Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community Statement on Repeal of DACA

NASPA Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community

Statement on Repeal of DACA

September 8, 2017

The Indigenous People’s Knowledge Community (IPKC) stands in solidarity with the nearly 1 million young people who stand to lose their protections by the decision to revoke the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Since 2012, over 800,000 people have been able to work, study, provide for their families without deportation. The impact of this policy decision will be adversely felt not only by those who are enrolled in DACA, but by the families and communities of DACA participants.

Many have argued that those affected by DACA have done nothing wrong as they were infants or very young when brought to this land now called the United States; declaring humans as “illegal” and threatening deportation furthers an anti-immigrant and dehumanizing climate and is a perspective and action we oppose. We want to complicate that argument by reminding everyone that these borders were imposed on the Indigenous peoples of these lands. We cannot emphasize enough that the “we are a nation of immigrants” argument silences Indigenous voices and erases our historical and political relationship to this land.

From a social action standpoint, the Indigenous Peoples KC will continue to fiercely advocate for fair, just, and safe communities for all people. We would like to reiterate NASPA calls on Congress to save DACA statement by urging individuals to “...reach out to their elected officials in Congress and strongly encourage them to enact legislation, such as the bipartisan Dream Act (Senate Bill 1615) or BRIDGE Act (Senate Bill 128) , that would provide enduring protection for undocumented immigrants”. To further ground your understanding of this issue, critically listen to the material conditions that have shaped the lives and participation of undocumented students and staff at your respective institutions. Through this effort, we also encourage you to make visible to your respective institutions the cultural story of Indigenous peoples; neither this nor the legal status of hundreds of thousands of students should be invalidated.

In unity, in peace, and in thanksgiving,

Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community (IPKC)