

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.


Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Sam Singleton-Freeman, 414-469-9206, sfreeman@vdlf.org
May 1st is a national day of action for immigrant rights, and dozens of cities are expected to hold marches to protest the Trump Administration's cruel crackdown on immigrant communities. In Wisconsin, immigrant community members are organizing a Day without Latinxs & Immigrants general strike and statewide march in Waukesha to demand Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson to not turn his deputies into ICE agents through the 287g program. \
Over 100 businesses are expected to close in solidarity (partial list here), students at over a dozen schools will leave class, and buses will come from dozens of cities (gathering times and locations here) to join the Waukesha march, which starts at 10am from Cutler Park and will end with a rally in front of the Waukesha County Courthouse starting at 11:15. Elected officials and candidates including Randy Bryce are expected to march as well.
Sheriff Severson signed the 287g agreement with ICE in February of this year. On Wednesday, April 25th, Severson announced that his deputies will receive 287g ICE training from June 13 through July 18, 2018. The Trump Administration has massively expanded the number of local sheriff's and police departments with 287g agreements nationwide from 29 in 2016 to 76 today, as part of an unprecedented effort to turn local law enforcement into an arm of Trump's campaign of terror against immigrant families. Click here to see video of a press conference held by organizers on Thursday at the Waukesha County Courthouse.
Since 2016, statewide "Day without Latinxs & Immigrants" strike actions in Wisconsin have defeated 287g in Milwaukee County and stopped proposed anti-sanctuary bills in the state legislature.
Co-sponsors of the day's actions include Casa de Esperanza, SOPHIA, Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, American Federation of Teachers Local 212, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, 9 to 5, Hmong American Women's Association, Citizen Action Wisconsin, Manitowoc Human Rights Coalition, Progressive Moms of Milwaukee, and the Wisconsin Working Families Party.
Event Details:
Who: Voces de la Frontera, Youth Empowered in the Struggle, thousands of immigrant workers & business owners, students, families, religious leaders, elected officials and candidates, community supporters
What: Day without Latinxs & Immigrants general strike and statewide march in Waukesha, Wisconsin to stop 287g
When: Tuesday, May 1st, 10AM CST - 12PM CST
Where: Marchers gather at Cutler Park in Waukesha, Wisconsin starting at 10am and march to the Waukesha County Courthouse (515 W Moreland Blvd in Waukesha). There will be programs at the park and at the courthouse.
Pre-march coverage opportunies: Students will rally at 7:15am at Riverside University High School in Milwaukee (1615 E Locust St, Milwaukee, WI 53211) before boarding buses to Waukesha.
Community members will gather and board buses at the following locations and times throughout Wisconsin:
Milwaukee-- Depart at 9am from 1027 S 5th St.
Milwaukee Riverwest neighborhood-- Depart at 9am, Public House, 815 E Locust St.
Madison-- Depart at 8:30am from 810 W Badger Rd.
Abbotsford-- Depart at 6am, 112 Spruce St
Appleton-- Depart at 6:30am, 621 Lawrence St
Green Bay-- Depart at 7:30am, 1221 Bellevue St
Hartford-- Depart at 8:30am, 28 E Jackson St
Lake Geneva-- Depart at 9am, Piggly Wiggly, 100 E Geneva Square
Racine-- Depart at 8:30am, 2100 Layard Ave
Sheboygan-- Depart at 7:30am, La Conquistadora, 1218 Indiana Ave
Manitowoc-- Depart at 7:45am, Park and Ride at corner of Frontage Rd and S 44th St
Wausau-- Depart at 6am, 406 Grant St
West Bend- Depart at 8am, Park and Ride on Park Drive behind Menards
Voces de la Frontera is Wisconsin's leading immigrant rights group - a grassroots organization that believes power comes from below and that people can overcome injustice to build a better world.
One demonstrator said they attended the phallic protest, at which people pelted federal agents' vehicles with sex toys, "because ICE likes to bend over for Daddy Trump."
Demonstrators hurled insults and sex toys at federal agents outside a Minneapolis government building on Saturday to protest the Trump administration's deadly Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on undocumented immigrants and their supporters, with state and local police arresting more than 50 people.
Dubbed "Operation Dildo Blitz," the protest outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building saw demonstrators place sex toys in a chain link fence while others handed out rubber phalluses to protesters who threw them at passing federal and local law enforcement vehicles.
Demonstrators shouted "Eat a dick!" and "Fuck ICE!" as they pelted the vehicles with dildos. A local sheriff's deputy was reportedly struck upside the head.
Activist Russell Ellis, who posted video of the demonstration on Instagram, said the protesters "showed real balls."
"Dildos coming your way! Dildos! Dildos!" Ellis barked as the toys rained down on vehicles, landing with rubbery thwunks. "It's raining dicks!"
Anti-ICE activist William Kelly—who was arrested last month after taking part in a protest inside a St. Paul church—said at Saturday's demonstration: "The community here at Whipple today is, you know, doing the right thing and handing out the dicks. People are able to do whatever they want with the dicks, it's their choice."
One protester told VisuNews that they were attending the demonstration "because ICE likes to bend over for Daddy Trump."
Minneapolis Dispatch: Jake Lang's U-Haul and Operation Dildo Blitz by Zach D Roberts
Minnesota law enforcement can't handle it, so they arrest dozens.
Read on SubstackAsked what inspired her to show up with a literal "bag of dicks," another protester said she was motivated by last month's fatal shooting of legal observer Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. The protest marked one month since Good's killing.
"The number one thing that you need to do right now is build community," the woman said. "You need to talk to your neighbors. You need to start organizing. The local police are not going to help you. They are not your friend... so we rely upon each other."
Later in the afternoon, police declared the protest an unlawful assembly before rushing in to arrest 54 demonstrators.
Far-right influencer and pardoned January 6, 2021 insurrectionist Jake Lang—who was arrested the previous day and charged with vandalizing an anti-ICE sculpture—crashed Saturday's demonstration. Limitless Media reported that Lang and others arrived in a U-Haul truck carrying a wooden cross and firing pepper balls and chemical agents at anti-ICE protesters before leaving the scene.
Hundreds of people also showed up for an Indigenous-led Saturday gathering in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis to remember Good and Alex Pretti, who was also shot dead by federal immigration enforcers last month in the Minnesota city.
Rest in peace Renee Good. Thank you for supporting our immigrant neighbors. You’ll always be our hero. 🕊️ 💜
[image or embed]
— Jason Chavez (@jchavezmpls.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 11:56 AM
“This is a generational burden that we carry, and we're seeing that burden again today,” said Gaby Strong, vice president of the NDN Collective, who called Good “the example of what it means to be a good relative, to be a good neighbor, to stand up for people beside you.”
“They were very racist people,” Alberto Castañeda Mondragón said of his ICE attackers. “No one insulted them... It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”
A Mexican man beaten within an inch of his life last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is on the mend and on Saturday spoke out to refute what one nurse called the agency's "laughable" claim that his injuries—which include a skull shattered in eight places and five brain hemorrhages—were self-inflicted.
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón told the Associated Press that ICE agents pulled him from a friend's car outside a shopping center in St. Paul, Minnesota—where the Trump administration's ongoing Operation Metro Surge has left two people dead and thousands arrested—on January 8.
The 31-year-old father was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and then savagely assaulted with fists and a steel baton.
"They started beating me right away when they arrested me,” he said.
Castañeda Mondragón was then dragged into an SUV and taken to a holding facility at Ft. Snelling in suburban Minneapolis where he says he was beaten again. He said he pleaded with his attackers to stop, but they just "laughed at me and hit me again."
“They were very racist people,” he said. “No one insulted them, neither me nor the other person they detained me with. It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”
Castañeda Mondragón was taken to the emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) suffering from eight skull fractures, five life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and multiple broken facial bones.
ICE agents told HCMC nurses that Castañeda Mondragón “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall," a claim his caretakers immediately doubted. A CT scan revealed fractures to the front, back, and both sides of his skull—injuries inconsistent with running into a wall.
“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” one of the nurses told the AP last month on the condition of anonymity. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”
"There was never a wall," Castañeda Mondragón insisted.
Castañeda Mondragón was hospitalized for nearly three weeks. During the first week, he was minimally responsive, disoriented, and heavily sedated. His memory was damaged by the beating—he said he could not initially remember that he had a daughter—and he could not bathe himself after he was discharged from the hospital.
In addition to facing a long road to recovery, Castañeda Mondragón, who has been employed as a driver and a roofer, has been relying upon support from co-workers and his community for food, housing, and healthcare, as he is unable to work and has no health insurance. A GoFundMe page has been launched to solicit donations "for covering medical care and living expenses until he can begin working again."
"I don't know why ICE did this to me," Castañeda Mondragón said in translated remarks on the page. "They did not detain me after the hospital, I am not a criminal, and the doctors say they were untruthful about how the injuries occurred. But I prefer not to fight, I only want to recover, pay my bills, and go back to work."
On January 23, US District Judge Donovan W. Frank ruled that ICE was unlawfully detaining Castañeda Mondragón and ordered his immediate release.
Frank's ruling noted that "ICE agents have largely refused to provide information about the cause of [Castañeda Mondragón's] condition to hospital staff and counsel for [him], stating only that 'he got his shit rocked' and that he ran headfirst into a brick wall."
The ruling also stated that "despite requests by hospital staff, ICE agents have refused to leave the hospital, asserting that [Castañeda Mondragón] is under ICE custody."
"Two agents have been present at the hospital at all times since January 8, 2026," the document continues. "ICE agents used handcuffs to shackle [Castañeda Mondragón's] legs, despite requests from HCMC staff that he not be so restrained. Petitioner is now confined by hospital-issued four-point restraints in an apparent compromise between the providers and agents."
"Prior to this case, ICE had not provided any explanation for [Castañeda Mondragón's] arrest or continued detention," Frank added.
Castañeda Mondragón legally entered the United States in 2022 but reportedly overstayed his visa.
Castañeda Mondragón’s arrest came a day after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old legal observer Renee Good in Minneapolis. Seventeen days later, Customs and Border Protection officers fatally shot nurse Alex Pretti, who was also 37, in South Minneapolis after disarming him of a legally carried handgun.
The Department of Homeland Security has not announced any investigation into the attack on Castañeda Mondragón, sparking criticism from civil rights advocates and some Democratic elected officials.
Castañeda Mondragón told the AP that he considers himself lucky.
“It’s immense luck to have survived, to be able to be in this country again, to be able to heal, and to try to move forward,” he said. “For me, it’s the best luck in the world.”
But he suffers nightmares that ICE is coming for him.
“You’re left with the nightmare of going to work and being stopped,” Castañeda Mondragón said, “or that you’re buying your food somewhere, your lunch, and they show up and stop you again. They hit you.”
"I’m here because these Olympics are unsustainable—economically, socially, and environmentally," said one elderly protester.
Around 10,000 demonstrators rallied in Milan Saturday to protest the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the games, genocidal Israel's participation, and other issues.
The union and activist network Comitato Insostenibili Olimpiadi, or Unsustainable Olympics Committee, organized the demonstration, which it called "a popular gathering of social opposition, bringing together grassroots and community sports organizations, civic and environmental movements, territorial committees and student collectives."
The coalition said it is "fighting for the right to housing and for militant trade unions, movements that have stood alongside the Palestinian people, and the Global Sumud Flotilla," the seaborne campaign to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Protesters also decried Decree Law 1660, which empowers police to preemptively detain people for up to 12 hours if they believe they may act disruptively, as well as "state racism against migrants and racialized people, and transfeminist anger against social and institutional patriarchy."
At the vanguard of the protest march were about 50 people carrying cardboard trees representing larches they said were cut down to construct the new bobsleigh track in Cortina d'Ampezzo. They held a banner reading, "Century-old trees, survivors of two wars, sacrificed for 90 seconds of competition on a bobsleigh track costing €124 million."
Stefano Nutini, a 71-year-old protester, told Reuters that "I’m here because these Olympics are unsustainable—economically, socially, and environmentally."
"These Olympic Games are against nature and against people." Thousands of people marched through Milan to protest housing costs and urban affordability on the first day of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. pic.twitter.com/iPcpXwuvQN
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 7, 2026
One healthcare worker at the protest told Euronews: "It's public money that has been spent on a display window. It may be interesting to have these showcase events, but at a time when there is not enough money for essential things, it makes no sense to spend it in this way."
Another demonstrator said that the Olympics "have not brought any wealth to the city of Milan and Lombardy."
"They have taken money away from social welfare, public schools, and healthcare," he added. "This money has literally been burned, and not a single lira will go to Italian citizens, particularly those in Lombardy, so these are bogus Olympics."
Other demonstrators held signs reading "ICE Out" to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's presence in Italy to provide security support for American athletes and officials. The agency is at the center of the Trump administration's deadly crackdown on unauthorized immigrants and their defenders in the US. On Friday, hundreds of protesters also rallied against ICE in Milan.
The protests took place as US Vice President JD Vance was in Milan as head of his country's Olympic delegation. Vance was loudly booed at Friday's opening ceremony in San Siro stadium.
While Saturday's demonstration was mostly peaceful, a small breakaway group reportedly threw firecrackers and other objects at police, who responded with brutal force, firing a water cannon, deploying chemical agents, and beating protesters with batons. A young woman suffered a head injury and a young man's arm was broken, according to il Manifesto, which reported six arrests.
Further afield, railway infrastructure was reportedly sabotaged around Bologna in Emilia-Romagna and Pesaro in coastal Marche.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni—whose right-wing government was a common subject of protesters' ire—condemned the demonstration and voiced "solidarity... with the police, the city of Milan, and all those who will see their work undermined by these gangs of criminals."
More anti-Olympics protests were set to take place in Milan on Sunday.