Mijente members from across the country share their reflections on the past four years and formal end of the Trump administration, reminding us that our organizing has always been about our communities first and foremost; not about a President or any politician who is coming to save us. Today we re-affirm that our best defense, our best strategies for building power lie in our connection and commitment to each other.
As one of the most horrific chapters our immigrant communities have faced in the U.S. comes to a close (notice I choose the word “close” and not “end”), I believe the hardest times are about to begin. Most people in this country believe change comes from the top, and that makes our job–the job to push for long-lasting change–more difficult. These coming years will be a test for all of us who have worked tirelessly for decades to be treated respectfully and to be able to create a new world where we don’t have to apologize for existing. I say bring it on! We are ready to keep the fight going, and win!
– Maru Mora Villalpando
In 2017 I joined Mijente, and it was the first political space I had been to in months, where the discussion wasn’t centered on resisting Trump, but rather about building our political home; and to embrace tactics and strategies working without the state, against the state, and within the state.
Through Mijente I learned to think about engaging in electoral work as an intervention, not a solution. That we needed to prioritize the decriminalization of BIPOC, of immigrants, of poor folks, in all the ways.
Over the last four years our movements built our analysis, our base, our organizing muscles, our abilities to heal ourselves and each other. The end of the 45th presidency leaves a growing movement fueled by hatred and lies. It’s a trail, but that movement is not winning, the Freedom side is.
– Vanessa Snow
Our movement has the opportunity and duty to set the tone for the next four years through our actions in the first 100 days of this administration. I am reflecting about that space in the middle where water meets land; it is muddy but softer and could be shaped. That is how this moment feels to me right now. It is unclear and not perfect, but we can shape it to be exactly what we need it to be to win for all of our communities. It is up to all of us not the people in the White House alone. We got us here by choosing each other, let’s take us to the next level by working together and growing our power from the bottom up and to the left, siempre.
– Neidi Dominguez
Transformative change for working class people, women, and people of color is never obtained in this country because of a President. Like the waves come to shore, they have been moved by a deep ocean of conscious, caring, loving people who organized and united in the common struggle for dignity & justice. This truth is as real as the law of gravity. Let us face these the next four years as our ancestors have done before us: not focused on the power from above, but building with each other the power from below.
Join Mijente, or join another organization, or build your own, but get in movement.
On October 25, 2020, the people of Chile voted “yes” on the referendum which asked voters two questions: should Chile convene a constitutional convention to write a brand-new constitution? If yes, who should write that new constitution – an assembly comprising half congressional representatives and half citizens, or an assembly comprising just citizens?
After a year of fighting in the streets, this vote was a very defining moment in the struggle, and a key example for other Latin American countries fighting towards a similar goal. How was the vote achieved and what does that mean for what comes next? For our third conversation as part of our series, Resistencias Beyond Borders, we spoke to Javier Sandoval, a seasoned organizer in student movements, political education, environmental and housing struggles, as well as an inhabitant and regional advisor for the Biobío region of Concepción in Chile. What he calls, “that beautiful mighty river, called Biobío.”
“[The uprisings] opened up a totally new scenario of constituent struggle, of structural transformation of the pillars of the model of the dictatorship-inspired ‘democracy’ that we have in this country,” says Javier. “And that is the form of control.”
He is on a zoom call with us from an “ayuno” to call attention to the hundreds of political prisoners that were captured during the revolts. This initiative consists of national 24-hour fasts where the organizations rotate every 24 hours. Today was Javier’s turn to do the fast as part of his assembly in the Pedro del Río neighborhood. “Protesting is not a crime, and this action is stressing that.”
Javier on zoom call with Mijente while at ayuno for political prisoners
Javier shares that the current Chilean scenario is the result of the accumulation of inequalities, injustice, and abuse since this neoliberal model was established, conveniently after Pinochet’s coup. Chile is historically the United States’ neoliberalism lab rat, and what we’re seeing is the deep dysfunction and violence of that model.
So, what started as a protest against the metro fare hike of 30 pesos, turned into the slogan “Not 30 pesos, 30 years,” referring also to the Pinochet-era constitution that was written in 1980 and that still remains.
“During all that period of frustrations, betrayals, abandonment and neoliberal consolidation, different social movements with different moments, managed to raise experiences of resistance,” says Javier.
THE PATH TO A NEW CONSTITUTION
Like Canela and Gahela, Javier also feels like the revolts have been a wonderful rebirth, and at the same time, have had a tremendous cost.
“It has been a cultural, psychological, affective, epidermal upheaval of our society,” Javier tells us. “The social fabrics, destroyed by this [neoliberal] model and by repression, are slowly beginning to rebuild.”
Javier says that after a year of intense mobilization the social fabric is healing through solidarity for survival during the pandemic and to also face ineffective and poorly designed policies. “Badly thought out, ill-intentioned policies,” he says, “of the government in power to manage the health crisis that we are experiencing.”
He tells us that to put it simply, at some point a drop of water overflowed the glass, and with it came the uprising. The costs have been many, including mutilations, torture, staging, illegal detentions, abuses, humiliations, rape as well as dozens of neighbors, young people that lost their sight completely such as Gustavo Gatica and Fabiola Campillai.
“These are very cruel situations because there are no substantive advances in the investigations. These institutions simply enjoy impunity,” Javier tells us.
According to Javier, all this is what brought forth the call for a constitutional convention to rewrite the Chilean Constitution, the Magna Carta. He says that the government and political elites have tried to do everything to “save their skin, ensure their privilege, hinder the advance of the proposal for this structural change and to weaken the wave that occurred.”
There are many perspectives from different organizations. Javier shares that there is part of the social movement that wants to participate in the creation of this new constitution, in fighting from within it and also outside in the street. There is also a part that is not interested in participating and that only chooses to strengthen the organization and mobilization in the streets without entering this constitutional rebuilding process. And there are also organizations that want to participate, but from outside the political parties.
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLIES
“Until now, because the plebiscite is so recent, the discussion was mainly about participating or not participating,” says Javier about the creation of national assemblies that would together draft a new constitution depending on the final vote next year.
He explains that there are a series of reserved spaces in what would amount to this constitutional assembly that are specifically for First Nation communities. Currently there are other sectors of the population that are also demanding their own participation and reserved spaces, such as conversations around disability and gender parity.
According to Javier, the election of the constituents and the formal start of the process will be on April 11. “So what we seek to generate before that is the positions, the deliberation, to know what to do and see the possibilities of agreeing amongst ourselves,” he says.
Across organizations and nationally there are many discussions that are taking place in thematic groups and territorial organizations around what this new constitution might look like. “The Constitution [change] does not resolve everything that has to be resolved, because everything has to be transformed, starting from there,” says Javier.
Yet, there are also the laws and regulations that have always been there as obstacles so that the people never reach the constitutional discussion. “But now we go from above, from that discussion and from below, from organizations trying to unite and articulate demands, articulate problems, articulate proposals,” he tells us. “There are many proposals in the Chilean social movements. There have been decades of learning, of struggle, which ultimately show that the stage of assertive criticism of the pillars of the model has been surpassed.”
“And I dare to add, in my case, let’s say, as a condiment of all this collective reflection and also confronting the authorities, that one thing that is striking, which has always disturbed me at least,” says Javier, “is that the struggles often focus on national demands and they rarely address the local powers at the regional level.”
Javier says that he sees this moment as a great opportunity, and that the issue is for folks to agree to face it together and with the force of the popular movement. “This process is energizing the possibility of giving a systemic response to all this. So we are still optimistic and we are struggling, working, talking, discussing, organizing ourselves so that we can confront, as with much more force, with much greater unity, those who defend the current model in government and outside of government,” he shares.
INTERSECTIONALITY
“Young people have become part of this debate of the territorial discussion in a surprising way. They are no longer just neighborhood organizations with older people,” says Javier. “And there is also a very notorious attitude on the part of traditional neighborhood organizations to face together the threats and problems of extractivism. Of this public-private alliance that is embedded in a devastating way in our habitat, in our ecosystem, in our territory.”
Javier shares that he feels like many of the struggles are territorial and spring from that as a root. He tells us that there are assemblies like his where they see that the problems that are affecting them are related to this matrix of environmental extraction. It is becoming apparent to Javier and his communities that these issues are related to taxes and regional sovereignty, sustainability of water, care of ecosystems, and housing.
Extractivist forestry projects have major impacts for many territories in the areas of Arauco and rural areas where Javier says they now know they have usurped land, expelled entire communities, seized and privatized lands where people cannot live. “They have deforested, destroyed the valleys, they have usurped and stolen Mapuche territory. And besides all that, they are producers of catastrophes, they produce drought and that drought today threatens our region, just as other regions are already in drought.”
Javier shares that feminist groups and gender and sexual diverse communities have been leading many of the struggles as well. He understands this queer and feminist presence as continental and international, but with a very strong and local presence reflected in all the struggles, in leadership, in organization, in direct action, on all levels.
“It is very powerful and enormously invigorates this attitude of rebellion, of being daring, of having the courage to face the enemies of our people who can no longer manage to control the tide, at last truly from us,” he says, “and what we can achieve this time.”
ADVICE
“I have a public position, I am a regional councilor. I’m supposed to give advice,” he says laughing. “But more than anything, I think that we can build together to defeat what we are all facing which is based, ultimately, on the same nationalized conformist model in alliance with the powers, and the local bourgeoisie.”
Javier shares that he has been observing the struggles of the people of Latin America with a lot of hope. He leaves us with a message to the people who are fighting.
“There are wonderful experiences that Latin America is producing everywhere. All these struggles and processes that are being experienced in our countries are related. And there is the feeling that we are returning to Latin America, we are seeing each other again, we are returning to each other and it makes sense, eh?” he shares.
“We have to fight together. And we have to keep in mind the need to generate a common project. It has been tried, attempts have been made in the last decade, but it’s still a challenge. This irrational system is finally breaking down. And it is crumbling even at heart.”
Javier says, “it is also a regeneration between people and that this also produces a model of what we call wellbeing, that allows us to solve the material problems of our people. People can’t eat or heal only with words, only with ideas, they have to generate viable structural changes that mark a new north and a development of harmony. Satisfaction of our basic rights and basic dignity.”
“Because, deep down, Chile has not become or was never even a republic. And that is a bit of the tragedy that our continuum in general has shown. We do not want this system, this model, this capitalist system of unequal exchange that prevails in the world. We can live differently. Together we can do it well.”
[part of the series: RESISTENCIAS BEYOND BORDERS by Ebony Bailey and xime izquierdo ugaz]
A return to the Obama years would mean more desperation, more deportations, and more death. Here, Mijente lays out six policies the Biden Administration can enact if it is serious about improving the lives of immigrants.
When it comes to immigration policy, Joe Biden has promised to undo the harms of the Trump administration.
Good. But nowhere near good enough.
We need to be clear: the vicious system that cages our gente, separates our families, and deports our people predates Donald Trump. Trump merely exploited it.
Recall, Barack Obama expanded the practice of caging migrant children and he deported more people than any other president in U.S. history. It was George W. Bush who created ICE and CBP and criminalized border crossings. And it was Bill Clinton who signed a 1996 bill into law that made internal enforcement and deportations the rule–not the exception–and created the legal architecture for human rights abuses at the border.
Reversing Trump’s immigration policies without further action would merely dull the sharpest edges of a fundamentally deadly system.
If Joe Biden is serious about securing the rights and wellbeing of immigrants, here are six policies his administration can enact on day one–beyond rolling back Trump era regulations–without Congressional approval.
1. A Blanket Moratorium on Deportations and Enforcement Actions
The policies and practices of DHS pose life-or-death risks to immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Our gente are in danger while in DHS’s custody, and especially so during this deadly pandemic.
As such, Joe Biden must issue a 100-day blanket moratorium on all immigration enforcement actions–including but not limited to deportations, removals, apprehensions, and arrests. And he must issue executive orders mandating the immediate release of all persons held in ICE and CBP detention camps.
2. A Thorough and Wide-Ranging Investigation into DHS
Since its creation in 2002, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has systematically violated the rights and assaulted the dignity of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
Despite this rotten and repeated history of alarming abuse and naked white supremacy, DHS has never been the subject of an official and far-reaching investigation, and the Department has repeatedly rejected calls for transparency and stonewalled demands for accountability.
On January 20, Joe Biden must issue an executive directive initiating an immediate, thorough, and wide-ranging investigation into DHS. The investigation must include input from directly impacted people–including people caged by DHS and their families–and the investigating panel must hold listening sessions in all 24 cities that house ICE Field Offices to ensure community input.
3. End Operation Streamline and the Criminalization of Migration
Prior to Operation Streamline, the vast majority of border crossings were considered violations of immigration law – civil matters akin to speeding tickets or landlord-tenant disputes.
But since 2005, Operation Streamline–and initiatives like it–have been used to prosecute border crossings as criminal offenses punishable not just with deportation, but with prison sentences, too.
It doesn’t have to be this way. With the stroke of a pen, Joe Biden can shut down Operation Streamline, end all prosecutions under INA Sections 1325 and 1326, and abolish all programs that criminalize migration.
4. Abolish the Secure Communities Program and All Programs Facilitating Information Sharing Between Local and Federal Officials
Secure Communities (S-Comm) is a program run by ICE in which, any time an individual is arrested and booked into a local jail for any reason, that person’s fingerprints are electronically run through ICE’s immigration database. ICE then issues a detainer request to the local jail in an effort to seek the person’s detention and deportation.
S-Comm allows ICE to easily identify non-citizens and to initiate deportation proceedings against them. Such a program invites racial profiling by state and local law enforcement officials and fuels mass deportations. Joe Biden has the ability to end S-Comm on the first day of his presidency and he has a moral obligation to do so.
We also call for the end of all 287(g) agreements. Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes DHS to deputize state and local law enforcement officials–including city police officers and sheriff’s deputies– to act as immigration enforcement agents.
287(g) agreements pose a direct threat to our gente as they expand the government’s deportation force and increase the number of apprehensions, arrests, and removals of migrants. Such agreements have also been found to increase instances of racial profiling and police brutality.
While Joe Biden has pledged to terminate 287(g) agreements entered into during the Trump administration, we demand the Biden administration immediately end all 152 existing 287(g) agreements and institute a blanket ban on their future use.
5. Terminate All Contracts with Private Prison Companies, for Both Detention and So-called “Alternatives to Detention”
The U.S. experiment with outsourcing the caging of human beings to private corporations has been a monumental and repulsive failure. Profiting off of the caging of immigrants is not only immoral–it also creates a perverse incentive to cage more people and build more private prisons.
Joe Biden has pledged to end all contracts with private prison companies–including those that cage immigrants. But that’s not enough. Joe Biden must also terminate all contracts for so-called “alternatives to detention” like ankle bracelets.
While such technologies are branded as “humane” alternatives to incarceration, surveillance companies collect data on the movements of migrants, violate their civil liberties, and charge migrants hundreds of dollars a month to wear the surveillance devices. If our people can’t pay, they risk ending up behind bars.
These aren’t bracelets–they’re shackles. And Joe Biden must end their use.
6. End the Surveillance of Black, Brown, and Immigrant Communities
DHS is working in collaboration with technology megacorporations to build a massive surveillance apparatus to track and criminalize both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
As such, Joe Biden must end all contracts, agreements, and pilot initiatives with corporations– such as Palantir, Clearview AI, Vigilant Solutions, and Thomson Reuters–that build the technology and surveillance programs that lead to DHS enforcement.
Biden must also strike memoranda, rescind regulations and cancel contracts and/or agreements that authorize invasive technologies such as DNA collection, facial recognition, social
media surveillance, and other biometrics collection.
We also demand the Biden Administration cut the amount of funding requested from Congress for DHS biometrics and surveillance programs and equipment by 50% in FY 2021. Joe Biden has the authorization to initiate all of these actions on Day One and he must do so.
Latinx voters, Black voters, immigrant communities, and communities of color helped deliver this election to Joe Biden. It is now time for Joe Biden to deliver for us.
We voted for bold and transformative changes that make our lives safer and better, not a meek and milquetoast approach to immigration policy. Joe Biden’s current plan–a defacto return to the Obama years–would mean more desperation, more deportations, and more death. We demand that Joe Biden to go further and implement these six policies on Day One.
We are committed to dismantling the immigration caging and deportation machine, and we will fight like hell to ensure it happens.
