Migrant and Native American activists protest Obama's ICE raids
On the 16th of January, migrants backed by Native American activists protested in front of the White House to demand not only and end to the recent terror wave of ICE raids, but all deportations. At the climax of the protest activists laid flowers around the borders of a cutout of the part of Turtle Island claimed by the US, saying" we are here because you're there." As this was done a long list of destructive US interventions in Latin America and the Middle East that generated migrants was read out.
Included in the list were Reagan's wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, repeated US interventions in Honduras including the recent coup, the "war on drugs" that empowered the Mexican cartels, NAFTA and CAFTA, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The nightmare is Syria was specifically mentioned during this reading. It is generally understood that the existance of Daesh (ISIS) is a direct consequence of the US invasion of Iraq. Protesters blamed the war in Syria for driving out at least 7 million refugees, though other figures as high as 14 million have been circulated.
A prominant Lakota speaker flatly promised that Native Americans would "always be in your corner" while reminding everyone that people of color were becoming a majority in the US. He went so far as to declare the entire US to be "one big Indian reservation" with all the implications about both land ownership and oppressive colonialist rule that implies. Other speakers denounced the ongoing criminalization of Muslim immigrants. Obama was called out as doing what Trump is calling for to both Muslim and Central American migrants.
Video a featuring Lakota speaker and the "we are here bacause you're there" flower laying
Laying flowers around borders of cutout of US mainland while denouncing the US wars and economic colonialism that force millions to migrate: "we are here bacause you're there"
