\n\tWhat happens when the show is over?<\/p>\n
\n\tOn each night of Bruce Springsteen<\/a>\u2019s short-but-impassioned Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour, he has declared: \u201cWe are here to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll in these dangerous times.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut Springsteen has brought more than the incendiary performances of the E Street Band to what he has called this \u201ccelebration and defense of the American ideals and values that have sustained our country for 250 years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThis time, as he has throughout his career, he has brought in boots on the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDuring this tour, Springsteen has partnered with more than 20 activist organizations working on the front lines of the battle for democracy and human rights in the cities around the country where he and the E Street Band have performed since March. He has welcomed the groups into each venue to do outreach and solicit support, while publicizing their efforts before tens of thousands of his fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn Washington D.C. Wednesday (May 27), the penultimate show of this tour, which closes Saturday (May 30) in Philadelphia, Springsteen took the stage of Nationals Park, less than three miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, with the Washington Monument visible on the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLet them hear you at the f\u2014- White House,\u201d he shouted, as the crowd chanted \u201cIce Out Now!\u201d during his performance of \u201cStreets of Minneapolis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLater, during his show-closing call to action, he ad-libbed, \u201ccall the White House switchboard!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe call to action ending each show on this tour counts. The music is an inspiration \u2014 not a substitute \u2014 for activism.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen you go home tonight, hold your loved ones close. And in the morning \u2026 find a way to take aggressive, peaceful action to defend our country\u2019s ideals,\u201d says Springsteen on each tour stop.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAnd as the great civil rights leader John Lewis said, go on out and get into some \u2018good trouble.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAt the D.C. show, Springsteen announced he was partnering with the American Civil Liberties Union.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe ACLU is the courts and in the streets defending the rights of all people nationwide,\u201d said Springsteen. \u201cThey have been at the forefront of almost every major legal battle on behalf of immigrants\u2019 rights for the past 25 years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHere are all of the activist organizations that Springsteen has partnered with during the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour.<\/p>\n \tTarget Center, Minneapolis, March 31<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tEvoking his own involvement with the Human Rights Now! Tour organized by Amnesty International in 1988, Springsteen teamed up in Minneapolis with The Advocates for Human Rights<\/a>. Five years before that tour, in 1983, a group of lawyers founded the nonprofit \u201cseeking to leverage Minnesota\u2019s spirit of social justice to promote and protect human rights worldwide,\u201d the organization states.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tModa Center, Portland, Ore., April 3<\/p>\n \n\tInnovation Law Lab<\/a> drew Springsteen\u2019s support in Portland. The group describes itself as leveraging \u201claw, technology and organizing to advance immigrant and refugee rights.\u201d It states simply: \u201cWe build cool technology to defend human rights.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn April, the group filed a habeas corpus petition to challenge the prolonged detention of four individuals at an ICE facility 60 miles from Albuquerque.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tKia Forum, Los Angeles, April 7 and April 9<\/p>\n \n\tSpringsteen\u2019s two-night stand in Los Angeles brought attention to the work of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center <\/a>(IDLC) and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network<\/a> (NDLON).\u00a0 The IDLC lawyers step in at a time when less than 34% of immigrants, including unaccompanied children, were represented by attorneys in court, by one estimate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn advocating for immigrant laborers, NDLON states: \u201cWe believe that nonviolent confrontation and peaceful resistance are legitimate and effective means for achieving social change and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tChase Center, San Francisco, April 13<\/p>\n \n\tIn San Francisco, Springsteen\u2019s shout-out went to the Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area<\/a>, which traces its roots to the tumultuous year of 1968. Along with other groups, the committee in December successfully sued to pause the wide-scale arrest of immigrants at immigration courthouses within the jurisdiction of ICE\u2019s San Francisco field office.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tMortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix, April 16<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMedical Neglect, Strip Searches, and Abuse: Deadly and Dehumanizing Conditions in the Eloy [Arizona] Detention Center,\u201d is the title of a report on that ICE facility, compiled by the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project<\/a>, which was represented at the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour stop in Phoenix.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tFounded in 1989, the organization provides free legal services to asylum-seekers and other migrants in remote parts of Arizona \u201cwhere there was no meaningful access to counsel,\u201d the group states.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tPrudential Center, Newark, N.J., April 20<\/p>\n \n\tPrior to his partnership Wednesday in D.C. with the national ACLU, Springsteen in Newark backed the group\u2019s work in his home state. Mid-show in Washington, he offered a bulletin on immigrants \u201cbeing held in for-profit detention centers like around the country, such as Delaney Hall [in Newark] in my own home state of New Jersey.\u201d People detained at that ICE facility \u201care facing brutal and inhumane conditions,\u201d says ACLU-NJ <\/a>executive director Amol Sinha.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tAmerant Bank Arena, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., April 23<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Springsteen\u2019s tour arrived in Florida \u2014 where local law enforcement agencies have received massive amounts of money to support ICE immigration detention efforts \u2014 the Florida Immigrant Coalition <\/a>was on site at the Amerant Bank Arena in Fort Lauderdale.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe group describes itself as \u201ca grassroots movement led by [a] diverse membership \u2026 including community organizations, farmworkers, youth, advocates, lawyers, union members, and more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEarly this month, the group warned of an immigration crackdown coinciding with the FIFA World Cup games in Miami in June.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tMoody Center, Austin, Texas, April 26<\/p>\n \n\tWhat began in 2002 as a fight against wage theft from construction workers \u201cpretty quickly evolved into an organization dedicated to fight for worker Justice in Texas,\u201d says the Workers Defense Project<\/a>, which Springsteen welcomed to his tour stop at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. \u201cWe are now a power-building organization with statewide impact that is organizing for worker and immigrant justice at the local, state and national level,\u201d the group reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tUnited Center, Chicago, April 29<\/p>\n \n\tIn a city which has also seen citizens rise up to resist ICE actions against its immigrant neighbors, Springsteen in Chicago encouraged fans at the United Center to support the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights<\/a>. Among other actions, the organization has created the\u00a0\u00a0Illinois \u201cEyes on ICE\u201d text alert system around verified ICE activity.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tState Farm Arena, Atlanta, May 2<\/p>\n \n\tThe fight to protect the rights of immigrants, primarily within the Latin community, has long preceded the current deportation efforts. The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights<\/a>, which Springsteen partnered with for his tour stop at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, began 15 years ago to support the right of undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses. It has since become \u201cthe largest Latino grassroots organization in Georgia as a result of its efforts to organize Latinos to defend and campaign for their rights and human dignity and organizes and educates Latino immigrants around civil and human rights, community defense, and against ill legislation,\u201d the group states.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tUBS Arena, Elmont, N.Y., May 5<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTrump\u2019s Immigration Crackdown Pervades Long Island Suburbs,\u201d read a headline in the New York Times a few days before Springsteen\u2019s performance at the UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., on the western edge of that suburban region, just over the New York City border. From the UBS stage, Springsteen announced his support for United We Dream<\/a>, which describes itself as the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, advocating for \u201cjust policies that allow everyone to thrive regardless of immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tMadison Square Garden, New York, May 11 and May 16<\/p>\n \n\tFor his two shows in New York City, Springsteen teamed up first with Make The Road New York<\/a> and then with the New York Legal Assistance Group<\/a>. The former group has focused on the intertwined issues of education, health justice, housing and environmental justice, immigration, policing, protections for transgender, gender nonconfirming, intersex and queer (TGNCIQ) individuals, and workplace justice. In the area of immigration justice alone, the New York Legal Assistance Group has provided pro-bono counsel to some 23,000 people in the past year.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tBarclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y., May 14<\/p>\n \n\tSpringsteen greeted his audience at the Barclays Center noting that his late mother Adele was born Adela Rosa Zerilli in Brooklyn, in the neighborhood of Bay Ridge, to be precise. Mom would have been proud as Springsteen called on his fans to engage at the venue with volunteers from The New York Immigration Coalition.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tSince its founding in 1987, the coalition states, it has \u201cevolved into a powerful voice of advocacy by spearheading innovative policies, promoting and protecting the rights of immigrant communities, improving newcomer access to services, developing leadership and capacity, expanding civic participation, and mobilizing member groups to respond to the fluctuating needs of immigrant communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tPPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, May 19<\/p>\n \n\tIn Pittsburgh, two organizations drew Springsteen\u2019s onstage endorsements. Casa San Jos\u00e9 <\/a>was founded in 2013 by Sister Janice Vanderneck to serve the city\u2019s Latino population \u2014 and the tour partnership recalls Springsteen\u2019s Catholic upbringing. Frontline DIGNITY<\/a> has provided a rapid-response system to challenge ICE actions in Pittsburgh. \u201cIn a moment of escalating brutality and shrinking protections, we work to ensure communities are not isolated, unprepared, or forced to respond alone,\u201d the organization states.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tRocket Arena, Cleveland, May 22<\/p>\n \n\tIn March, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality<\/a> went to court to fight for the Temporary Protected Status of Haitian immigrants, allowing a community of some 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians in the Springfield, Ohio, area to continue living and working in the United States. Springsteen endorsed the work of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) on his Cleveland tour stop. (The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to end Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of affected immigrants from countries including Haiti).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tTD Garden, Boston, May 24<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOur vision is a Commonwealth \u2014 and a nation \u2013 where all can thrive, no matter where they came from or how they got here, and all can fully participate in their community\u2019s social, economic, and civic life,\u201d declares the mission statement of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition<\/a>, which received Springsteen\u2019s support during his Boston tour stop at TD Garden.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tNationals Park, Washington, D.C., May 27<\/p>\n \n\tAfter its endorsement by Springsteen from the stage of Nationals Park, the national ACLU<\/a> posted on Instagram: \u201cLast night, just blocks from where our legal team defended birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, Bruce Springsteen reminded us he wrote Born in the U.S.A. with a simple message: Our country is worth fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tXfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, May 30<\/p>\n\n
When agents from ICE \u2014 the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security \u2014 brought \u201csmoke and rubber bullets\/ in the dawn\u2019s early light\u201d to Minneapolis, \u201cthey picked the wrong city,\u201d says Springsteen, who has called the response of the citizens of Minnesota\u00a0 an inspiration to the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n