LAIPA Statement Against ICE and Ethnic Cleansing

Issued by the Los Angeles Indigenous Peoples' Alliance (LAIPA) – Tovaangar

We, the Indigenous families of Turtle Island living in Tovaangar, have witnessed ethnic cleansing before. Our histories remember. Our grandmothers' songs carry the memory. And we will not be silent while it happens again.

ICE is an instrument of ethnic cleansing.

The mass detention, family separation, and deportation of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and migrant peoples from this continent is not immigration enforcement. It is the continuation of a 500-year colonial project: the removal of Original Peoples from our lands, the erasure of our identities, and the criminalization of our very existence.

Make no mistake. When ICE agents target Mixteco, Nahua, Zapoteco, Tsotsil, Purépecha, and other Indigenous peoples—people who have been on this continent since time immemorial—they are not enforcing "immigration law." They are deporting people from their own ancestral territories. The borders now being violently enforced were drawn by colonizers who never asked our permission.

We name it for what it is: ethnic cleansing.

We have watched families torn apart in our own neighborhoods in Tovaangar. We have held children who cannot find their parents. We have sat with mothers who fear opening their doors. We have buried community members who died in detention. And we have watched the silence of those who claim to be allies.

LAIPA rejects the false narrative that any human being is "illegal." We reject the use of our tax dollars to fund cages, deportations, and the terrorizing of our communities. We reject any politician who claims to care about Indigenous peoples while voting for ICE funding.

We stand with all Indigenous and migrant families facing this violence.

Our ancestors survived genocide, forced relocation, the theft of our children, and the outlawing of our languages and ceremonies. They survived because they resisted. Because they organized. Because they remembered who they were.

We are their descendants. We will do the same.

LAIPA calls for:

• The immediate abolition of ICE and all agencies that detain and deport Indigenous and migrant peoples

• An end to family separation and the closure of all detention centers

• Full legal protection and a path to citizenship for all Indigenous peoples from Turtle Island (the Americas), regardless of borders

• Reparations and healing resources for families who have survived ICE violence

• Recognition that Indigenous peoples have the inherent right to move freely across this continent—a right that no colonial government can erase

We will not collaborate with ICE. We will not provide information. We will not be silent. And we will continue to organize, to heal, and to resist—just as our ancestors did.

Dr. Cintli taught us that reclaiming our identity is an act of resistance. Today, protecting our families from ethnic cleansing is no different.

We are LAIPA. We are Indigenous. We are still here. And we will not let them disappear us again.