(Full post) Communities for a Better Environment exists to support the people of California in the fight for environmental justice. For over 45 years, CBE has worked in California’s EJ communities to support Southeast Los Angeles, Wilmington, Richmond, and East Oakland, but our fight is not limited to clean air, water and soil. We rise as one voice to condemn the aggressions and lack of due process committed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in communities in Los Angeles and across California. These ICE actions are indiscriminately sweeping up our neighbors, our relatives, the people who do the jobs that keep us safe, members of society on whom we all rely and who are the fabric of our communities. ICE’s tactics threaten every one of CBE’s shared values and we will not stand by silently as our community continues to be harassed, terrorized, and falsely imprisoned without charges.
On Friday June 6, our friend and ally David Huerta, President of SEIU-USWW California, was arrested and detained by the federal government. The role of labor is critical to the environmental justice movement and necessary for a path towards a just transition. CBE relies on and supports our SEIU allies around the state, as we believe that empowered workers build empowered communities.
Now is the time for all people to practice community care. Whether that looks like joining your local march, making art, volunteering at an ICE watch hotline, distributing first-aid materials, or checking in with your loved ones, we must come forward in support of our shared values.
In this moment, CBE demands immediate release of all people who were detained in ICE raids, and all people who were detained in protesting these raids; that the federal government immediately pull back the national guard, cease threatening military response, and desist from threatening California’s elected leaders with arrest.
At CBE we understand our movement is intersectional, which means there is no environmental justice without migrant justice. Our collective liberation includes everyone – we stand in solidarity with migrant, low-income, queer and trans, and people of color – we will protect each other.
If you suspect ICE activity in your neighborhood, you can report it to the ACLU Southern CA Rapid Response Network at 888-624-4752. For more information about your rights, visit CHIRLA’s My Rights website.
