Contacts:

Elena Hodges | elena@pangealegal.org

Vanessa Godinez | vanessa@pangealegal.org

November 14, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE: WE ARE ALCHEMIZING GRIEF INTO ACTION

SAN FRANCISCO, CA –To our beloved immigrant communities and all of us grieving the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, Pangea sees and shares your grief, anger, and uncertainty. We know that Donald Trump’s election to a second term is especially painful for our community members who lived through or lost loved ones to the violence of Trump-era mass ICE raids, detention, and deportation.

As we hold space for these feelings, we also refuse to be overtaken by cynicism or despair. We know that our collective liberation won’t come from the ballot box or elected officials––it will come from our communities and the power we build together. Instead, we re-ground ourselves in our vision for a world without borders, in which all people are free to move and have what they need to thrive. We remain steadfast in our commitment to radical imagination. From winning “impossible” cases to shutting down ICE detention centers, we know that change is possible because we supported our clients and communities in bringing it about.

We remember how the Trump administration targeted immigrant communities for racialized harm, from mass ICE raids and efforts to gut asylum law to the cruel political theater of the Muslim Ban. Beyond just the darkness, we remember the strength and power we found within our communities during those years. When the Trump administration tried to intimidate and silence immigrant communities through ICE raids at homes and workplaces, we co-founded the first Rapid Response Network in the nation and then helped expand it across the Bay Area and the country. When the Trump administration tried to warp asylum law beyond recognition, we joined forces with partners to sue the government, and we won! When they tried to cage more immigrants, we defied the odds by shutting down the West County Detention Facility in Richmond in 2018! We also organized our communities at the state level to pass legislation to move California away from private immigration detention. 

At the same time, we recognize that anti-immigrant policies do not start or end with Trump. The U.S. political system’s entrenched structures of racial capitalism and militarism run deep. Decades of U.S. immigration policy have relied on fear and dehumanization to justify criminalizing, imprisoning, and deporting immigrants and other marginalized communities. We reject attempts to create a false binary between “good” and “bad” immigrants. We are proud to work alongside detained leaders who are leading the call to abolish unjust immigration detention across California and the U.S. And until that happens, we will continue to support and celebrate the full humanity of our clients as they seek protection within a legal system that too often fails them. 

Our resolve is stronger than ever. We know that we have what it takes, from the movement for immigrant justice to other linked liberation movements. We will continue to draw strength from one another and from a proud lineage of directly impacted people organizing to shift power and bring about the world we need and deserve. Pangea has gathered resources for collective healing, legal support, and organizing to change our immigration system from the ground up. Learn more about your rights and ways you can take action here. Will you join us?

We have more than enough wisdom

We have more than enough memory

We have more than enough protection

We have more than enough joy

We have more than enough stories and courage to heal our worlds

We have more than enough fire

We have more than enough guidance

We have more

We have more than enough

-Excerpts from Abundance Poem, by the participants in “Already Been Done,” an Ancestral Listening Workshop by Black Feminist Film School 

With commitment and love,

The Pangea Team