Recommendations of the Editorial team
Tom Morello, the outspoken musician and activist known for his work with Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and Bruce Springsteen, didn’t mince his words on Tuesday as he joined the New York coalition Hands Off NYC at a press conference and solidarity performance at 26 Federal Plaza. Morello addressed a crowd of New Yorkers, condemning the Trump administration’s ICE abuses and denouncing unlawful White House immigration detention practices and methods.
“My mother and I used to live on 142nd and Riverside,” Morello said, recalling his early years in Upper Manhattan. “Sisters and brothers, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in all the years since, it’s this: If it looks like fascism, sounds like fascism, dresses like fascism, talks like fascism, kills like fascism and lies like fascism – sisters and brothers, then it’s fucking fascism.”
Morello also spoke from personal experience and reported on recent arrests from those close to him. “A close family friend was recently kidnapped by ICE. A grandmother, a law-abiding, hard-working grandma. She came home from shopping one evening, was overpowered by government thugs, thrown into a civilian car and deported without a shred of due process,” he said. “Trump claims immigrants are criminals and rapists. Well, that immigrant grandma didn’t bomb 180 schoolgirls in Iran to pieces. And that immigrant grandma didn’t abuse underage children along with Trump’s upper-class pals on Epstein Island. Exactly. If you want to arrest murderers and rapists, look no further than the damn White House.”
Call for mass movement
He called on people to stand up to the government and called for a broader movement of those who stand up for what is right. “We live in a time when ideas are a crime, when gender is a crime, when skin color is a crime, when truth is a crime – while the real criminals dine and toast with dictators, with fantasies of power in their heads and golf clubs in their little hands,” he said. “What’s needed now is a mass movement of peaceful anti-fascist crime fighters. That’s you – so come on, let’s take back power and end this goddamn authoritarian clown show once and for all.”
Morello then picked up the guitar and played a stripped-down version of Woody Guthrie’s protest classic “This Land Is Your Land.”
26 Federal Plaza houses a federal immigration court and has long been a frequent protest site for New Yorkers resisting ICE’s abuses and targeting of immigrant New Yorkers. The event responded to the increasing ICE presence in New York and was organized exactly one week after Border Czar Tom Homan threatened to “flood” Sanctuary Cities with “more ICE agents than ever before.”
Voices of those affected
Allan Dabrio Marrero, a New Yorker who was transferred through five ICE facilities for five months, also spoke at the press conference. “I constantly worry about my sisters and brothers who are still inside and whose families have been torn apart by this broken system,” he said.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, also took the floor, emphasizing that several of the immigration practices discussed were taking place at the venue. “We stand at 26 Federal Plaza where tens of thousands of people show up to go through the legal process and apply for immigration protection. And thousands of New Yorkers have been lured in, captured and detained here. This has never had anything to do with immigration control – it’s about cruelty, and that’s the point.”
Morello, who is currently touring with Springsteen and the E Street Band as part of the 2026 Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour, continues to press against Trump and ICE. (He also got Springsteen to perform at a concert he organized, A Concert of Solidarity & Resistance to Defend Minnesota!, in January.)
Morello on the Springsteen tour
“Together, Bruce, the E Street Band and I will shine a spotlight on the current threats to democracy and human rights that surround us on the Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour in the spirit of freedom, justice and rock ‘n’ roll,” he said when his participation in the tour was first announced.
He released a Fuck ICE playlist last summer and recently organized a fundraiser for Defend Minnesota.
