The surge of pro-immigrant, anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests that began in Los Angeles on Friday spread from coast to coast over the weekend, arriving in Raleigh on Monday.
Organized locally by the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), which represents low-wage workers in the service industry, the Oak City’s protest drew more than 150 people to Moore Square in the middle of a workday in spite of unrelenting sun and sticky, 87-degree heat. They gathered to demand an end to ICE workplace raids, as well as the release of David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California who was arrested over the weekend (and has since been released on bond).
Unlike in LA—where police and federal agents dressed in camouflage and riot gear quelled protests with tear gas, pepper spray, flash-bang grenades, and non-lethal bullets—Raleigh’s demonstration was completely peaceful, with almost no visible law enforcement presence.
Union leaders and immigrants’ rights activists took turns firing up the crowd with chants and speeches in English and Spanish. At the margins of the protest, they’d set up stations with water and snacks. Attendees’ signs read “Abolish ICE,” “ICE = KKK,” and “FREE DAVID NOW.”
Huerta, the California union organizer, is one of at least 40 people who have been arrested in LA. A video shows police officers knocking Huerta to the ground as he attempted to document an immigration enforcement raid. Local media reported that he sustained serious injuries and was briefly hospitalized. He now faces a felony charge that carries up to a six-year sentence.
“This assault isn’t just an attack on David,” Keith Bullard, an organizer with USSW, told the Moore Square crowd. “It’s an attack on every immigrant, every worker, every family, and every community. This is all of our struggle … this is just another form of stop-and-frisk.”
“ICE was created against Muslims, but it’s expanded to everybody,” said Manzoor Cheema, an organizer with Muslims for Social Justice. “In the labor union we say, an injury to one is an injury to all.”
Other speakers included Tamika Walker Kelly, the president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, and Claudia de la Cruz, who ran for U.S. president in 2024 as a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, attended the protest but did not give a speech.
“These kidnappers, better known as ICE, are going into our communities, they are kidnapping our people, they’re terrorizing our people,” de la Cruz said. “And we should not allow for the narrative that is coming out right now that people who are protesting are criminals.”
Nikki Marín Baena, co-director of Siembra NC, told INDY on Monday that her organization has not heard of ICE raiding workplaces in the Triangle. But Siembra, a Hispanic-led immigrants’ rights nonprofit, is preparing for that possibility by running a 24-hour hotline and running Know Your Rights workshops. The group is also doing outreach to employers and encouraging them to exercise their right to deny federal agents entry to a workplace without a warrant.
Mama Cookie, one of the founders of the USSW, told INDY that defending immigrants’ rights and labor rights go hand in hand.
“USSW is going nowhere,” she said. “We’re going to stand and fight with every union that needs us.”
Another protest in Moore Square, this one organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is planned for 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a Report for America corps member. Follow her on Bluesky or reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].