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First We Abolish ICE

Click here to read our manifesto on immigrant liberation.

Given that the rebirth of the movement dedicated to abolishing ICE has erupted from the confines of social media and into the occupation of federal buildings (and even leaked into the political platforms of Democrats across the country) we at the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CIYJA) think it is vital for those of us who are directly impacted to define what a world without Poli-ICE could look like.

The following is a manifesto for all those who dare dream and fight for a world without cages, without borders, and for the liberation for all exploited peoples on this earth.

Click here to read our manifesto on immigrant liberation.

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Opinions

White Supremacy is the Official Business of the White House

[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1525199274516{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”935″ css_animation=”fadeIn” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1525199482691{margin-top: 10px !important;border-top-width: 10px !important;}”][vcex_heading text=”by CRISSEL RODRIGUEZ” style=”bottom-border-w-color” tag=”h2″ italic=”true” text_align=”right” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”normal” text_transform=”none” color=”rgba(9,30,20,0.55)” css=”.vc_custom_1528455791495{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″ inner_bottom_border_color=”#777777″][vcex_heading text=”JUNE 8, 2018″ tag=”h2″ text_align=”right” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”normal” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”rgba(9,30,20,0.55)” css=”.vc_custom_1528455799989{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″][vcex_spacing size=”15px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1528455977193{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”d:16|tl:16|tp:16|pl:16|pp:16″]From governmental institutions to interpersonal interactions, the culture of the United States has always been plagued and molded by racism. For centuries, people of color have been spoken of in criminalizing and dehumanizing ways through coded language such as slaves, welfare queens, criminals, super predators, terrorists, illegal aliens, and now, animals. In the Long Island press conference hosted by the White House, MS-13 was used as a rallying point to vilify immigrants and create enforcement policies that ultimately affect every person of color.

Throughout time, similar rhetoric has led to policies and events like Japanese internment, forced sterilization, and Jim Crow laws that have been normalized in the American consciousness. This collective consciousness views people as unrestorable, unworthy of having their human rights observed, and therefore, disposable. Thus, racism feels as normal as drinking water.

The White House openly embraces an ideology that perpetuates and maintains the social, political, and institutional domination of white people.

Both Democrats and Republicans have used rhetoric to push for policies that have left people of color in a perpetual state of being underserved and unheard. It is only natural that we now find ourselves in a political climate where white supremacy is the official business of the White House. The White House openly embraces an ideology that perpetuates and maintains the social, political, and institutional domination of white people.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups in the U.S. has been increasing since 2000. Heidi Bierich, director of the Center Intelligence Project, links the rise in recruitment to the 2000 census that predicted whites would be a minority by 2042. Upon Trump winning the election, he appointed key administration advisers with ties to the ‘radical right’, including Stephen Bannon, the head of the white-nationalist website Breitbart.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke commented that the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 was a “turning point,” and vowed that white supremacists would “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump” to “take our country back.” This however, wasn’t an isolated event. Almost a year and a half before, in Anaheim, California, a small group of Klan members held a rally in Pearson Park on February 2016. Klansmen were reported to have used the point of a flagpole as a weapon while fighting protesters. Seven people were stabbed and nine others were injured.

California is and has historically been a battleground state for white supremacists, they are just trading their white hoods for megaphones now. The hateful rhetoric is not limited to cross burning rituals but is now fearlessly stated at local city and county meetings across the state against sanctuary policy. They have created organizations like the American Patriots and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, whose names are reminiscent of the American ethos of nationalism and militarism. They have recruited people of color who have done things the “right way,” the “legal way,” and tokenized them as spokespeople to avoid being exposed for their coded racism.

As a community organizer, I have learned that laws are not a matter of justice, but a matter of power. The decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a number of countries including Haiti, Honduras, Sudan, and El Salvador, was one that was done with little regard to the life-threatening conditions that these refugees had fled. It had everything to do with fulfilling a presidential agenda rampant on getting rid of people who are ‘undesirable’, and nothing to do with the welfare of TPS holders and their families. The federal government’s official policy is to now separate families at the border, further continuing with this legacy having already separated children from Black, Indigenous, and Japanese parents for economic profit, forced assimilation, and national security purposes.

White supremacists argue, “This issue is not about immigration, it’s about safety.”  

But safety for whom?

Their concern is not for the safety of ‘the’ country, it is for the safety of ‘their’ country, a country they believe should only “serve and protect” a selected few.

A new analysis of post-election survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic found that besides partisan affiliation, three factors stood out as strong independent predictors of how white working-class people would vote. The first was anxiety about cultural change. Sixty-eight percent of white working-class voters said the American way of life needs to be protected from foreign influence. Nearly half agreed with the statement, “Things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my country.” Together, The Atlantic reports, these variables were strong indicators of support for Trump: 79 percent of white working-class voters who did not share one or both of these fears cast their vote the same way.

In his book, A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle says that by far the greater part of violence that has been inflicted on each other is not the work of those convicted of a crime or those with mental challenges, “but of normal respectable citizens in the service of the collective ego…It strengthens the sense of separation between yourself and the other, whose ‘otherness has become magnified to such an extent that you can no longer feel your common humanity, nor the rootedness in the one Life that you share with each human being, your common divinity.’”

As immigrants are routinely criminalized in this political climate, I’ve given a lot of thought to what safety means for me and the youth in my community whom I serve. The places we fled wage a daily fight against U.S. agricultural subsidies that continue to unfairly leave farmers in our countries unable to compete with U.S. prices, patenting laws that favor Western entrepreneurs, the covert and sometimes not-covert meddling of our political elections by Western powers, the privatization of our public industries, the violence surging from the insistence of the U.S. to declare global wars against drugs, against terrorism, and the list goes on.

Those of us that left have had to reclaim our safety – emotional, physical, mental, spiritual…

Those of us that left have had to reclaim our safety – emotional, physical, mental, spiritual – and for many of us it meant coming here, to the U.S. and forming new communities. Where there are no opportunities, we have made them happen. When we can’t vote, we figure out ways to have our voices heard. Our communities have become so resilient that they are now viewed as threatening. A multi-billion dollar detention and deportation apparatus has been created to silence us and keep us in the shadows. Yet we refuse, and will continue to refuse.

Right-wing politicians are desperately trying to ride the anti-immigrant wave for political capital. Mayor of Los Alamitos, Troy Edgar, and Mayor of Escondido, Sam Abed, who have led anti-sanctuary efforts in their respective cities met with Trump. That’s due to the fact that the White House has become nothing more than a hub for ego stroking, helping those who play into hateful rhetoric to obtain higher political offices.

In the meantime, youth of color across the state are beginning to do the real work in resolving the challenges that are faced in our neighborhoods. We are far too tired of elected leaders who have been kicking the can on these issues because they are too afraid to challenge the systems which sustain white supremacy. We are advocating on behalf of cities making investments in youth programs. We are challenging the narratives of sheriffs and local law enforcement who continuously try to define what safety should mean for us. We are beginning to question if our prison systems really rehabilitate people and if our criminal justice system is really empowering victims in any meaningful way outside of seeing the person convicted of a crime and in a cage. We bring to light the conditions that perpetuate crime and are exploring ways that we can address them, so that all members of society have opportunities to thrive.

We are charting a new course of what safety means without white supremacy, one in which we don’t sacrifice people’s humanity to uphold social stigmas based on race. [/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_heading text=”ABOUT THE AUTHOR:” tag=”h2″ text_align=”left” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”bolder” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”#072824″ css=”.vc_custom_1525156357047{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1528456004694{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]Crissel Rodriguez is the South California Regional Organizer with CIYJA and is based in Los Angeles, CA.[/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_heading text=”ABOUT OUR CONTENT:” tag=”h2″ font_family=”Crimson Text” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”#072824″ css=”.vc_custom_1525156404548{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_weight=”bolder”][vc_column_text font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1525819240900{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]We aim at becoming a platform for directly impacted immigrant youth across California to reclaim their narratives and speak on the issues that most affect them. If you’re interested in submitting an opinion piece or need support in turning your ideas into one, reach out to info@06d.b80.myftpupload.com. and specify on the e-mail subject.[/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vc_single_image image=”760″ img_size=”thumbnail” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_hover=”shrink” link=”https://ciyja.org”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Blog Opinions

#Health4All: Now Is Not the Time to Scapegoat Undocumented Immigrants

[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1525199274516{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”891″ css_animation=”fadeIn” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1525199482691{margin-top: 10px !important;border-top-width: 10px !important;}”][vcex_heading text=”by JUAN PRIETO & JOSE SERVIN” style=”bottom-border-w-color” tag=”h2″ italic=”true” text_align=”right” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”normal” text_transform=”none” color=”rgba(9,30,20,0.55)” css=”.vc_custom_1527658903539{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″ inner_bottom_border_color=”#777777″][vcex_heading text=”MAY 30, 2018″ tag=”h2″ text_align=”right” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”normal” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”rgba(9,30,20,0.55)” css=”.vc_custom_1527658920262{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″][vcex_spacing size=”15px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1527659179852{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”d:16|tl:16|tp:16|pl:16|pp:16″]T he opposition to healthcare for the undocumented community is rooted in a dying approach to fiscal politics that no longer works as a panacea to describe morally decrepit state budgets. That approach is blaming the most marginalized for the misspending of the state budget, especially when it comes to enforcement and incarceration which disproportionately affects immigrant and communities of color.

Instead of allocating millions to deadly police enforcement and imprisonment, California should take steps towards investing in the mental wellbeing of the communities being policed and brutalized. Instead of thinking of creative ways to rise up as a state and support with access to mental health, the LA Times Editorial Board is following the federal government’s tactic of scapegoating immigrants for the economic and social woes of US citizens.  

Many opponents to expanded healthcare, including the LA Times Editorial Board, argue that now is not the time to expand these services. When is the right time to enact policies rooted in dignity and protection of life? According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, part of the reason that California has a surplus to begin with is that undocumented workers contribute “collectively $3 billion combined in state and local taxes in the state of California.” Not to mention the almost invisible tax that occurs when undocumented laborers are not paid the minimum wage, and when they have no say in what is done with their contribution to the state.

Our healthcare system can only grow stronger when every Californian is involved because a universal interest in the program means more public investment in preserving what could be a model system for the rest of the country. Where creativity is due is in securing our budget so that it can assume coverage of all Californians in regards to health.

To blame the divestment from poor people on other poor people simply because they lack legal status is reminiscent of old divide and conquer tactics. Instead of trying to cut one marginalized group from health insurance for the sake of another, we must instead engage in creative ways to ensure all of Californians, despite legal status or social class, have access to a physical and mental wellbeing. It is unconscionable that one of the richest states in the country, and by comparison the world, is unwilling to secure the health of its population.

These conditions will persist. There’s never going to be a right time to spend more money. The Editorial Board pose their argument as if there will be an eventual time for it, but never propose when that time frame could be. However, historic policy never waits for ripe situations, they simply happen out of necessity to align with the moral demands of the people. Sweeping undocumented immigrants under the rug until the problem goes away is not a tangible strategy.

Expanding Medi-Cal is not a plea to solve the immigration problem. It is an urgent need to secure the health of the human beings that are essential to California. If these people were citizens, this would not even be a discussion. It is immoral to take undocumented tax money then turn around and deny them the basic services afforded to others who pay the same taxes as them.

The LAT is correct in arguing that the ultimate problem here is a broken immigration system. Why, then, do they choose to uphold the standards of oppression that uplift this broken system by siding against the most basic need of healthcare? Legal status should not be a qualification for survival. [/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_heading text=”ABOUT THE AUTHOR:” tag=”h2″ text_align=”left” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”bolder” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”#072824″ css=”.vc_custom_1525156357047{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1527659272712{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]Juan Prieto is the Communications Strategist with CIYJA and is based in Oakland, CA.  Jose Servin is the Communications Coordinator with CIYJA and is based in Santa Ana, CA. Together they from CIYJA’s communications team. [/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_heading text=”ABOUT OUR CONTENT:” tag=”h2″ font_family=”Crimson Text” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”#072824″ css=”.vc_custom_1525156404548{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_weight=”bolder”][vc_column_text font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1525819240900{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]We aim at becoming a platform for directly impacted immigrant youth across California to reclaim their narratives and speak on the issues that most affect them. If you’re interested in submitting an opinion piece or need support in turning your ideas into one, reach out to info@06d.b80.myftpupload.com. and specify on the e-mail subject.[/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vc_single_image image=”760″ img_size=”thumbnail” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_hover=”shrink” link=”https://ciyja.org”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Take It From The Central Valley: You’re Using the Wrong Narrative

[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1525199274516{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”812″ css_animation=”fadeIn” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1525199482691{margin-top: 10px !important;border-top-width: 10px !important;}”][vcex_heading text=”by BRISA CRUZ” style=”bottom-border-w-color” tag=”h2″ italic=”true” text_align=”right” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”normal” text_transform=”none” color=”rgba(9,30,20,0.55)” css=”.vc_custom_1525818269746{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″ inner_bottom_border_color=”#777777″][vcex_heading text=”MAY 16, 2018″ tag=”h2″ text_align=”right” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”normal” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”rgba(9,30,20,0.55)” css=”.vc_custom_1526446958306{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″][vcex_spacing size=”15px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1526484627417{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”d:16|tl:16|tp:16|pl:16|pp:16″]As I sat down and read Want to send Dreamers back to Mexico? If you met one, you’d probably change your mind, I was disappointed. As someone who has been placed under that category, I’m mentally exhausted of hearing and seeing the word “Dreamer.” This term is a label created by elected officials long before DACA existed. It has helped those in power move their scapegoating agenda forward and mainstream media continues to profit off of the pain that comes with it.

Central California is a unique area that places sometimes fatal challenges on the lives of immigrants who don’t fall under the “Dreamer” blanket. Law enforcement leaders like Sheriff Mims in Fresno County and Sheriff Youngblood in Kern County have for years carried out an anti-immigrant agenda that recently claimed the lives of two community members who were wrongfully pursued by ICE.

To omit the stories and narratives of the undocumented community in Central California is not only erasing and neglecting an essential element of this region, but it is also enabling the predatory tactics of anti-immigrant law enforcement that leads to literal deaths.

Mims has invited racist bigots like Joe Arpaio to California and has publicly met with Jeff Sessions and endorsed his xenophobic policies. Youngblood has publicly said that killing a person is cheaper than detaining them and therefore death is a more viable option.

To omit the stories and narratives of the undocumented community in Central California is not only erasing and neglecting an essential element of this region, but it is also enabling the predatory tactics of anti-immigrant law enforcement that leads to literal deaths.

Although the narrative that follows the term “Dreamer” attempts to put a face and humanize what it means to be an undocumented immigrant in the US, the angle taken is too narrow to encompass the bigger issues affecting the immigrant community.

The story only associates the current immigration climate with the so called “Dreamers,” a label that I strongly dislike and have never identified with. I am a DACA recipient myself and understand the privilege I have; however, a social security number and an Employment Authorization Card doesn’t mean I have stopped fighting for the human dignity and liberation of my community–the same community that continues to be criminalized and tokenized by those in power.

A perfect example of the Dreamer rhetoric being thrust upon us is the fact that in the aforementioned Fresno Bee article, Cresencio Rodriguez never used the word “Dreamer” to identify himself, but in the story he is referred as such.

If I could speak with Cresencio, his interviewer, or anyone who uses the Dreamer narrative, I would say that while our personal wellbeing is important, we must also prioritize our communities. DACA provides some relief, but it is temporary. We can not allow the years of momentum and strategy that led us to the passage of DACA to fall apart, because it’s certain that we have a long fight ahead. By becoming complacent with the few privileges we obtained through DACA, we allow ourselves to become vulnerable. The Dreamer narrative is a reflection of that vulnerability.

A document doesn’t stop the criminalization of our community. Even with DACA, we’re still criminalized, racially profiled, and we face the same attacks over and over again.

Mainstream media continues to use the rhetoric that is destructive to the community by feeding the narrative of who’s deserving and who isn’t, who looks like a “criminal” and who doesn’t. The idea that there’s a system to follow isn’t a concept I can believe in, because as someone directly impacted, all I’ve seen and continue to encounter are the injustices people in power get away with.

This case is just one of millions of stories that paint the bigger picture of humanizing the real problem. This is my personal attempt in addressing the point that the media spokesperson and its audience have missed for so long.

Despite media’s continuous Dreamer rhetoric and “allied” immigrant rights organizations speaking on our behalf, womxn like me in Central California are leading the organizing work on a day-to-day basis.

Challenges like the lack of validation as an undocumented womxn in spaces where we get overlooked, people trying to speak on our behalf or tokenize us makes our work harder because we have that extra layer to destroy. Too many times, I’ve seen womxn do the work and men take the credit. We fight these injustices on a day to day basis on top of the dehumanization that I’ve outlined above.

Erasing voices and narratives removes the multiple realities that constitute an ongoing struggle for liberation, humanity, and dignity. In silencing the more marginalized voices–those of womxn organizers and those of Central Californians–law enforcement is better able to dehumanize and criminalize us.

For years, directly impacted youth have been challenging the destructive Dreamer narrative that we once unwittingly embraced. Now I challenge media and people speaking for immigrants on platforms to find creative, inclusive alternatives to the Dreamer narrative that involves everyone in our diverse community.[/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_heading text=”ABOUT THE AUTHOR:” tag=”h2″ text_align=”left” font_family=”Crimson Text” font_weight=”bolder” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”#072824″ css=”.vc_custom_1525156357047{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1525156366544{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]Brisa Cruz is the Central California Regional Organizer with CIYJA and is based in Fresno, CA. [/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_heading text=”ABOUT OUR CONTENT:” tag=”h2″ font_family=”Crimson Text” text_transform=”capitalize” color=”#072824″ css=”.vc_custom_1525156404548{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_weight=”bolder”][vc_column_text font_family=”Crimson Text” css=”.vc_custom_1525819240900{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]We aim at becoming a platform for directly impacted immigrant youth across California to reclaim their narratives and speak on the issues that most affect them. If you’re interested in submitting an opinion piece or need support in turning your ideas into one, reach out to info@06d.b80.myftpupload.com. and specify on the e-mail subject.[/vc_column_text][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vcex_spacing size=”20px”][vc_single_image image=”760″ img_size=”thumbnail” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_hover=”shrink” link=”https://ciyja.org”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]