Over the past several months, violence against immigrant families and allies has been escalating in the United States of America. President Trump's agenda to massively deport thousands of undocumented immigrants under the pretext of national security has become a witch hunt driven by racism and xenophobia, primarily against the Latino and, at times, Native communities. This immigration crackdown, as well as increased screening and rejection at the point of entry, has also targeted activists and community members who have been outspoken on Palestinian rights and liberation. Let us not forget that a large percentage of people who have emigrated from Central and South American countries belong to Indigenous Peoples. Many of these people have been marginalized by their governments and disproportionately impacted by extractive industries and climate change, and have been forced to embark on a journey in search of decent living conditions in a country that claims to value freedom of expression, liberty, and justice for all.
Indigenous Peoples have inhabited these lands long before the creation of empires and Nation States. With colonization, these empires tried to erase Indigenous Peoples, expelling us from our territories with the use of violence, creating borders and walls, and separating, segregating, and massacring our ancestors. Migration has always been an important and necessary aspect of human life, and we at Cultural Survival state firmly and unequivocally that no human beings are illegal.
What we are seeing today is a new ethnic cleansing through raids, in which President Donald Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the armed forces are carrying out a campaign of intimidation, repression, and use of force against migrants, mostly of Mexican origin, and protesters demanding respect for basic human rights. Hardworking people with no criminal records are being deported, parents–including nursing mothers–are being separated from even young children, and activists protesting against these atrocities are being criminalized, harassed, and abused. Community members are terrified to go about their daily lives–to go to work, to go to the doctor, to buy groceries–for fear of detention and deportation. The militarization in the streets of Los Angeles, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York; Texas; and in many other cities across the country, is a major, targeted threat and punishment of civil society and a setback in terms of human rights for the entire country.
As Indigenous Peoples and allies we stand in solidarity with the migrant community being attacked and with the people across the country fighting against these injustices.
Cultural Survival demands that the United States:
- Immediately halt all ICE operations against migrant communities;
- Guarantee the right to freedom of expression and to protest without being repressed, detained, and criminalized;
- Cease militarization on the streets, immediately withdrawing the armed forces; and
- Release and drop the charges of the protesters who have peacefully raised their voices in the streets.
We urge the international community, including our allied NGOs across the world, to condemn the state of violence in the United States, pressuring the government to halt the harassment and persecution of migrant communities and guarantee respect for rights and the rule of law.
