Over the past weeks, we’ve watched as the Trump administration has escalated a campaign of hatred and discrimination against immigrants in the United States. The scenes from Los Angeles and other communities break our hearts as we see our relatives from Mexico, Central America, and South America being targeted solely on the basis of ethnicity, as we witness them being abducted and disappeared to detention centers without due process, and leaving behind devastated families.
The illegal and immoral use of federal military troops that we have witnessed unfolding in Los Angeles makes it clear just how far this administration, this regime, is willing to go in abusing its power and terrorizing innocent people.
Immigrants are not “criminals”— they are our family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers. They are people going to school, going to work or looking for work in order to support their families, going to healthcare appointments, going to immigration appointments with the intention of becoming U.S. citizens. Many have migrated from their home countries northward because they are fleeing violence, poverty, and oppression – much of it the consequence of U.S. imperialist policies and extractive economies. This is not an “insurrection,” not an “invasion.” These people are seeking a safer and better life, just as many migrants from Europe did in the last century.
Nathana Bird (Ohkay Owingeh), Tewa Women United’s Interim Executive Director, says,
“Our people for centuries have had relations with those from the south out of necessity to share teachings and knowledge on a variety of practices. We have traded and shared with one another for centuries. The so-called borders that are now in place disconnect us from that movement that our ancestors practiced for centuries. These practices and that relationaltivity are older than what is now the United States.”
Tewa Women United stands firmly in solidarity with immigrants, no matter what their legal status. We call on the Trump administration to end this persecution of our relatives, to stop its ongoing portrayal of these people as less than human, as “criminal,” to withdraw ICE and federal military troops from the city of Los Angeles and other cities. We call on you to act from compassion and respect for all humanity. This is how we grow a Beloved Community, rooted in a Culture of Love.
If you’re looking for a way to support people who have been abducted and detained by ICE in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, we recommend donating to the Immigrant Bond Fund, organized by Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE).
artist: Pancho Pescador + 67 Youth
https://67suenos.portfoliobox.net/nohumanbeingisillegal