dear immigrant rights organizers and activists across chicagoland,
did you hear about this original and interesting action in minnesota?
hatem abudayyeh
AAAN
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Tea Party Prankster Robert Erickson Strikes Again!
Protest at Immigration Office Exposes Racism and Hypocrisy of Deporting Latino Immigrants
By Brad Sigal
 Bloomington, MN - On Monday morning, Nov. 23, a group of immigrant
rights activists staged a guerrilla theater-style protest here to
dramatically expose the racism and hypocrisy of immigration raids that
target Latino immigrants, tearing apart families and communities.
In a striking visual display, nine people dressed as prisoners in
orange jumpsuits and black hoods came to the entrance of the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building here demanding to be
deported. They were accompanied by 25 supporters who also demanded that
ICE check their documents and deport them. They claimed to be not
undocumented Latino immigrants, but instead European descendants who
were admitting that their ancestors had come to this continent
illegally and committed genocide against the Native Americans while
stealing their lands. Because of this, they demanded that ICE deport
them.
ICE officials and police officers seemed confused and formed a line
blocking the door to the building, so the protesters could not enter to
turn themselves in for deportation back to the European countries that
their ancestors had immigrated from without documents. The ICE officers
present refused to check their documents to see if they were in the
country legally. The officers also refused a request for an ICE
official to come out to meet with them about the waves of European
immigrants who came to the U.S. without the permission of the Native
Americans, who then drove the original Americans off their land through
countless broken treaties and genocidal wars.
When ICE officials refused to let the protesters enter the building
to turn themselves in for deportation, the protesters responded by
chanted, "Deport us now!" and, "What if we were brown?" This exposed
the blatant racism that targets Latino immigrants for deportation in
their homes and workplaces, while refusing to even check the documents
of white people who show up at ICE's doorstep claiming to be in the
country illegally and asking to be deported.
The guerrilla theater-style protest was organized by the Minnesota
Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (MIRAc). It was a follow-up to a
protest organized on Nov. 14, in which MIRAc protested against a
right-wing anti-immigrant 'Tea Party' outside the Minnesota State
Capitol. At that rally an immigrant rights activist going by the name
of Robert Erickson tricked the anti-immigrant organizers into letting
him speak at their rally. Instead of denouncing Latino immigrants, he
denounced the original European colonizers to this continent that stole
the land from Native Americans.
At the Nov. 23 action, Robert Erickson spoke again, saying,
"[Christopher] Columbus is the original illegal immigrant...he came
without papers and didn't ask for permission. Through policies of
ethnic cleansing and extermination, the original pilgrims stole this
land from the real [Native] Americans, killing more than 30 million
[Native] Americans in the worst genocide in human history."
Erickson differentiated between the European colonizers who came
here for illegitimate reasons to steal land and resources and current
immigrants from Central and South America who are forced to leave their
countries by U.S.-sponsored wars and economic policies that bankrupt
their countries, and come here to be able to simply survive, not to
conquer.
Erickson said, "Just as the original pilgrims profited from the
exploitation and murder of indigenous Americans, modern day pilgrims
are reaping massive profits by displacing indigenous Mexicans, Central
and South Americans from their rightful homelands through economic
conquest." Erickson encouraged people to support the native Dakota
people's struggle for sovereignty and to support the rights of Mexican,
Central American and South American immigrants.
Click here to see video of MIRAc action at ICE Building, Bloomington, MN, Nov. 23, 2009
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