants to tell people not to be afraid, even if she's scared her son might one day open the door without looking to see who's standing on the other side of it. Ultimately, she doesn't want families to instill fear in their children. Instead, she says this moment should be about unity and a feeling that everyone is committed. You have a son. How old is he?

[Gloria]

I have one is 11, one is 7, and my older is 24.

[Alex Wagner]

For the two younger sons, have you talked to them about what's happening?

[Gloria]

Yes, they know. They listen. They listen outside in the school with other kids. And I explained to all my kids what's going on. Don't be afraid. Everything's gonna be okay. We are okay. You are okay.

[Alex Wagner]

Well, I guess the question is, you tell them they're safe, but you also say, don't open the door. So do they feel safe?

[Gloria]

I don't feel safe.

[Alex Wagner]

Has your feeling about this country changed?

[Gloria]

No.

[Alex Wagner]

No.

[Gloria]

No.

[Alex Wagner]

Maria tells me her feelings about America haven't changed, that she is grateful and blesses this nation for the opportunities it gives everyone to form a family, to put down roots and to become part of this country. She believes in the rights that the Constitution makes clear. We are not us and them, she tells me. We are all equal. When we come back. The politician who has vowed not to stay silent when his commute community is under attack.

[Amen Mohadin]

As President Donald Trump returns to the White House. Follow along as his agenda takes shape with the new MSNBC newsletter, Trump's first 100 weekly expert insight on key issues, sent straight to your inbox. Sign [e-mail] TRUMP100.

[Alex Wagner]

The new immigration directives from President Trump have set up what is certain to be the first of many fights between federal agencies and local governments. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has made clear that his city will not be backing down in the face of ICE officials, or what he calls their unsanctioned raids. Mayor Baraka, the son of a poet and activist, was raised In Newark. He went on to become a principal for the Newark Public Schools, the same system he attended growing up. He was elected mayor in 2014. He joined me from City hall in Newark. I guess the first question I have is the raids that were made public nationally last week. The raid on the fish market in Ironbound, the Ironbound neighborhood. How singular was that? How many more have there been? What can you tell us about the frequency of these things?

[Ras Baraka]

We're not sure. We're just getting the numbers as people call in, because ICE and Homeland Security doesn't tell us anything, that they don't give us any forewarning. They just go out and do what they do. Some of them have been false alarms, because what they're doing are going into stores fully outfitted out with the long guns and everything going in there, just hanging out, eating, standing around. So people think that something is happening, and it may not be so. It is causing a sense of fear and terror around the city. Specifically after they ran into the store in Newark and, you know, kind of detained people in there, took three people away, but held others in the store without their consent.

[Alex Wagner]

The Trump administration is saying through social media and through official White House channels that the people they're going after are criminals, dangerous criminals. Is that who's being swept up in these raids, as far as you know?

[Ras Baraka]

No. The people at the store, they were not criminals. They were not gang members, rapists. All of the wild statements that I got from people on emails, none of that was true. These are regular working people who are back there trying to make a living for themselves, for their family, contributing to our economy. They pay local and state taxes. This is a problem, especially in a community like Newark, where it's completely diverse and you have people from all over the world here. It's very difficult to determine, like, who's undocumented and who's not. To do this, like, in a sweeping way, is very dangerous.

[Alex Wagner]

We know that the Trump administration has lifted the ban on seizing folks at hospitals, churches, and schools. Have you seen any instances or heard of any instances of that thus far?

[Ras Baraka]

Not in my city, by God's grace. I mean, I think that's just barbaric. Ultimately, it's just inhumane to traumatize children, to say schools and places of worship are not sanctuary. It's just very, very, very bad. It's very dangerous. And Americans, despite what their political beliefs are around immigration reform and what's happening now, they should really be alarmed about the cavalier way that we're handling the Constitution of the United States right now.

[Alex Wagner]

I feel like there's the immediate trauma of just living in fear. Right. But then there's the trauma of these kids who are being told by their parents as a matter of planning for a potential deportation, look, I may not come home. And if I don't, you gotta go live with this person. I just wonder as someone who is of and by and for the people who is in the community, you know, what it has been like to sort of witness this unfold on just a human level.

[Ras Baraka]

It's just incredibly stressful. I mean, it's the inhumane culture that's being created around here, this kind of mean spiritedness and it's complete disregard for people's life and their humanity is terrible. And you have people completely terrified. They don't know what to do or what's going to happen. You put children in a precarious situation where they feel like it's going to be doomsday at any minute. I mean, we know that our community works with these folks in it and so we have to protect our people when things get hard. We can't run for the hills. It's like a long winter, you know, it's coming. Bring the furniture inside, go shopping, get the food, stack up. And that's really what we're preparing for, unfortunately, anticipating that things may get rough in the next couple of months. Absolutely.

[Alex Wagner]

You know, you're a Democrat and it really feels like the administration MAGA world is on offense right now. Right?

[Ras Baraka]

Sure.

[Alex Wagner]

Kristi Noem is making TikTok videos about taking the garbage off the streets. Dr. Phil is going on immigration raids with the border czar, Tom Homan. And yet Democrats look at the results of the last election and they say we lost on immigration, which may be true, but there is no cohesive, coherent messaging coming from the left about the people that we're talking about, about their humanity, about the children. I mean, it just feels like this bad. Yeah, it feels like this incredibly controversial, aggressive, potentially unlawful series of events is being met largely with silence as far as the Democratic Party. And I wonder how that makes you feel.

[Ras Baraka]

I feel like I'm in an episode of Game of Thrones where everybody's bending the knees, where they. It's wild what seems to be happening here. It's like everybody's acquiescing to this messaging and this idea that Trump won because of his policy around immigration, I think is completely wrong. Honestly. I just think the Democrats need to ask some hard questions about how they run campaigns, how they speaking to regular people up and down these states and not, like, acquiesce to this idea that Americans don't want the things that we know are right. I think most Americans are not cynical. They're not white supremacists. Like, they believe in immigration. They come from families of immigrants. They know what this means. They wanna uphold the Constitution. All the things that the Democrats fought for and say we believe, I think most Americans believe that, and we'll fight for that. And evidence has shown that around the country in smaller kind of down ballot questions and races that have been going on, we have to pay attention to that and not get overwhelmed by what Donald Trump is doing, you know, day in and day out and really kind of humiliating Democratic ideals and values and cornering us and making most of us, a lot of us seem like, you know, we are going to bow to this because we're just afraid that if we don't, we're going to lose everything.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

You see, like, people will build connection and build community with each other. And so it's really, really, really about taking power from a thing that is incredibly scary and standing up and being like, I'm undocumented and I know my rights.

[Alex Wagner]

Back at the event in Elizabeth, Nnedi Amorsi, the organizer who'd been translating the training into English, tells me what she hopes people take from this event. Beyond just the practical knowledge.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

All of us have rights and all of, like, Trump's administration feeds on this politics of division and, you know, tried to build this narrative of the good immigrant and the bad immigrant. But what we missed in all of that was they're making black and brown people all bad. They're redefining what it means to be a criminal and including all of us. And so it's so important that we realize that the politics of division feeds on despair. It feeds on fear. And the only way that we're going to find our liberation is together.

[Alex Wagner]

Morrissey tells me this past week has felt like a fire hydrant of misinformation and fear and anxiety. But despite all of that, she feels resilient.

[Nnedi Amorsi]

It's, you know, this effort of mass deportations, a mass race. You know, Trump 2.0 is a different beast than Trump 1.0, but people know their rights now more than ever. And we will build towns and cities.

[Alex Wagner]

We will build fortresses and businesses in the middle of all of this fear and looming darkness. This is what they are saying. We will build a fortress of resistance. As we speak with Morsi, the training starts to wrap up. The evening began with a simple call and response. The crowd timidly echoing the instructor's calls. But by the end, people are on their feet, standing together, fists in the air, and answering the call loudly. The chant translates to we are not one, we are not a hundred, we are millions. Count us. Well, thanks for listening to Trumpland with Alex Wagner. We'll be back next Thursday with a new episode to get this show and other MSNBC podcasts ad free. Be sure to subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Trumpland with Alex Wagner is produced by Max Jacobs along with Julia D'Angelo and Kay Guerrero. Our associate producer is Jamaris Perez, additional production support from Hannah Holland. Our crew is Enrique Larreal on Audio and Liam Lee and Greg Purpura on camera. Our audio engineers are Bob Mallory and Katie Lau, and Bryson Barnes is our Technical director. Matthew Alexander is the executive producer of Alex Wagner Tonight and Aisha Turner is the Executive producer of MSNBC Audio. And I'm your host Alex Wagner. We'll see you next week.

[Amen Mohadin]

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