For the past week, thousands of migrants and citizens of Latin American descent – along with activists and people fighting for the rights of these communities – have taken to the streets in the city of Los Angeles, California, United States of America, to protest against the intensification of racist and classist raids carried out by the police following orders issued by the federal government and Donald Trump’s fascist policies. The police use these raids to arbitrarily and indiscriminately detain migrants belonging to the working classes, unlawfully hold them in detention centers and – in many cases – deport them without respecting due process and U.S. law, in violation of their rights and international standards.

In response, Los Angeles police have declared the protests an “unlawful assembly,” creating a de facto state of emergency in downtown Los Angeles, which has led to violent crackdowns and the arrest of dozens of protesters. And if this situation was not sufficiently concerning, the violence has escalated following the militarization of the protest zone by the federal government, which has sent nearly 5,000 National Guard troops and 700 marines; something unheard of since the 1960s in relation to the massive mobilizations for civil rights and against the imperialist war in Vietnam.  

We know that violent immigration policies and the repression of social protest are not new in the United States. However, far from trying to halt the escalation of violence and State terrorism, the current administration encourages violence, fueling hate speech and the dissemination of fake news to stigmatize, criminalize and target racialized migrants and people with U.S. nationality, especially those of Mesoamerican descent, from Mexico and Central America. Today, in the United States of America, any person with Latino and working-class features runs the risk of being arbitrarily detained, criminalized, assaulted and deported to a country that is not even the country of their family roots. Example of the latter are the hundreds of people of Venezuelan origin who remain imprisoned in a jail in El Salvador after being illegally detained and deported from the United States.

Outrage at the Trump administration’s racist practices, and at the brutality of the crackdown on protests against them, is spreading across the country. The strength of the communities, organizations and movements that have come together, as well as the thousands of people who are aware of the seriousness of the situation, are a source of hope for our entire continent. In a world where governments advance by building walls, society resists through solidarity and a basic sense of humanity.

IM-Defensoras, with all our national and territorial networks and articulations, raise our voices to repudiate the U.S. government’s racist, misogynist, transphobic, aporophobic and classist policies, and we demand that they be stopped immediately – from the raids, detentions and illegal deportations, to the hate speech spewed by the government itself and the repression of the exercise of the right to protest.

We recognize the courage and legitimacy of the struggle of those who have taken to the streets to denounce this barbarism and to defend the human right of all people to live and work wherever they choose, regardless of their origin, ethnicity, sexual preference or gender identity.

We demand an immediate end to the militarization and repression in Los Angeles and in all other cities in the country, and the release of all detainees and guarantees that they will not be criminalized.

We extend our solidarity and support from Mesoamerica to our sisters who, from the streets or from their movements and organizations, are defending the rights and dignity of migrants and of all those who have their roots in Abya Yala.