CIYJA - California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance

[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1525199274516{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”1220″ css_animation=”fadeIn” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow” css=”.vc_custom_1540932696063{background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row] [vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1525199482691{margin-top: 10px !important;border-top-width: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vcex_spacing size=”15px”][vcex_heading text=”by CIYJA STAFF” 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_1539289509003{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″ inner_bottom_border_color=”#777777″][vcex_heading text=”MARCH 19, 2019″ 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_1539289521335{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_1540929993941{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”d:16|tl:16|tp:16|pl:16|pp:16″]By expanding the power the federal government has to strip legal residents of their due process rights, The Supreme Court has drawn us closer to the unjust reality we undocumented immigrants have been warning would come. As the Trump administration continues to help private companies monetize the suffering of immigrants by apprehending refugees at the border, the SCOTUS has simultaneously broadened the market for immigrant prisons with this ruling. Just this month, ICE undermined the values of California and made a direct deal with such private company. When community in Bakersfield demanded no expansion on a detention facility there, GEO Group and ICE went against their will to keep Mesa Verde Detention Facility opened. The contract saw GEO making nearly $20 million in profit from the misery and suffering of our immigrant community. The SCOTUS has chosen to align with the inhumane treatment of people inside these cages, and undermined the Constitution by voting on political ideology and siding against justice. Nevertheless, we will continue to fight to liberate those who have been criminalized by the state and seek ways to ensure that everyone’s due process is upheld. Though the fight against Trump’s deportation machine continues to grow in intensity, so does the resilience of immigrant youth across California who are ignited with their unapologetic aim to free all who have been incarcerated by this for-profit venture of caging beloved community members away from their loved ones. [/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_1540925369778{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]CIYJA STAFF is comprised of immigrant youth across the state of California, fighting for the liberation of all immigrant communities. [/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”][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]

[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=”1170″ 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 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_1542231873818{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″ inner_bottom_border_color=”#777777″][vcex_heading text=”NOVEMBER 14, 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_1542231896883{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_1542232870432{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”d:16|tl:16|tp:16|pl:16|pp:16″]For the most marginalized, abolition is our main strategy for liberation.  Right now, there is a caravan of asylum-seekers inching closer to the country that seeks to eradicate them, moving forward despite economies, laws and xenophobic cultures attempting to hold them back. Driven by the will to live and prosper, they defy laws and borders to demand a better life than the one torn apart by the US in their homes. Their actions embody the work that we try to carry out daily at the intersection of criminalization, racial justice, and immigration.

The following is a call to arms for all immigrants, abolitionists, and community organizers to take a stand in defense of the 5,000 asylum seekers – who are putting their bodies on the line to put into practice the world that we fight for daily.

It is not news that the United States continues to play an active role in creating refugee crises by globally displacing people. In fact, it is a trend that arguably defines the United States in the clearest terms. From its inception as an autonomous government (for white land-owning men) bound by constitutional rules on land they had stolen from indigenous peoples, the US as a country has depended on the import of humans and the labor they generate.

The History

The first victims that fueled the US’s growth were the Indigenous communities who were nearly wiped out and African slaves who were torn from their homes and forced to build the foundation of this country. This practice continued for hundreds of years and even when the world began to turn its back on the cruel, racist and inhumane practice of slavery, the US continued to treat humans as property based on skin color.

It took a so-called civil war and a constitutional amendment to ‘end’ legal slavery in 1865, but not the racism and social institutions that predicated skin color as a class status. Instead, the Civil War cemented these institutions and allowed for the continued abuse of humanity carried out by white americans.

Despite its shortcomings, the Civil War also introduced us to a real resistance against the evils of the American empire from within. It was the beginning of the abolitionist movement, a Black-led effort of subversion that recognized the only way to destroy american hegemony was to break its racist laws. The abolition of slavery was the first major victory in a struggle that we continue to fight today.

(It is important to note that the first act of resistance against this empire was that of Native Americans attempting to preserve their sovereignty on the land, and any claim for liberation on this land should have them at the forefront.)

To continue fueling the imperialist machine post-slavery, the United States paired the continued exploitation of Black and Native lives with an influx of immigrants looking for opportunities. German and Chinese migrants built the railroads to the West; Irish migrants built the infrastructure of the East Coast; Filipinos, South American, Cambodian and Vietnamese migrants worked the fields.  

To gloss over the contributions of each of these groups and all other exploited people on whose back this country sits is to diminish their immeasurable historical importance, and it is crucial to understand forced migration as a factor in creating imported labor for the US. But I will stick to these examples for the sake of brevity and making my point.

Simultaneously to the internal development of a labor caste system, and following a long tradition started by Western European countries, the United States pillaged the rest of the world alongside its european ancestors. From Africa to India, to the Caribbean Islands, to South America, to China, to the Pacific Islands, the US used its military to implant corporate interests in place of autonomy for nations and sometimes entire continents.

This system of global oppression was ultimately reinforced by the use of nuclear weapons in WWII by the US, which created the political tensions that exist today. Weapons of mass destruction were intended to destroy all resistance against the pillaging that drives migration.

The result? A world bound by US imperialism in which countries are destroyed and robbed of their most essential resource: human life.

The Root

This U.S playbook for such destruction is called capitalism. Primary amongst its intents is the destabilization of countries in favor of its corporate interests. Once destabilized, a country becomes dangerous and few have the strength to escape from their homes to become refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers.

A modern example of this displacement can be observed in Honduras. In 2009, democratically-elected president Jose Manuel Zelaya was replaced in a US-backed coup d’etat led by Porfirio Lobo. Nine years later, Honduras has the highest crime rate in the world. While american pundits on both sides of the political spectrum blame drugs and gangs, it’s clear that the US-backed coup and its intended purpose of destabilizing the country to facilitate taking Honduran natural resources created these conditions.

That eventually trickles down into the newest wave of migrants fleeing instability; refugees and asylum seekers fleeing Central and South America, most of whom are from Honduras.

Despite fleeing violence with hopes of finding safety, the migrant caravan attempting to legally ask for asylum at the United States border isn’t facing the warm acceptance of a benevolent country. Instead, they are facing the ire of a xenophobic, egotistic leader bent on self-gratification and his riled up base of fascism-apologizers.

As the capitalist pillaging returns less, natural resources continue to deplete and the world is paying the repercussions of american industrial carnage against the environment through climate change. The victims of this change are now being turned away, spurned as invaders and free-loaders instead of as laborers to fuel the imperialist machine as was done before.

The Problem

This anti-immigrant attitude has ripple effects. The same tone carried by the United State’s far-right wannabe-tyrant is carried by Mexico’s incoming ‘leftist’ president Manuel Lopez Obrador. Instead of resonating with the struggles of his own people, who have long been the subject of targeted xenophobia, and being an ally to the newest victims of this hate, Obrador has aligned himself with his own country’s oppressor.

I bring all of this into context to emphasize the historical roots of a country bent on destruction. The migrant caravan and its vilification is the latest instance of classic american imperialism where they go in, destroy, and blame others for the turmoil.

Fortunately, just as the US has a long history of oppression, those who fight for liberation have a rich history of resistance to draw from.

The Solution

The Native American resistance to US imperialism predates the nation itself. Native folks have been fighting against colonizers and existing since before this nation was even conceived.

Additionally, the Black abolitionist movement that has planted the seeds for true, radical organizing in the US is rooted in the abolition of the primary establishment from which this country drew its power.

Those efforts must continue and be reinforced by new movements if we are to save this world from the destruction of imperialism.

Just how the US has consolidated right-wing xenophobia into a vitriolic attack on a group of people fighting for their lives, it is time for those of us who call ourselves undocumented organizers and social justice organizers to join forces and defend people that, like us, have been displaced from their homes.

It is not a lost irony that we seek refuge from violence in the stolen home of the villain that has destroyed our home. As we fled to seek refuge, we willingly  entered the belly of the beast.

At the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CIYJA), abolition is our main strategy for liberation. We recognize that the source of global oppression for people of color world wide is Western imperialism spread by the United States and heralded by far-right extremist political puppets put into power to destroy our countries of origin.

To turn our backs on the migrant caravan is to turn our backs on ourselves, because the reality is that these migrants are abolitionists in practice. Driven by the will to live and prosper, they defy laws and borders to demand a better life than the one torn apart by the US in their homes. Their actions embody the work that we try to carry out daily at the intersection of criminalization, racial justice, and immigration.

The work of abolition is not complete. Slavery still exists in the form of imprisoned children fighting fires and prisoner labor being leased to private companies. Our world is shaped by the same american hegemony built on the backs of slaves, and if left unchecked, the US will continue to reinvent and reinvest in the shameful practice.

The migrant caravan is a bold stance against everything that the United States exemplifies. American hegemony is reinforced by american laws and in a stunning act of resilience and bravery, the caravan inches closer every day to the country that seeks to eradicate them.

This is a call to arms for all immigrants, abolitionists, and community organizers to take a stand in defense of the defenseless who are willingly putting their bodies on the line to define the world that we fight for daily. [/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_1542232932876{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]José Servín is one of two Communications Coordinators with CIYJA and is based in Santa Ana, 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]

[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1525199274516{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”1073″ css_animation=”fadeIn” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow” css=”.vc_custom_1539293090868{background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1525199482691{margin-top: 10px !important;border-top-width: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vcex_spacing size=”15px”][vcex_heading text=”by MARIELA MENDEZ” 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_1539289509003{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”14″ inner_bottom_border_color=”#777777″][vcex_heading text=”OCTOBER 11, 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_1539289521335{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_1539289690233{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}” font_size=”d:16|tl:16|tp:16|pl:16|pp:16″]For undocumented families like mine, ‘the american dream’ is simply that: a dream.

This dream inspired my family to leave their roots and home in Mexico for opportunities they would have never had if they stayed there. They knew about the risk, racism, second-class status and stigmatization by the media that undocumented immigrants faced in this country. But like many displaced people, they were willing to face these risks for even a remote opportunity at reaching their dreams of financial stability and peace

My families time here has been a story of shadows. With no avenue to fix our legal status, we’ve labored away at jobs that threaten us with deportation, hoping to be as invisible as possible from a government bent on blaming many of its problems on us. Despite all that, we’re living better than if we had stayed.

But these shadows have silenced me. For some odd reason, I felt that it was necessary to remain quiet and unseen from protests that involved controversy. I didn’t want to implicate or worry my family.

I still recall living in the shadows with fear, and uncertainty in my future. Despite knowing that the rhetoric and terms used to identify the undocumented community led to the unethical and inhumane treatment I experienced, I was okay with living in the shadows.

I worked outdoors under the hot sun in the agricultural fields, and I stood working long hours in packing houses to make a living.

In the fields, we didn’t have clean water. There were sparsely any restrooms, and we were often abandoned for hours on lone fields with no one to call in an emergency. In the packing houses, we were never notified in advance when we would work long shifts of over eight hours, and as a result we would be left with not enough packed food for us to eat. I accepted these conditions quietly.

The urgency to feel that it is necessary to remain quiet and to not have attention drawn to us for sake of our family is a feeling all too common amongst the undocumented community. However, this damning silence is something that I was able to break away from.

To me, the willingness to come out of the shadows came when I began college. I remember feeling the urgency to get involved in my community when I would see discrimination against undocumented students in public places.

I even reached a point when I considered myself no longer living in the shadows, but I was wrong.

On Tuesday, August 7, 2018, I attended the TRUTH Forum in Fresno, CA. These forums are legally required by a law known as the TRUTH Act in any situation where in the previous year, a law enforcement agency interacted with ICE. In this case, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors was required to hold a community forum to hold Sheriff Mims from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department accountable for working closely with ICE by allowing them access to individuals detained in the jails she runs.  If it would not have been for this event, I would not have realized that I was still living in the shadows.

At this public forum, anti-immigrant paid agitators made themselves known by yelling out racist and homophobic slurs at us, a group of local undocumented youth who helped organize the forum. To be clear: these were grown men yelling at children.

I realized then that the outspoken and brave attitude I prided myself on was gone. In the face of such hate, I felt like I was in the shadows once more. Once more, despite all the empowerment I had gained in school, I felt afraid again.

Rather than give into the fear, I realized that a few lone racists were nothing compared to the community power we brought out that day.  

Friends of mine took the stand during public comment and demanded that our county supervisors hold the sheriff, who was present, accountable. I realized that our voices cannot be drowned and that at every one of our forums, actions, rallies and marches we will always be the powerful majority.

This has since become my reason to ask all individuals who are living in the shadows to rise up in order to promote wellness and equality regardless of their legal status. We must stop living in the shadows! It is the first step we must take in order rise in our movement to produce change.

As a DACA recipient, I know that in order to start living out of shadows, I must not be afraid to stand up for what I believe in, and I must learn to be fearless. It is of vital importance for all who have immigrated to the U.S. with or without a current legal status to come out of the shadows in order to raise awareness and publicly advocate for themselves. To shift the narratives the government is trying to impose to the general public about us.

Our voices against these falsehoods are the strongest tool we have to create a movement for change. [/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_1539289626852{padding-right: 25px !important;padding-left: 25px !important;}”]MARIELA MENDEZ is a Cultivator of Change 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”][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]

Sigue este enlace para leer nuestro manifiesto sobre la liberación de inmigrantes.

Dado que el renacimiento del movimiento dedicado a la abolición (destrucción) de la migra (ICE) ha estallado de las redes sociales hacia la ocupación de edificios federales (e incluso transgredido dentro de plataformas políticas de algunos demócratas a lo largo del país) nosotros, La Alianza de Jóvenes Inmigrantes para la Justicia de California (CIYJA) creemos que es vital que aquellos de nosotros que somos directamente impactados, definamos lo que podría ser un mundo sin la Poli-Migra.

Lo siguiente es un manifiesto para todxs aquellxs que se atreven a soñar y luchar por un mundo sin jaulas, sin fronteras, y por la liberación de todxs lxs pueblos explotados en esta tierra.

Haga clic aquí para leer nuestro manifiesto sobre la liberación de inmigrantes.

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.

[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]

[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]