NAFCON urgently calls on the Filipino community to unite and take action to defend our immigrant kababayan in Los Angeles and beyond amidst a new wave of escalating attacks.
Los Angeles is home to over 3.5 million immigrants, making up 35% of the county’s population. From 2012 to 2021, Filipinos ranked among the top three migrant groups in the region. Migrant workers have been the backbone of this city’s economy: from manufacturing and service work to health care and tourism, they’ve built and sustained the very systems that keep LA running. For many, Los Angeles has become their second home after being pushed to leave their countries due to poverty, lack of opportunity, or political repression.
Earlier this year, wildfires devastated communities across LA. Many workers, especially Filipino caregivers, lost their homes, jobs, and workplaces. But even in crisis, our community showed strength. NAFCON local members and community organizations mobilized through a disaster response campaign, showing once again our bayanihan spirit, strength, and collective action in times of crisis.
Yet while the city is still recovering from the physical and economic aftermath of the fires, migrant communities who have played a vital role in the city’s rebuilding, are now being targeted. ICE operations have intensified across Southern California following a directive from the Trump administration to ramp up arrests to 3,000 per day, including in areas with large Filipino populations. Through our local Tanggol Migrante networks, we are receiving an increasing number of reports of raids and immigration enforcement actions throughout the region.
This is not the first time our community has been under attack. And this is not the first time we have risen to fight back. Just in the past few months, we have seen how collective action can win: our communities mobilized to support detained kababayan and helped secure the release of three Filipino green card holders, including “Aunty Lynn” Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old health care worker unjustly detained for four months in the Northwest Detention Center, WA.
The road ahead may be challenging, but our history as Filipinos has shown that when we unite, we can overcome repression. We call on Filipino migrant workers, healthcare workers, educators, lawyers and legal advocates, church people, and students to deepen our unity and strengthen our collective action, not only for ourselves but in solidarity with other immigrant communities also facing attack.
Now more than ever, we must answer the call to Magkaisa at Kumilos. Unite and Act. Defend our migrant communities.
