Public outrage spilled into the streets outside El Salvador’s consulate offices in St. Paul on April 17, as demonstrators offered support for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Sheet Metal Worker (SMART) apprentice mistakenly apprehended in Maryland and illegally trafficked to El Salvador.
Local and international unions are fighting for their members who have been ensnared in President Donald Trump’s chaotic mass-deportation effort.
Meanwhile, union workers in Minnesota hospitals and schools are calling on co-workers to refuse aid to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in their workplaces.
“We stand firmly against policies or practices that seek to marginalize or criminalize immigrant communities,” the Minnesota Nurses Association said in a statement after ICE agents detained an employee at a hospital where its members work in Marshall, Minn.
“The integrity of our profession rests on the belief that health care is a human right. We advocate for policies that protect immigrant patients, support their access to healthcare and uphold their dignity. We will not be complicit in any actions that undermine these principles.”
The pushback from labor and community groups comes as Trump’s deportation plan approaches a constitutional tipping point, with uncertainty as to whether the administration will follow court orders upholding immigrants’ due-process rights.
One high-profile case at the center of public outrage involved Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a first-year apprentice member of Sheet Metal Workers (SMART) Local 100, based in Maryland.
A native of El Salvador, Abrego Garcia had been living and working legally in the U.S., but in March, ICE agents mistakenly detained him in Baltimore due to an “administrative error.”
Later that month, he was among some 200 detainees that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security illegally trafficked to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, with no opportunity to make their case in court.
The administration denied Abrego Garcia and other immigrants their due process rights under the Alien Enemies Act, declaring the husband and father part of an invasion that threatens U.S. national security – allegations that Abrego Garcia’s union president called nonsense.
“Kilmar, our Local 100 brother, is a resident of Maryland and a sheet metal apprentice who works full-time to support his wife and five-year-old son, who has autism and a hearing impairment,” SMART President Michael Coleman said. “He came to the United States as a teenager 15 years ago, and it is my understanding that he was legally authorized to live and work in this country and had fully complied with his responsibilities under the law.
“In his pursuit of the life promised by the American dream, Brother Kilmar was literally helping to build this great country. What did he get in return? Arrest and deportation to a nation whose prisons face outcry from human rights organizations. SMART condemns his treatment in the strongest possible terms, and we demand his rightful return.”
Speaking to his federation’s legislative conference earlier this month, Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, also demanded Abrego Garcia’s return.
“We need to make our voices heard,” McGarvey said. “We’re not red, we’re not blue, we’re the building trades, the backbone of America…
“And yeah, that means all of us. All of us! Including our brother, SMART apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who we demand to be returned to us and his family now!” McGarvey said to a standing ovation from delegates. “Bring him home!”
In Minnesota, members of the graduate student workers’ union at the University of Minnesota rallied behind a student at the Carlson School of Management, Dogukan Dunaydin, detained by ICE March 28 outside her home.
GLU-UE Local 1105 President Abaki Beck called the arrest an attack on constitutional rights and community safety. The union staged rallies in support of Dunaydin on campus and, later, outside the federal immigration court where his case was being heard.
“An attack on one of us, is an attack on all of us,” Beck said. “As a union, we remain committed to protecting our international graduate workers.”
Carl Rosen, general president of the graduate workers’ union, noted that many graduate students were being targeted for protesting U.S. policy, particularly support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
“History has shown that a government that feels like it can get away with detaining or deporting our community members for political speech will also be willing to arrest or deport union leaders who speak out,” Rosen warned.
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor
Union Advocate 