On the first Friday of December 2025, a wave of protest and resistance swept across the American Southwest, linking the bustling streets of Tucson, Arizona, with the powerful economic engine of California. At the heart of the unrest were two distinct but deeply interconnected battles: one against the aggressive immigration enforcement tactics of federal authorities, and another targeting the economic might of major corporations accused of enabling those same policies.
It all began in the early hours of December 5, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, supported by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Border Patrol, and other federal partners, descended on Tucson. According to CALÓ News, the operation was sweeping: 46 people of Mexican origin were arrested in coordinated raids on restaurants and homes across neighborhoods like Marana, South Tucson, Valencia, Midtown, Grande, and even as far as Casa Grande. Establishments such as Taco Giro and Leo’s Mexican Restaurant became focal points of the crackdown, which ICE said was part of a “years-long investigation into immigration and tax violations.”
The scale and intensity of the raids stunned many in Tucson. Rolande Baker, a community organizer with Rapid Response Tucson, described the chaos: “They went to Marana, they went to Tucson, they went to South Tucson, and then Valencia, Midtown and Grande. They were everywhere. They must have had this planned.” Baker, who had been up since dawn fielding emergency calls, insisted, “I’ll put money down that none of those people [who were detained] are criminals. They said they were only going to take the criminals, remember? ‘The worst of the worst.’ These are not the worst of the worst. When they took the people out of a restaurant, what were they doing? They were working. They were feeding us. That’s who these people are.”
By that evening, Tucson’s streets had filled with protestors. Nearly 100 people gathered outside the Tucson Federal Building, while other groups held a vigil at Taco Giro on Grande Avenue and a Community ICE Defense event at Yolia Botanica, a local shop. The protests were marked by anger and sorrow, but also by a fierce determination to stand up for neighbors and family. “I can’t sit at home and watch a movie right now on a Friday night when this is happening to our community, so here I am,” said Priscilla Teran, a local English as a Second Language teacher. “This is affecting my students, and it’s also affecting my community… and so here I am, because we have to go out and show them that we’re not going to stay silent.”
Local officials, too, voiced outrage at the federal incursion. Tucson Ward 3 councilmember Kevin Dahl criticized both the tactics and the underlying motives of the operation: “I’m very upset with the way ICE has entered our community and are using law enforcement tactics that I think are outrageous. They should not be masked… They are cowards, bullies and they’re probably poorly trained.” Dahl also took aim at the IRS, which, under an April memorandum, now shares taxpayer information to help locate and deport undocumented people. “The IRS needs to be going after tax evaders that have a lot of money, not mom-and-pop shops,” he said. “It’s completely racist, having to do with the narrative of the Trump administration thinking that Mexican Americans are bad people.”
As the dust settled in Tucson, another form of protest was gaining momentum in California. There, a new consumer boycott was launched on Black Friday—November 29, 2025—targeting Amazon, Home Depot, and Target. According to Capital & Main, the campaign was spearheaded by We Are California, a group committed to social change through multiracial coalition-building. The boycott, set to run through the end of December, urged Californians to stop spending at these retail giants, accusing them of complicity in the oppression of people of color, including tolerating ICE raids at their stores and scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
This California campaign was part of a broader national action, “We Ain’t Buying It,” which called for a pause in spending at the same companies from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. But the California version went further, asking consumers to redirect their dollars to small businesses owned by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. The campaign’s rallying cry, “We Spend Where We Get Respect,” echoed the tactics of earlier civil rights movements—most notably the Montgomery bus boycott of the 1950s, which helped dismantle segregation in public transit.
Organizers pointed to California’s unique position as the world’s fourth-largest economy and a bellwether for social justice causes. “We need a multiracial, multigenerational, multi-issue movement to create the California we dream of,” declared We Are California on its website. The boycott drew support from groups such as Community Coalition and Inner City Struggle in Los Angeles, underlining the campaign’s commitment to empowering the state’s diverse communities.
In a telling sign of the boycott’s impact, Target—already the subject of a Black-led boycott since March for rolling back DEI promises—has seen its sales and profits decline, and its CEO has stepped down. Although Target has attempted to reaffirm its diversity values in public statements, activists say the company has yet to restore its DEI policies, keeping it on the boycott list.
For many, these parallel movements—on the streets of Tucson and in the shopping aisles of California—represent more than isolated acts of resistance. They are part of a growing consumer movement that seeks to wield economic power as a tool for social and racial justice. As Capital & Main observed, “the choice of where they spend their money may be the loudest pro-democracy voice Americans have.”
Yet, the stakes are deeply personal for those most affected. “These are children who come from Mexico or are refugees from Africa,” said Teran, reflecting on her students. “I teach them because I was that student, and now it’s my turn to be that teacher for these students.”
Meanwhile, Tucson’s city leaders are looking for ways to push back. “This has activated my staff and I,” said Dahl. “We’re going to look at what opportunities we have to support the community: supporting the bail fund, supporting the Rapid Citizens Rapid Response Team, talking to my colleagues, the city attorney, TPD, to see what more we can do to not only express outrage at these federal actions in our city without city permission, but what can we do to resist it.”
As the holiday season unfolds, the convergence of economic and political protest is sending a clear message: communities across the Southwest are determined to fight for dignity and respect, whether at the cash register or in the face of federal agents. The outcome of these struggles may well shape not only the future of immigration and corporate accountability, but the very fabric of American democracy.
