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This July 4th, we will see celebrations from both major political parties in this country. The Republican Party will venerate 250 years by claiming America’s successes, echoing a return to some glorious past, and stating America is greater than ever while millions in this country are desperate to live dignified lives. The Democratic Party will venerate the “endurance” of our institutions and claim we must fight rising fascism as “joyful warriors”, but show no warrior fight against the fascism we see today.

We will see both parties celebrate this major achievement of our country and each party will sum up America in one word. For the Republicans, the word will be “tradition”. For the Democrats, it will be “progress”. For the working class of America, this nation can be summed up in one word; struggle. Struggle is what defines our nation today and it’s time for an explanation why.

Since the founding of this nation, the people of the United States have been in the struggle for true democracy. With America’s gravest and most egregious sin of chattel slavery, Black Americans have always been at the forefront of the struggle for true democracy. For hundreds of years, my people were enslaved to a nation that prides itself upon the words, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

What type of nation prides itself on these words but doesn’t ensure those words are true for all of its people? It’s because the founders of this nation didn’t see my people as citizens; they specified they were 3/5ths of a person, to be exact. As the chains of chattel slavery hung heavy upon my people, we believed we deserved more — and we do. The time would come when chattel slavery would be over for all Black people throughout this land and our time came.

In the US Civil War, it was the North vs the South. Brother vs Brother. Union vs Confederate. Billy Yank vs Johnny Rebel. Many names and reasonings have been given about why the Civil War was conducted but we all know the primary reason — to destroy or maintain the evil of chattel slavery. Throughout the South, states codified slavery into law and they needed the unpaid labor to maintain their slave economies. The Confederacy would fight tooth and nail to “maintain their way of life” and many freed slaves would do their part to destroy this delusion of life. From espionage to entire regiments of Black troops in the Union, freed slaves fought for their liberation and recognized that if they were to win their freedom, they must fight for it.

As the war raged on, thousands of Americans were killed and a chance of true democracy emerged. With the passage of the 13th amendment and the Union victory in the Civil War, Black people had the first opportunity to actually be American. With this opportunity came America’s first chance at being a true democracy. Sadly, even with these efforts, democracy fell through our fingers. Years after the Civil War, the efforts of Reconstruction were never truly lived out. As Black people, we fought for our liberation from one entity to then be in chains by another — Jim Crow. Laws were now made against Black people for everything in our existence, giving us third class citizenship in a land that was made for you and me. Or was it made for you and not for me?

Fast forward years into Jim Crow and the rise of the Civil Rights movement, Black people once again fought against Jim Crow and won civil rights laws that ensured our existence in this country. As time has gone on, we have made great strides for freedom in this country, but in 2026, we are falling backwards. As fascism rises in this country, America has exported its imperial violence throughout the world, from Palestine to Cuba.

As it does so, that imperial violence exported is already felt upon Americans, and most specifically Black Americans. Our rights stripped away, over 800,000 Black women losing their jobs, voting rights falling to the wayside, our children being shot through state violence, new technologies discriminating against us, capitalism alienating us from everything, etc. We are again raging war against a system that was never truly built for us nor by us.

Black people have been this country’s most ardent advocates for a true democratic country. But you might ask: what is a true democracy?

A true democracy is a democratic republic that is rooted in universal emancipation, universal education and universal participation. A true democracy would never take away the rights of a group from participating in the democratic process. A true democracy would never deprive the people quality education to keep them numb from the woes of capitalism and its evils. A true democracy would never work to enslave its population to keep them alienated from everything they deserve. Black people have fought for the struggle for true democracy and we are doing so in every arena we are in. This historical struggle is a liberatory struggle and it is a necessary one, to fight against fascism and its companion, capitalism.

As Black people living in the heart of empire, my people face an interesting contradiction. We live in a capitalist system. We wish all the best for America to be a land for you and me. My people have engaged in this historical struggle for liberation for hundreds of years and on America’s 250th birthday, the answer is clear.

To fight fascism, my people will do so together. To fight capitalism, we will do so with all oppressed peoples under the trillionaire’s boot, with the collective love and solidarity of socialism. I’m proud to be a part of this struggle and I’m blessed to be a Black man fighting for the liberation of my people, which will lead to the liberation of all in this country.

As the 4th of July arrives, celebrate. Shoot your fireworks, cook, barbecue, hug your loved ones and have a good time. As you celebrate, celebrate not because of “tradition” or “progress”. Celebrate because of what could be of America. Celebrate and advocate for the struggle for true democracy. We the people are the inheritors of this historical struggle and it is up to all of us, to ensure the sacrifices of our ancestors are not tossed aside, but uplifted. This struggle is worth it and to make it a reality, we must,

“Lift every voice and sing.

Till earth and heaven ring.

Ring with the harmonies of liberty

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.”

Reese is a Democratic Socialist and member of the Membership Engagement Committee. Currently uncaucused and a part of the Detroit Democracy Coalition — a coalition of caucuses dedicated to democracy, education, and participation in MDDSA.

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America 250: The Struggle for True Democracy was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Carl W.

In the Year of Our Lord 2026, the vibes are extremely fucked. They are disgusting.

Oh say can you see, from the rancid green Reflecting Pool, to the open construction pit of the Crypto Bribe Ballroom in the ruins of the White House, next to the Monster Energy Drink sponsored UFC octagon where CTE-addled transphobes bludgeon each other into oblivion; we come to the last sad vestige of this pathetic, limping “celebration” of the empire: the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair.

It’s kinda perfect, isn’t it? It’s like they built a physical metaphor or something.

There are more people in our General Meetings than at this Fair. The cheap plaster hides an empty, hollow affair celebrated by no one; the simulacrum of dignity and power. Just like Trump’s fake golden Oval Office, bought at Home Depot and spray-painted. A fake on a fake, it’s fugazis all the way down.

This entire affair reeks of desperation, of AI-generated fantasy crashing into the reality of the moment. The banks are out of money, the oil wells are running dry, and the people of this country are finally seeing the empire for what it is: a casino run by pedophiles ripping the copper out of the walls, meanwhile half a million don’t know where they’ll sleep tonight. The decrepit rapist president makes over a billion dollars in Pisscoins while people pay $5 a gallon and go bankrupt from toenail infections.

Nationally, the decaying facade has gone stupid, a pathetic display of cheap white masculinity, the imperial combover hiding the growing bald spot. Wait until the Cybertruck with the Joker car wrap shows up. The rants from the front seat about woke Star Wars will be epic.

We made it, chat. 250 years of pretending this isn’t some failed experiment: a dead strip mall with crypto billboards built atop a mass grave. The liberal impulse is that Trump is some uniquely destructive force, and everything before that was great, hunky-dory, and the Bad Orange Man ruined everything! A DANG CHEETO ruined it! The centrists and liberals of America think he’s some kind of video game boss, and if we can just beat him, all the fascists NPCs will despawn. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. This implosion was always built into the making, a straight line from theft, rape, and murder to international laughingstock. It was rotten from the start; the thieves arriving on these shores eager to grab everything they could, slap down a clapboard world, and kidnap people from the across the ocean to do all the work. Then a constant string of war, coups, economic sabotage, and mass exploitation of the entire world. Every right that the working class has gained has cost lives, we’ve had to retcon rights for women and people of color in every generation into a framework that was intentionally designed to exclude them. Every battle for worker rights has been costly, its victories temporary, and the results stolen by the liberal political class as trophies. 

And now, the forces of AI want to take the final ounce of power we have left: our labor and our literacy. They want drones, a calcified underclass of powerless, illiterate consumers living in tents at the edge of their gated communities.

There is a certain romanticism to the story of American progress, however, some fantasy of the ideal America of freedom, truth, and justice that belies an uncomfortable truth: any rights granted by this rotten structure can be taken away just as easily.

Another uncomfortable truth lies unspoken, that the foundations of this building are rotten, an open construction pit paid for with bribes, the Reflecting Pool liner is being stripped away, and meanwhile the front lawn is a Monster Energy drink ad.

Yet the liberal fantasy of democratic renewal is not coming, there is no Obama 2.0 waiting in the wings to be the dumpster of our hopes and dreams. For all of MAGA’s revanchist frothing, the cosmopolitan capitalism of American liberalism is equally as farcical. Competent imperial management is not the answer. Some techno-utopian vision of “capitalism with guardrails” is concept art, nothing more.

You can’t build a lasting stable society of democratic values while the entire economic under-girding is about ripping as many people off as possible and hoarding gold like Scrooge McDuck. You can’t have a permanent underclass of invisible, exploited workers and precarious castoffs and then expect them to turn around and sing God Bless America.

The death rictus grin of denial is slipping, the spell of the empire is fading. The contradictions are intensifying to a shrill degree, the capitalist veneer peeling off in chunks, just like the bottom of the rotting Reflecting Pool. And the people in charge are just dumping single bottles of bleach into it. There’s something so perfectly emblematic of the Reflecting Pool debacle, something that illustrates a greater crisis. Demand a fix to something that wasn’t broken, go for cheap, hollow spectacle, overpay a corrupt ally to do a shitty job, and when it goes terribly, pay another crony to an equally bad job at twice the price.

A core function of the American bureaucracy is to transfer as much public money into private pockets as humanly possible. That is the purpose of all wars, all projects, and all technology: to take as much as quickly as it can.

America as a political institution is becoming more and more a society of empty gestures, failed promises and half-assed attempts to do a landlord special and paint the veneer of strength and respectability when $36 billion of war money floats at the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz. There goes your school, your healthcare, your housing, your roads, your future. The National Anthem is now a rusty toilet flushing sound.

This spectacle is also exhausting and boring. No one’s buying this shit anymore. And for many, especially black and brown folks, the decay of the empire never bothered them because the empire wasn’t meant for them anyway. 

Do you think those who bled and died for their rights and freedoms would feel celebrated by the Fourth of July Monster-themed energy drink? Which rumpled, overpriced football jersey speaks to the soul of America? What Freedom Truck best represents the spirit of… whatever?

But a sinking ship drags everyone down, even those in third class. And we’re all drowning just the same. Yet still, the discontent remains. The feeling continues, doesn’t it?

Hello, it’s us, your friendly neighborhood socialists. We’ve got some good news: it doesn’t have to be this way. We’ve got answers to your questions, and even answers to questions you may not have thought to ask.

The answer is not “better capitalism”, because there is no such thing. A varying shade of shit is still, well, shit. A New Deal 2.0 would be nice, but capable of the same dismantling that the current New Deal has undergone. It’s not enough. We should fight for those benefit and then keep going. Everything good about America is because of the working class, its greatest force for change and its greatest victim of the empire’s abuses. 3% tax credits and Trump Bad platitudes are over.

A tectonic shift is necessary. A reckoning with the sins of this country’s past and present.

The accelerating extremism of American fascism, now automated in technology with AI slop and outrage farms, powered by the full faith and power of the American police state, would laser target a tepid reformist agenda just like it has wiped away decades of legal precedent, benefits, and rights most people thought were settled.

This Fourth of July, everything must go. We’re holding a fire sale on the White House lawn, next to the demolition zone, passed-out podcasters and the discarded vape cartridges. DSA is the most promising vehicle for socialism that we’ve seen in our lifetimes; the best, most vibrant chance for a real future to believe in.

Socialism isn’t the answer because it’s just any alternative, it’s the answer because of what it does. A working class movement understands the truth: that your power comes from your labor, your body, yourself and melds it together with countless others who share the same truth. Capitalism rips us apart, makes us tiny little specks, powerless in front of the machine. Socialism binds us together in that amazing human family of an entire class of people.

It’s not just about universal healthcare and winning elections, it’s about demanding tomorrow and the possibility that it holds.

DSA is now over 116,000 members, growing every day with every victory, making it officially the largest socialist organization in American history. Now that’s something worth celebrating.

We’re workers just like you, tired of the mess we’ve been handed, tired of the failed promises and clownish spectacle, so fucking goddamn tired of the static and bullshit being pumped into our brains. We’re tired of being powerless. And we know you are too. So join up. The future is out there waiting.

So Happy 250th Birthday America, we got you a little something: class consciousness. Hope you like it.

The post Happy Birthday, America? appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

July 4th, 2026 marks the the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Below is a collection of reflections by Baton Rouge Democratic Socialists on this event.

The problem of anti-religious bigotry on the secular Left

As the calendar moved toward Donald Trump’s birthday on June 14 and the summer solstice on June 21, leftist political commentator and comedian Francesca Fiorentini invited astrologer Chani Nicholas to give her  Bitchuation Room podcast audience some insight into how the stars might be impacting the United States and its current authoritarian leader.

It was all done in a spirit of lighthearted fun, and while Chani might be a different kind of guest than the politicians or activists that often visit The Bitchuation Room, Fiorentini is no stranger to quirky and irreverent takes on the news of the day.  Lord knows we all need a laugh now and then to help us cope with the deadly serious news in the daily headlines. I giggled along with Fiorentini and Nicholas as I listened to the segment on my way to work, but then I made the mistake of looking at what people in the comments had to say. 

I think very little of right wingers because of their nonsensical views and their inability to see reason past their culturally enforced beliefs. I think the same for astrology weirdos. 

Space/birthday bigotry. No thanks. We have enough scientific illiteracy killing us already. 

Stop that nonsense. You can’t practice astrology and be a socialist. The two are mutually exclusive. 

Some secular leftists tend to view both organized religion and any spiritual “woo woo” as illogical and therefore symptomatic of the anti-intellectualism that characterizes U.S. fascism. This categorical rejection of all so-called “nonsensical” beliefs betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of spirituality, as well as a deep, often unchallenged bigotry among secular socialists against the vast majority of working-class people in our country. 

In a nation where 82% of people identify as religious and/or spiritual, anti-religious prejudice must be discarded by socialists who want to draw more people into the fight against capitalist exploitation. These rationally minded people would do well to learn more about religion from both scholars and everyday practitioners, in order to understand what the many diverse forms of healthy spirituality can do for human beings. 

Rationality and empiricism, I would argue, are irrelevant to the function of spirituality. Humans are emotional, psychological beings who have emotional, psychological problems that can’t be addressed purely through the tools of the scientific method. Spiritual systems help us navigate everything outside of our higher cognitive functions–the emotional storms brewing beneath our conscious intellectual processes. Spirituality helps us become conscious of our unconscious drives and our embodied, emotional experience of life, the fathoms-deep shadow side of human consciousness to which none of the factual statistics in the world can ever speak.

Spirituality gets a bad rap for removing humans from reality, but I believe everyone needs a form of spiritual practice in their lives to be able to fully accept and logically address the (increasingly illogical) realities of our society. I define spiritual practice broadly, and for atheists, agnostics, or anyone else who has no desire to engage with theistic beliefs or organized religion, a spiritual practice can be therapy, meditation, or intentional engagement with art or nature. These practices touch the irrational and emotional parts of our human experience that, left unexamined, can blind us to our own prejudices, limitations, and harmful habits. These spiritual practices can also come from Islam or Christianity or Hinduism or reading tarot cards or practicing astrology. We can’t judge people’s spirituality based on its logical premises. We can only judge it based on its outcome for human flourishing. 

The oppressive systems that co-opt spirituality to hold power over people, whether that’s the Christian Right or a manipulative “counter-cultural” cult, are the problem when it comes to religion, and I fully support the strongest criticisms of those exploitative powers. But we can’t throw out the baby with the bath water if we want to stay self-aware and grounded in reality. (Woke, if you will.)

I’ll give an example from a spiritual perspective that I myself am prone to look down my nose at. Jessica Lanyadoo describes herself as an astrologer, psychic medium, and animal communicator. Claims of psychic perception certainly strain logical credulity for me, and I’m wary of the con artists that walk among the sincere believers. But on Jessica’s Ghost of a Podcast, she recently used her “nonsensical” spiritual framework to provide very helpful guidance to an emotionally vulnerable woman in need of help. 

The guest was seeking an astrologer’s advice in navigating her “relationship” with an AI chatbot. Using their shared spiritual beliefs, Jessica guided her guest toward a path I think most socialists would agree with–she backed off AI use in favor of real human connection and got a reality check about the unsavory motivations of the capitalists who profit from our use of LLMs. 

The guest’s animistic beliefs about the spirits of the minerals that make up technological hardware would probably have been viciously mocked by the people who left the YouTube comments quoted above, but Jessica, an ethical person who shared her spiritual framework, was able to engage with her and help her escape her (in my opinion) unhealthy delusions about the “personhood” of her AI chatbot. She was helped, not harmed, by spiritual counsel that most secular skeptics would dismiss as irreconcilable with reality. 

I sympathize with my secular comrades who are sincerely troubled by the wobbly nature of reality in our unstable, “post-truth” society. And I agree that any form of religion or spirituality that urges us to turn away from the material problems our world faces is no more than an opiate for the overwhelmed masses. But the idea that socialism and spirituality are mutually exclusive is both historically false (see Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, or the DSA’s own Zohran Mamdani) and politically disastrous. 

Eliminating religious and spiritual people from the ranks of our potential allies means never achieving a socialist majority in this country. Instead, we should take the advice of someone who both atheists and people of many different spiritual paths can agree had some solid ideas. How do we divide helpful spirituality from harmful spirituality? “By their fruits you will know them.”

The post Can Socialists Use Astrology? appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

Maxine Phillips, Religious Socialism's current co-convener, interviews Dr. Elliot Ratzman on the history of Jewish pacifism, the contradictions of religious authoritarianism, and the historical precedent for leveraging nonviolent resistance to tyranny.

The Buffalo Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America congratulates Adam Bojak on his victory in the Democratic primary election for the 149 NY Assembly district, and extends immense gratitude to everyone responsible for making his victory possible. 

So, what next? Why join DSA? For a decade, Buffalo DSA has fielded these specific yet important questions. Last Tuesday, with chapter co-founder Adam Bojak’s primary night victory, we received the resounding affirmation that when we fight, we win! 25,000 doors knocked. Thousands of phone calls. Six figures of fundraising from the average person, the worker, those who share the belief, “a better world is possible.”

What does this win mean? We hold the firm belief that electoralism isn’t “the answer,” no matter how exciting or gratifying it is to win, but rather another step along the way. It’s a catalyzing step, a way to draw people in and organize them, but winning an election is never the end goal. We don’t believe in the mentality that you should “just vote.” To be a serious organizer and Buffalonian interested in a more just and equitable society, controlled democratically by the working class, we must do more. An election result is only as good as the power we can build and the priorities we can win.

In this moment, we step onto a much bigger stage for our chapter and broader movement for working people. Ask yourself: what can I do? Then, let’s do it. Nothing is stopping us but ourselves!

The work is an ongoing struggle, and we need you to achieve our vision. If you’ve ever felt ready to take on the establishment, the time to join the largest socialist project in American history is now.

Thank you to the people of the 149th Assembly District. We continue to fight for you, the people of Buffalo, Erie County, and workers of the world. 

Join DSA today!

This is an opinion piece written collaboratively by the Immigrant Solidarity Working Group and was not voted on at a general membership meeting. Opinion pieces from sub-bodies do not reflect the opinions of all members and are not chapter approved statements.

It is with no stutter and no hesitation that Salt Lake DSA stands with the 15 defendants facing charges for anti-ICE organizing in Minneapolis. Their stance is part of a proud, long-standing tradition of resistance against law enforcement overreach in this country. Faced with the indiscriminate violence of this winter’s ICE/DHS activity in the Twin Cities, these neighbors banded together in an inspiring and powerful model. After these feral agents murdered two and celebrated their own impunity, the regime attempts to contort law and morality to punish their real enemy: our unwillingness to submit.

There is risk in taking a principled stance. It is in that spirit that we also condemn the charges faced by two former court clerks in Logan that allegedly helped individuals evade ICE agents at the courthouse. When faced with an opportunity to perform the moral, righteous act, these clerks took it—at their own personal risk. They acted against a vindictive and thoughtless regime intent on tearing apart families, and for that we salute them.

It is not enough to point out the blatant hypocrisy of the Trump regime, as it is not only painfully obvious, it is expected and routine. They decry the “weaponization” of the law while also rewarding loyalist felons with pardons. The hypocrisy and double-dealing are markers of a system in a permanent tailspin. Trump and his cronies find themselves in the criminal trough of our economic system, resorting to merely demanding submission and collecting bribes. They are rapidly running out of distractions, and soon, the lid will tighten yet further.

As the administration criminalizes dissent in America, we implore all Utahns: do not consider yourself exempt from this assault on your civil liberties. Stand with us, or stand beside us, but at least stand up and be seen in opposition to this continued erosion of freedoms. In this capitalist system, law is merely a weapon in the hands of the powerful, completely divorced from morality and righteousness. As a weapon of the powerful, once you stand crosswise to their goals, the law will be used to hammer you back into place. It is time for us to seize the hammer.

We know we stand firmly on the right side of history, because between solidarity and hate, we will always choose the former.  In time, we will win; the only question is, for how long will we all need to suffer until we can put an end to this madness? How many of us will be caught up in the gears? When the working class has unified to fight this fight together, we will no longer have to wonder. We will have already won.

The post Solidarity is Not a Crime first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

The River Valley Democratic Socialists of America is opposed to the widely-reported rent control compromise legislation being considered by the Massachusetts legislature. Based on positive polling and the power of the tenants movement, we believe we will win rent control on the ballot in November. The compromise proposed by some rental control advocates would raise […]

The private jets, limousines, and tanned vacationers coursing through Atlantic Aviation’s exclusive lot mask a grim reality. Every Tuesday and Friday, the private company facilitates the transportation of residents detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in and out of Las Vegas. They sometimes come, and sometimes go, chained at the wrists, waist, and feet, shuffling single file between white caged-windowed buses and unmarked aircraft supplied by major commercial airlines.

The members of Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America (LVDSA) demand that Atlantic Aviation terminate contracts with DHS and immediately end its participation in these flights. With support from the Habeas Flight Watch Network, LVDSA’s Abolish ICE Campaign is taking steps to ensure they do. LVDSA is conducting habeas flight watches and hosting a National Day of Protest against Atlantic Aviation on June 27th.

Located at Harry Reid International Airport, Atlantic Aviation reserves its runways and hangars for the luxury jet set. No doubt, the private company enjoyed a boost in positive press when Taylor Swift chose to park her private jet at Atlantic upon breezing into town to celebrate Travis Kelce’s Super Bowl LVII victory. Today, the company promises to whisk World Cup spectators to games in style, offering gourmet in-flight dining and wrap-around concierge services. Unsurprisingly, it does not flaunt its frequent flying of ICE victims among its first-class services.

While Atlantic Aviation caters to celebrities and sports pros to rake in profits, they are also fattening their bottom line on the injustices our neighbors suffer. People are rounded up based on their skin color, language, and clothing, exploited by the city’s shady 287(g) agreement, and targeted by Flock AI mass-surveillance technology. Denied due process, they are deliberately displaced in the expanding network of concentration camps and the routes that connect them. We are taking action for the victims, their families, and the attorneys who are unable to secure their clients’ habeas rights.

A team of flight watchers from LVDSA and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) meets outside Atlantic’s runways with cameras, documenting the arrival and departure of ICE victims. The goal is to capture footage of the individuals getting on and off buses and planes— their faces, clothing, and shoes—so that their families and lawyers might find them. A Habeas Flight Watch Network volunteer flight dispatcher keeps the team notified of the ETAs for Las Vegas-bound ICE flights, and, just like commercial flights, these schedules are subject to frustrating last-minute changes.

Friday, June 12th, is no exception. At 6:44 am, our Las Vegas flight watch team receives an ETA from the dispatch: today’s flight arrives from Fort Hood via Reno on a Canadair CRJ-200 operated by Air Wisconsin; it’s scheduled to land at 12:22 pm. We set up early in case the plane arrives ahead of schedule, which happens. Stationed outside the Atlantic Aviation fence with cameras and tripods, we learn the flight is delayed until 12:51, then 1:13. It is now over 100 degrees.

Buffy Taylor, a member of PSL, sighs and walks under a tiny tree in the lot’s perimeter for a sliver of shade.  She’d arrived on her bike, a duffel bag containing several ice-cold water bottles and her Canon T7 strapped over her shoulder. “I’ve been tracking and photographing planes for years as a hobby, and I figured I could help people find their family or friends and expose the illegal actions of the government,” she explains. “Put my skills to good use.” By the time the team receives their final status update – ETA 1:21 pm – their phones are overheating, and Taylor’s waters are hot to the touch.

As with other Las Vegas ICE-related activity, the arrival of the ICE plane is quiet and understated. Our team learns it has touched down on Atlantic Aviation’s Runway 19, the same one used to welcome visiting celebrities. Moments later, a dull gray aircraft, serial number N455AW, devoid of any colors or logos except a tiny US flag, rolls toward us before turning slightly to let a taxiing private jet by. We can’t believe our luck– we now have a clear view of the plane’s stairway, the white prison bus, and the stretch of pavement between them.

When its doors open, four men in neon vests spring to action, neatly setting about 20 bright orange bundles in a row on the ground.  “Prison jump suits?” I ask Taylor.

“Nope, their personal belongings.”

Uncertain whether people are held prisoner on the plane, on the bus, or both, and seeing no movement from either, we focus on the four yellow-vested staff bustling about, bounding up and down the airplane stairs. Are they Atlantic ground crew? ICE agents? They eventually form an assembly line between the bus door and the plane’s stairway. Finally, the victims step off the bus, stooped and resigned, shackled at the wrists and feet, a long chain linking them at the waist.

Taylor abandons her tripod and darts around on foot, zooming in on captives, as I dictate a physical description of each man boarding the plane after he is frisked from head to toe. Twenty-two in all, mostly young, 20s and 30s, though one man appears to be old, perhaps in his 70s. Once the last has boarded, a pilot inspects the plane’s exterior as the caged-windowed bus slowly drives off the tarmac. We wonder about the victims, whether they’ve eaten or used the bathroom, and what they must be thinking.

As we spot the white bus exiting Atlantic’s parking lot, Taylor sprints, zigzagging through parked cars, and snaps photos of the bus’s driver and license plate. “It’s astonishing how many people have to be complicit for this to happen,” observes Audrey Hines, a co-steward for LVDSA’s Abolish ICE Campaign.

Not all habeas flight watches are this successful. Some sessions have yielded pictures of the plane or bus—still helpful—but no people. Other times, planes and utility vehicles have arrived unexpectedly, suddenly blocking the view. Organizers leave hot and exhausted, but determined to catch useful images on the next one. “Each new flight watch has the potential to help even one person, help one family be reunited, so it is so worth it,” says Hines.

“Even if we don’t have the best shot, we keep trying— you kind of feel like a spy,” adds 19-year-old Mikey LaFrambois, a lead organizer in UNLV’s Young Democratic Socialists of America.

Hopefully, these ICE flight watches won’t last too long. On Saturday, June 27th, at 6 pm, LVDSA is joining the National Day of Protest against Atlantic Aviation and other airlines abetting ICE activity. We are hosting a protest outside Atlantic Aviation, in a united demand that they cancel their contracts with DHS and the federal government. We stand in solidarity with cities around the country that are speaking up. We salute Dallas, a World Cup host city whose organizers and faith leaders are taking Atlantic Aviation to task for courting wealthy ticket holders while preying on the powerless. As Rev. Neil Thomas, lead pastor of Cathedral of Hope, noted on June 10, 2026:

As people arrive for the World Cup and other major events, we will proudly showcase our city as a place of hospitality and opportunity. Yet, at the very same time, through these very same airports, on these very same streets, within sight of celebrations, immigrant members of our community are being removed from their homes and families. This contradiction forces us to ask difficult but necessary questions about who we are as a city.

Atlantic Aviation caters to the indulgences and excesses of billionaires while actively participating in and profiting from the crimes against our neighbors. All professional athletes, celebrities, and customers using Atlantic Aviation’s services are part of the problem. Pilots transporting victims of ICE arrests, ground staff loading cargo —all are agents in perpetuating this nightmare.

In solidarity with local immigrant rights efforts, we urge readers to demand that Atlantic Aviation terminate these inhumane flights. This company will be held accountable for its actions.

 

By Jill Glass, LVDSA Abolish ICE Campaign Co-Steward

Images by Buffy Taylor @buffysphotographs 

 

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References

American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. (2026, April 8). ACLU of Nevada files notice of appeal to continue challenge of LVMPD 287(g) agreement with ICE. https://www.aclunv.org/press-releases/aclu-of-nevada-files-notice-of-appeal-to-continue-challenge-of-lvmpd-287g-agreement-with-ice/

American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin. (2026, April 2). Racial profiling rampant after Supreme Court ruling. https://www.aclu-wi.org/news/racial-profiling-rampant-after-supreme-court-ruling/

Atlantic Aviation. (2026, June). World Cup. https://www.atlanticaviation.com/world-cup/

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