This Isn’t About Immigration, It’s About Occupation
Why the real answer to ICE raids isn’t reform, it’s return
We’re Having the Wrong Conversation
Let’s name what’s really happening: when we center “immigration reform,” we’re still centering whiteness.
We’re accepting the terms set by colonizers, that they have the right to define who belongs, who is “legal,” and who must be punished for crossing a line that never should’ve existed.
It’s time to break the spell of colonial logic.
Because the only people truly “illegal” on this land are the settlers who stole it.
White supremacy has convinced the world that its authority is natural, but it isn’t. It’s a lie enforced by violence.
To move into a decolonized future, we must shift our lens:
If we were talking about Ireland, we’d center the Irish, not the English.
If we were talking about Palestine, we’d center the Palestinians, not the occupiers.
And when we’re talking about this land (Turtle Island), we must center the Indigenous people of these lands, not the descendants of colonizers.
The land mass now called “America” is not neutral. The “United States” is not a natural entity. It’s an empire.
An empire has no moral right to decide who is allowed to live, move, breathe, or belong.
Decolonization starts in the mind. It starts with telling the truth:
This is stolen land. The people being targeted are not outsiders; they are returning relatives. The state is the intruder.
ICE Raids Are a Land Back Issue: Why Ending This Terror Starts with Returning the Land
This Isn’t Just About ICE — It’s About Empire
What’s happening in Los Angeles right now isn’t just about immigration policy or border security.
It’s about land, and the ongoing war to control her.
ICE raids aren’t “enforcement.” They’re modern-day settler violence.
To talk about ICE without talking about colonization is to miss the forest for the border wall.
We are not witnessing isolated incidents. We are witnessing the state doing what it was designed to do: maintain control over stolen land through the violent policing of movement, belonging, and presence, especially for Indigenous people of the Global South.
Borders Are Colonial, Not Natural
The U.S.-Mexico border was not drawn to protect people, it was drawn to divide Indigenous nations.
Tribes like the Tohono O’odham, Kumeyaay, and Yaqui didn’t “cross the border”…the border crossed them.
These communities were split by artificial settler lines that had nothing to do with safety or justice and everything to do with occupation.
This isn’t about legality, it’s about empire.
ICE doesn’t protect. It preserves a lie: that the land belongs to the United States and that Indigenous people are trespassers on their own ancestral territories.
Land Back Is the Real Immigration Solution
“Immigration reform” is often framed as the answer, but that solution assumes the settler state has a right to decide who belongs here in the first place.
Land Back reframes everything.
It returns land to Indigenous nations.
It restores traditional stewardship and sovereignty.
It dismantles the very systems that make ICE necessary.
When Indigenous people govern and care for their own lands, there is no need for cages, raids, or border patrol. The real solution isn’t better immigration policy, it’s to end the settler project at its root.
Disrupting the Lies That Keep ICE Alive
The violence of ICE is made possible by a set of lies we’ve been conditioned to believe. Let’s unlearn them:
“Borders keep people safe.” → False. Borders keep power in place. Most violence at the border comes from the state, not from those crossing it.
“Immigration reform is progress.” → Incomplete. Reform still centers the authority of the state to define legality. Liberation requires land return.
“This is about enforcing the law.” → Whose laws? Created by whom? Law has always been a tool of the colonizer.
We cannot decolonize the state’s violence with the state’s language. We must speak the language of liberation against the language of colonization.
✊🏽 Solidarity Means Land Back — Not Just Outrage (long term support)
To oppose ICE in meaningful ways, we must go beyond performative solidarity and into material action rooted in Land Back.
Support Indigenous-Led Land Work
🧱 Dismantle Border Imperialism
Support grassroots organizers at the border:
Organize or show up to disrupt local ICE activity
📚 Educate Yourself and Others
Host a teach-in. Start a community book circle. Invite Indigenous educators to speak and be compensated for their knowledge.
Reflect and Redistribute
Whose land are you on?
How can you return land, resources, or access?
What parts of the settler system are you willing to walk away from?
Land Back Is Not a Metaphor — It’s a Mandate
ICE is not a glitch in the system. It is the system, built to protect the wealth and control of settler colonialism by targeting those who dare to return.
The solution isn’t just abolition, it’s rematriation.
The violence ends when the illusion ends, when we stop pretending this land was ever rightfully owned by the U.S. and start returning it to those who never surrendered it.
Land Back is the solution. Not someday. Now.
🚨 Immediate Action: What You Can Do Right Now
Long-term solidarity matters, but so does showing up in the urgency of this moment. Here are immediate actions you can take today to interrupt harm, shift the narrative, and act in alignment with Land Back:
Track & Disrupt Local ICE Activity
Visit United We Dream’s MigraWatch to report or track ICE raids happening in your area in real-time.
Follow and share alerts from local immigration defense networks or rapid response groups (many cities have hotlines).
Organize a digital mobilization: create/share real-time safety alerts for your community using IG Stories, Twitter threads, or WhatsApp groups.
📞 Call Local Officials to Demand ICE Non-Cooperation
Call your mayor, sheriff, or city council and demand they:
End all contracts with ICE and private detention centers.
Refuse to share information with DHS and CBP.
Declare and enforce their city as a sanctuary, not just in name, but in action.
Use scripts from ILRC or ACLU if you need support.
💵 Send Emergency Mutual Aid
Support undocumented people and families directly impacted by raids:
Immigrant Families Together – Direct bond and legal aid support
The TransLatin@ Coalition – Serving trans and gender-nonconforming Latine immigrants
Local bail funds: Search your city + “immigration bail fund” or use National Bail Fund Directory
Even $5–$10 makes a difference when pooled.
📣 Interrupt the Narrative
Post now about #LandBack as the solution, not just “immigration reform.”
Comment on local news or political posts: copy and paste this..
“This isn’t about broken policy, it’s about stolen land. ICE raids are colonial violence. Land Back is the answer.”
Share this article with context: “If you care about the raids, read this. Let’s shift the narrative.”
🧘🏽♀️ Care for Those Under Attack
Offer rides, child care, or temporary housing to undocumented friends or neighbors.
Send direct Venmo/PayPal/Cash App donations to those affected.
Hold space: make a care circle, prayer, altar, or community check-in focused on safety and healing.
Decolonization is relational.
Remember: Urgency doesn’t mean chaos. It means clarity.
Every action we take now can either reinforce the lie or help unravel it.
Choose to unravel it.
📌 Call to Action
If you’ve read this far, here’s your invitation:
Share this article with three people.
Choose one action: Donate, show up, divest, learn.
Reflect deeply: What would it take for you to live in right relationship with the land you’re on?
Subscribe: Become a paid subscriber to support the work of liberation, decolonization, and whole self healing $8 a month, $80 a year, $120 a year as an equity partner, and if finances are a barrier, email me at: Scholarships@DesireeBStephens.com
This isn’t about guilt. It’s about responsibility.
And it’s time.
In solidarity and liberation,
Desireé B. Stephens, CPS-P
Educator | Counselor | Community Builder
Founder, Make Shi(f)t Happen
New Agreements, New Systems, Deeper Connections
Writer of Liberation Education
Where Reflection Meets Transformation