At the start of this turbulent year of 2026, we have witnessed massive social struggles that have achieved modest yet meaningful gains—successfully halting blatant violations of rights and improving conditions for hundreds of thousands of people whose only “crime” is wanting to live with dignity in a country where they were not born.
Though differing in form and context, the events that unfolded in Minneapolis and in Spain clearly demonstrate that solidarity and the capacity for collective organization are essential to the defense of rights.
Minneapolis
Bruce Springsteen sings in his latest work, Streets of Minneapolis:
Through the winter’s ICE and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ICE
’Neath an occupier’s boots
According to Springsteen himself, the song was written and recorded in just two days, shortly after news broke of the second killing carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the city of Minneapolis.
The victims are named explicitly:
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
This immediately brings to mind other examples of artists who have used their work to reflect profound social crises in the United States—Springsteen himself in Streets of Philadelphia or Born in the U.S.A., for instance
I also think of Neil Young’s song Ohio:
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Performed by the legendary group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the song denounced the killing of university students who, in 1971, were protesting their country’s war against small Vietnam.
When events like these occur—when a song such as Streets of Minneapolis surpasses 100,000 plays in just a couple of hours; when the narrative imposed by political and military power is challenged and ultimately fails to hold, despite a massive communications effort—we are witnessing a significant shift in public perception and dominant narratives.
This shift is a fundamental prerequisite for real change.
The song captures and disseminates, with artistic depth and through the voice of a famous and widely respected musician (even if Trump calls him an “overrated fool”), the struggle, solidarity, and resistance of a population confronting physical, verbal, and institutional violence—violence exercised, in this case, by the federal government itself.
Springsteen sings:
Against smoke and rubber bullets
By the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
(…)
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
The facts make one thing clear: social mobilization is the essential foundation for winning and defending rights.
President Trump has since modified his stated “objectives,” announcing that his intention is to reduce tensions in Minneapolis.
At the same time, ICE agents have been instructed to target only immigrants facing criminal charges or convictions.
This marks a clear reversal, as in the preceding weeks the order had been to detain any undocumented immigrant. Additionally, ICE agents are now required to use megaphones to issue public commands and to verbally announce each step of the arrest process.
Moreover, Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role leading operations in Minnesota, and the so-called “border czar,” Tom Homan, has been appointed in his place—an appointment expected to result in more targeted enforcement actions.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Minnesota ruled that the Trump administration failed to comply with court orders requiring hearings for detained immigrants and summoned Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court.
The federal government has boasted of deporting 605,000 people between January 20 and December 10, 2025, and has further claimed that approximately 1.9 million immigrants “voluntarily self-deported” following an aggressive campaign urging them to leave the country on their own to avoid arrest or detention.
While it is impossible to predict what will happen in the coming weeks or months, it is clear that an organized population, willing to fight for its rights, has been decisive in halting the migrant hunt as it had been unfolding in Minneapolis, with potential expansion to other parts of the United States.
Madrid
On January 27, 2026, Spain’s Council of Ministers approved the initiation of procedures for an extraordinary regularization process aimed at foreign nationals already residing in Spain, with the stated goal of guaranteeing rights and providing legal certainty.
According to national authorities, this decision marks the first major milestone in the Plan for Integration and Intercultural Coexistence, through which Spain seeks to strengthen a migration policy grounded on human rights, social integration, and coexistence.
The regularization will apply to all foreign nationals without criminal records and who do not pose a threat to public order, provided they were in Spain before December 31, 2025, and can demonstrate at least five consecutive months of continuous residence. Such residence may be proven through any public or private documentation, or a combination of both.
For applicants for international protection, it will suffice that their application was submitted before December 31, 2025, and can be duly documented.
Once the requirements are met, beneficiaries will be authorized to work in any sector of the economy and anywhere in the country. They will receive a residence permit valid for one year, with the possibility of later transitioning to other residency categories established under Spain’s Immigration Regulations.
The approved mechanism also allows for the simultaneous regularization of the applicants’ minor children who are present in Spain, granting them residence permits valid for five years.
It is estimated that these measures could benefit approximately 500,000 people currently living in Spain.
Although several opposition parties have expressed their rejection of the initiative, the reality is that Spain has implemented six extraordinary regularizations prior to the one planned for 2026—several of them under governments led by the Popular Party, which now opposes the measure.
Such was the case in 2000 and 2001, during the government of José María Aznar, when approximately 500,000 people were regularized—a figure comparable to the potential scope of the 2026 measures.
According to data from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, the first regularization occurred in 1986 under the government of Felipe González (PSOE), followed by two more in 1991 and 1996, resulting in a total of 174,011 approved applications. In 2005, another regularization benefited 576,506 people under a socialist government led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE).
Although the measure was adopted via executive action rather than congressional legislation, it is false—as some poorly informed media outlets have claimed—that lawmakers were denied a voice in the process.
In reality, migrant organizations and solidarity groups have been advancing proposals of this kind since at least 2020.
In 2024, spearheaded by the organization Regularización Ya, a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) backed by 700,000 signatures was submitted to Congress calling for the regularization of migrants. Legislators, however, never found the time to debate or rule on the proposal.
The Royal Decree thus represents a response to legislative inaction, opting to amend the regulations governing the Immigration Law—a procedure that does not require parliamentary approval.
Opponents of the reform have already announced legal and political actions aimed at overturning it.
Whether this Royal Decree ultimately remains in force remains to be seen. What is undeniable, however, is that in an otherwise bleak context, it represents welcome news for hundreds of thousands of people who simply seek to earn a living, live normal lives, and be treated as equals within Spanish society.
Solidarity and Organization
At a time when the most corrosive forms of individualism prevail —when we are told there are no alternatives and that only individual escape is possible— these recent episodes, along with countless others occurring daily, show that the opposite is true.
Neither Alex Pretti nor Renee Good were migrants in the United States. They were people who stood in solidarity with a just cause and with the suffering of others. That solidarity led them to participate in protests and ultimately cost them their lives.
The 700,000 people who signed the Popular Legislative Initiative for migrant regularization in Spain were also not migrants; otherwise, their signatures would not have been valid. They were, and remain, people motivated by solidarity, empathy, and a commitment to justice.
In Minneapolis and Madrid, in the United States and Spain, and in many other parts of the world, those who support these causes are people who refuse to live under regimes of fear, persecution, and systematic violations of rights. They understand that as long as entire groups are excluded from full rights, society as a whole is diminished.
Whether in Minneapolis, Madrid, or elsewhere, solidarity is indispensable, but it is not enough on its own. Organization, unity in action, clear objectives, and the ability to persuade others of the justice of the human rights cause are equally necessary.
That is precisely what has been demonstrated in both the United States and Spain through experiences that must be carefully studied, shared, and remembered, especially at a moment like the one we are living through.
Springsteen’s song concludes with these words:
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis