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Black Lives Matter Grassroots has released a strong statement opposing the recent ICE
enforcement operations, calling the raids a “racist terror campaign” that targets and
traumatizes immigrant communities under the false pretense of public safety.
From their website, BLM issued the following statement: “Beloved Family… Donald
Trump has declared war on the people. In the few weeks since his inauguration, we
have witnessed horrifying stories of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids
carried out under his administration’s orders to round up undocumented people. These
raids have taken place in schools, at public transit stops, in grocery stores, and at
homes – spaces where we should all be free and safe.
These racist attacks predominantly target our Latinx relatives, and we have seen
repeated attempts by this administration to pit Black and Brown communities against
one another. Let us be clear: Black Lives Matter Grassroots will never abandon our
undocumented family, nor will we forget that most African Americans arrived to this
country, falsely named as chattel, by the same colonial forces that drew false borders.
Black people also continue to be a global people; anti-immigrant policies harm our
continental African, Haitian, Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, Arab, and other Black migrant
siblings, who have been targeted by ICE raids in places like Florida and Ohio. In the
ultimate act of hypocrisy, the Indigenous people of this land have been racially profiled
by ICE and held unlawfully on suspicion of being Latinx.
Our communities must unite to resist this fascist, white-supremacist agenda. We must
continue educating one another about our rights – because we do have rights. Being
undocumented is not a crime…settler colonialism is. People have the right to live, move,
and travel freely, especially on land still being actively colonized by the settler state.
Our opposition to repression and state terror must continue to be loud, strong, and
unwavering.
Black people born in the United States stood with our immigrant siblings in 2016 and
throughout Trump’s first administration, and we continue to stand together now. We
remain committed to showing up and standing in solidarity. We support and are
especially inspired by our youth in their bold acts of resistance, from school walkouts to
direct action.
We know that dissent, civil disobedience, radical visioning, and organizing are our only
options in the face of a fascist regime that seeks to divide us, separate families, and
take away our loved ones through detentions, deportations, and other acts of state
terror.
To our immigrant siblings… We are here. We are with you. And we will not stop until we
are all free.
* Inglewood Today is not affiliated with Black Lives Matter
