Defeating the war on Black/African people requires solidarity with all who are oppressed and resistance against our common enemy.
As community defenders, organizers, and residents resisted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles this past weekend, the state has responded by calling in the FBI and Border Patrol SWAT units, utilizing Blackhawk helicopters to deliver munitions and military-grade equipment, and mobilizing the National Guard and Marines to quell the justified uprising. As our comrades in SoCal BAP have clearly stated, this is domestic warfare .
The connection could not be clearer between the specific kidnappings orchestrated by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Los Angeles on one hand, and the broad militarization of our cities and neighborhoods on the other. Those resisting on the ground in LA have drawn clear parallels with the struggle of the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza, the uprisings of 2020-21, the broader Black Liberation Movement, and the anti-colonial resistance against U.S. imperialism throughout the Americas. Meanwhile, some observers have encouraged Black/African people to ‘sit this one out’ because it supposedly does not involve “us”.
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) unequivocally rejects this narrative that the oppression of immigrants and migrant communities, and the fascist operations of ICE/DHS, are irrelevant for Black/African people. Black/African people are already resisting and standing in solidarity in LA, just as people and communities of all backgrounds mobilized during the uprisings of 2020. Beyond this, we know that Black immigrants throughout the U.S. are disproportionately targeted for criminalization, detention, and deportation. Further, mass deportation not only dehumanizes immigrants, but it deepens the carceral and punitive hold of these state over all oppressed residents. This also extends beyond the borders of the U.S., as we continue to see Haitian immigrants and descendants in the Dominican Republic being summarily rounded up, brutalized, deported, and in some cases, killed , in what effectively amounts to an apartheid regime under President Luis Abinader.