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Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) condemns the 1/6/21 attempted coup, calls for accountability and justice.

January 13, 2021
Press Release
  • Other

In the wake of last week’s attempted coup by white supremacists, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) and CIRC Action Fund calls for the removal from office of those involved, and immediate action by our elected officials to honor the choice of the millions of people across this country who voted to reject facism and xenophobia.

Make no mistake, this was an attack on our country, on our people, brought on by a president and Republican leaders who ignited baseless conspiracy theories on the integrity of our democratic system. The clear frame of white supremacy makes it doubly disgusting.

Horrifying racial bias was evident both within the mob itself – rioters waved confederate flags [1], flashed white power hand signals [2], and tore what appeared to be a scroll with Chinese lettering, asserting, “we don’t want Chinese bullshit” [3] –– and in the police and national guard’s response. When Black mother Miriam Carey hit a barricade near the white house with her car, Capitol police shot and killed her while she drove away; on Wednesday, members of the same police force took selfies with violent insurrectionists. When Black and brown people protest for justice, the National Guard is on standby with a militarized police force using violent tactics against peaceful groups. But when white extremists threatened our democracy, violence went unchecked for hours. The racism underlying these events did not appear out of thin air on Wednesday. It has been part and parcel of our country’s systems since its founding, and it has been capitalized on and inflamed by rhetoric from alt-right groups like those who stormed the capitol.

However, despite the efforts of those who seek to dismantle our work, we must celebrate our hard fought victories. Following the aftermath of the attempted coup, Congress certified Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice-president, honoring the results of an election that we the people decided by massive voter turnout among immigrant and BIPOC communities. Our fellow voters in Georgia came together, including record-breaking turnout in Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Latinx communities, to elect Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate – clinching a Democratic-controlled Congress.

Our new government must wholeheartedly reject the white supremacist values that fueled Wednesday’s insurrectionists and commit itself to protecting the rights of all those who live in this country. That means putting an end to the cruelty of our current immigration system by introducing a bill to give citizenship to all 12+ million undocumented people living in the US that includes actions to protect our immigrant youth and TPS holders, the release of every person held in ICE and CBP detention, and the right for those deported to come home. This administration must also defund ICE and CBP and hold these agencies responsible for the human rights abuses they have committed.

Trump’s visit to the border in El Paso was a transparent attempt to divert attention from the violence of Wednesday’s attack and toward the more palatable fearmongering and xenophobia that have always been core tenets of his campaign. Moving forward, we must stand against such dangerous white supremacy at the border as well as at the capitol.

CIRC and CIRC Action Fund supports the efforts to impeach Donald Trump and urges the immediate resignation of any Congress members who have endorsed QAnon conspiracy theories and promoted white supremactist ideologies – including Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.

We the people have pulled through everything that’s been done to divide, derail and dishonor our most basic rights. We have stood strong in the midst of unrelenting attempts to discredit and silence Black, Indigenuous, immigrant and other communities of color. And together, we will make America a place for all people, regardless of their immigration status.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/names-of-rioters-capitol.html

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/09/us/capitol-hill-insurrection-extremist-flags-soh/index.html

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/names-of-rioters-capitol.html