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By Frank P. Barajas / Guest contributor
Hello Friend,
 Frank P. Barajas. Courtesy photo. Over 1,000 people from across the country traveled to Oxnard to attend the La Defensa Del Pueblo summit at the Performing Arts Center (OPAC). Cars, trucks, charter buses, and food trucks crowded the site’s parking lot. Latecomers parked in the surrounding streets. An élan filled the air as attendees arrived, checked in, and entered the facility’s courtyard jammed with the tents of non-profit orgs: immigrant rights, environmental justice, tenant rights, labor, healthcare, housing, veterans, and education. Community organizers from Houston, Las Vegas, and New York networked with comrades from San Diego, the Imperial Valley, San Francisco, Seattle, and Santa Barbara. Agents of direct action, devoted to protecting immigrants and themselves, fed off each other’s energy in their common struggle against the terror of the US-gestapo agency called ICE. The summit opened at 11 am, with eight knowledge-filled panels and workshops, all punctuated by a Pachanga Del Pueblo. A rainbow of speakers from all walks of life highlighted the resistance of collectives to the oppressive policies of the Trump administration. In the process, several of the panelists reminded the audience of the faults and failures of the Democratic Party to protect hardworking immigrant communities who fuel our economy. For example, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) was signed into law by Bill Clinton and vigorously implemented by Barack Obama, aka the Deporter in Chief before Donald Trump. Moreover, when the Democratic Party controlled Congress with a filibuster-proof Senate, Obama (Lucy) refused to make good on his campaign promise to voters (Charlie Brown) to institutionalize just immigration reform. The main message by many of the panelists was that we, the people, cannot expect a feckless Democratic Party to save us. The people can only save the people. So do not anticipate much change if the Democrats win control of Congress this November. Only organized communities across the nation can defeat the violent, terrorist, masked domestic militarism of ICE. The screening of the documentary DEFENDING VENTURA COUNTY at the summit demonstrated the masked ICE terrorism executed against VC Defensa. The surveillance and acts of intimidation of ICE against VC Defensa, and like organizations, is because Trump’s willing executioners are afraid of the resistance. Or, as Monolo De Los Santos eloquently declared, “They are afraid of us because we are not afraid/Nos tienen miedo porque no temenos miedo.” One speaker expressed that federal surveillance and the infiltration of its immigrant rights organization is not a major preoccupation because their movement is both righteous and transparent. Its platform and actions are openly shared on social media. A plan that has garnered it enormous community support. If the cowardly, masked actions of ICE agents were not enough, the Trump administration has attempted to neutralize the resistance of immigrant rights organizations via National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7). This memorandum targets non-profits as “domestic terrorist organizations” that work to advance social justice. This memorandum is a complement to the lies, violence, and acts of intimidation of ICE agents. One point raised by one panelist contextualized the persecution of immigrants in the US as part of a larger global phenomenon of occupation and war, as evinced by Gaza and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank as well as the US war against Iran. This is to say that the national and international resistance of Palestinians and their supporters forged the struggle of organizations for immigrant rights. Hence, we are all Palestinians: white, Black, Chicana/o, Jews, Muslim, Christian, Asian, and Native American people. The expulsion of immigrants in the US and Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories is part of a white supremacist demographic replacement project instituted by European settler colonists as early as 1492 and more recently by European Zionists dating back to the early twentieth century, if not earlier, that entailed systemically violent acts of genocide and removal, i.e., deportations/expulsions. Even Israeli settlers in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza admit that they are following a template executed by the US against Native Americans since 1607. The last panel also expressed that the immigrant rights movement of today is not just that of Brown people. Black people, US citizens, and immigrants have been victims of the deadly violence and detainment of ICE. So, what’s the solution: organized resistance. Join one of the many local and national organizations that defend the human rights of all. There are many near you. Just look. Fin — Frank P. Barajas is a lifetime resident of Oxnard and Professor of History, Faculty Early Retirement Program at California State University Channel Islands. Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to frank@amigos805.com
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