Anabel Mendoza: Trump’s War Is Already on Our Streets — We’re Building Power to Stop It.
By Anabel Mendoza
Across the country, from New York to Chicago’s South and West Sides to Los Angeles, young people are asking: What kind of country are we becoming? Will we stand up for one another, or look away as our neighbors are targeted and our democracy erodes?
Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory as the next mayor of New York City is proof that everyday people are fed up with the status quo and are hungry for a new generation of courageous leadership. His campaign didn’t just defeat big money, it showed, unmistakably, that working people united can win. And his victory wasn’t isolated; it’s a signal that the tides are turning. Young people, tenants, immigrants, students, and workers are stepping into positions of power — and we’re not waiting to be handed permission to lead.
Chicago is next.
On Chicago’s South and West Sides where I grew up, our federal government has deliberately starved Black and brown communities of the investment we deserve, often relying on a strategy to pit us against one another to fight for the bare minimum — living wages, decent schools, affordable housing, and liberation for all people, including our Palestinian communities abroad.
On this side of my city, your zip code determines your life expectancy. In Streeterville, residents make around $130,000 a year and live to 90. Ten miles south in West Englewood, the median income is $34,000 and life expectancy drops dramatically to 60 years old, the largest gap in America. That’s not coincidence; it’s policy.
For generations, Black Chicagoans segregated predominantly to Chicago’s South side have been denied economic opportunities through redlining policies, job and housing discrimination, and the legacies of Jim Crow and slavery. Immigrant and working-class families, too, have been scapegoated and excluded from the prosperity and wealth they help create in this country. And now, in the very streets of Chicago, my community is being hunted.
ICE raids have shuttered storefronts and left entire blocks in panic. In Little Village and Pilsen, the beating heart of Chicago’s Latino and immigrant community, high schoolers have been tackled and detained outside of their schools. Most recently, federal agents violently detained a preschool teacher in front of staff and terrified children.
When the tools of war show up on our streets, no one is safe — not undocumented people, not families, not children, nor U.S. citizens. That’s the point. Trump’s war has never just been a threat; it’s a strategy to quell the rising power of working people. Little does he know, Chicago fights back.
Being the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants has taught me that courage and community are not optional; they’re a way of life. Every day, I see parents organizing corner watches so their kids can walk to school safely. I see neighbors raising money so detained street vendors can get legal help. I see tenants refusing to let militarized raids destroy their homes.
Each of them is proof that unity can’t just be a hashtag. It must be our survival strategy. Closing the racial wealth and opportunity gap won’t come from charity, it’ll come from justice: reparations, a real pathway to citizenship, universal health care, affordable housing, and stronger labor rights.
None of this is winnable unless we recognize unity as our most strategic tool.
Beyond our voting and electoral power — something the Trump administration and its cronies are actively eroding through gerrymandering and attempts to end the Voting Rights Act — lies our labor power. Something that has kept this country running. Unity, in its most direct and effective application, must be the coalescing of Black, brown, immigrant, and working-class labor power. And it must be disciplined. Because in a country built on capitalism, labor is our most effective lever of power.
Imagine if workers across the nation, from Amazon warehouses to local restaurants to construction sites, went on strike until ICE left our cities. Then imagine channeling that same labor power toward every fight that matters: a living wage, access to food, clean air and water, Medicare for All, reproductive freedom, reparations, and liberation for Palestine.
Even our mayor has called for a general strike, urging workers and communities across Chicago to refuse business as usual until justice rolls through our streets. Unity isn’t optional. It’s the tool Trump and big money is most afraid of.
And here’s the truth: we are not starting from scratch. The movement that delivered Zohran’s win is the same one alive in our neighborhoods right now—tenant unions, mutual aid networks, student organizers, street medics, mothers watching each other’s kids so someone can attend a city council meeting. It is already happening. And when we show up for each other materially, we can build the infrastructure that insulates our communities from the consequences of going on strike.
Because in a climate where millions are earning poverty wages, barely making it to another day, a strike — and the sacrifice of withholding their labor and not getting paid — better be worth it. There must be community-led infrastructure ready to carry and support each other and a win worth fighting for.
Winning is contagious. And if you’re like me, you’re done with politicians who’ve grown far too comfortable with losing. We don’t have the luxury to lose right now, and it is my generation that is ready to lead.
As a lifelong Chicagoan and an immigrant rights organizer, I know our future depends on leaders who can turn that readiness into lasting power — leaders committed to building genuine solidarity between Black, brown, immigrant, and working-class communities and to strengthening our collective labor and political power. That’s why I’m running for Congress. This is the fight of our lifetime, and Chicago is ready to win it.
Anabel Mendoza is a lifelong Chicagoan and the youngest candidate for Illinois’ 7th Congressional District.
