Native Groups Unite in Support of Immigrant Rights Across California

Indigenous solidarity grows against ICE crackdowns targeting Latin American communities

Published on Feb. 26, 2026

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As resistance to the Trump administration's violent immigration enforcement crackdown intensifies nationwide, Native American groups are uniting in support of immigrant rights, particularly on the California Central Coast where the ancestral lands of the Chumash People are located. ICE crackdowns disproportionately target immigrant people from Indigenous communities across Latin America, bringing to light the shared struggle between Native and other people of indigenous heritage whose histories and relationships transcend borders and predate European colonization.

Why it matters

For many Native leaders, the administration's extreme enforcement measures are not an isolated policy shift, but the latest chapter in a centuries-long story of violent colonization. Native American and intertribal organizations are speaking out forcefully against these policies, condemning the abuses on Native communities and vehemently opposing ICE raids for the fear they impose on all Indigenous communities.

The details

Tribal members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation responded with swift and forceful opposition after it became public that the business arm of the Potawatomi Nation had signed a $30 million contract to develop an ICE detention center on tribal land. The tribal council is now terminating the contract and has dismissed members of the Prairie Band LLC leadership responsible for the deal. Chumash community leaders also condemn the violent ICE raids as morally unjust and a direct attack on the long shared history of interconnectedness between Chumash and Mexican community members. Intertribal organizations and multi-racial immigrant defense groups are advocating for legal assistance, protecting the community from ICE, and being invited to intertribal ceremonies to help heal from the trauma.

  • In early 2025, the Trump administration launched nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
  • On July 23, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security posted a 19th century painting synonymous with Manifest Destiny, with the caption 'A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending'.

The players

Joseph Rupnick

The chairman of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation who joined outraged community members in calling to 'ditch' the tribe's $30 million contract with ICE to develop a detention center on tribal land.

Marcus Lopez

A Chumash community leader and chair of the Barbareno Chumash Council of Santa Barbara who argued that the vast majority of undocumented people targeted by ICE in the region are themselves Indigenous and are therefore protected under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Julie Tumamait-Stenslie

A Chumash elder and founding chair of the Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians who points out that Chumash and Mexican families intermarried and lived as neighbors for decades, often laboring side by side in agricultural work.

Xiuhtezcatl

An Indigenous author, recording artist and environmental activist residing in Ojai who affirms that the mass deportations, violent attacks against sanctuary cities, placing children in cages, and separating children from their families are all a continuation of the same violent systems responsible for the genocide, land theft, and forced removal of Indigenous people.

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What they’re saying

“Native people know oppression. We were forcibly removed from our homelands, locked in Indian boarding schools, and confined to reservations. Our history is one of systematic attempts by the federal government to erase our culture, our language, our existence. We cannot—we should not—profit from the oppression of others.”

— Levi Rickert, Tribal member (Independent)

“For many of us, we believed then and believe today, you don't just commit an injustice, like these ICE attacks, on some member of our community. You're committing an injustice on all of us! We're in this fight together.”

— Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, Chumash elder and founding chair of the Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians (Independent)

What’s next

The judge in the case will decide on Tuesday whether or not to allow the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation to terminate its $30 million contract with ICE.

The takeaway

This growing indigenous solidarity against ICE crackdowns highlights how the administration's extreme enforcement measures are not an isolated policy shift, but the latest chapter in a centuries-long story of violent colonization. Native and other indigenous people recognize these ICE attacks as the next phase in an over 500-year long struggle, leading them to form a resistance based on a vision for collective self-interest consistent with indigenous values of interconnectedness, reciprocity and protection of the earth.