Tribunal of Conscience Against Racism November 6 and 7, 2025 | 1 Aq’ab’al - 2 K’at Iximulew - Guatemala Question 2: How are Indigenous Peoples experiencing the raids, deportations, and detention in the so-called detention centers now and over the past 3-5 years? In particular, what is the reality being faced by Indigenous women, girls, and children, and the LGBTQ2S+ community? Distinguished Members of the Q’atb’al Tz’ij Council, and organizers of this event – thank you for the opportunity to speak on this sacred day of 1 Ak’ab’al. My name is Juanita, I am from the Mam Nation, and it is a privilege to share this space with my mother, Nana Teresa. It is with great sadness that I make this statement on behalf of the Mayan leaders who shared their testimonies and, in my capacity, as Executive Director of the International Mayan League. As we have heard in the testimonies throughout the day, the simple fact of being a Maya person represents a risk to our lives, safety, and integrity. This violence knows no borders. Under the colonial state of Guatemala and with the complicity of the U.S., Canada, and Israel, amongst others, the individual and collective rights of our peoples are violated daily, and our Mother Earth is desecrated. Thousands of us were and continue to be forced into exile and are now called “migrants” and forced to live in the North. In recent months, we have witnessed an escalation of violence against our peoples under the second Trump administration. I am sure that everyone present is affected by the strategies currently being used to attack, persecute, and criminalize our peoples in the U.S. Violent videos, photos, and painful stories have been shared in the news and on social media about raids, deportations, detention centers, protests repressed with military violence, and children brutally separated from their families. And those images don’t show what happens here, when our loved ones are brutally deported to Guatemala, to a country that never wanted them. Once again, through words and actions, we are told that we don’t belong anywhere, that we are invaders wherever we go. Raids are one of the measures that have been carried out for years to expel us en masse. An example of this is the August 2019 raid in the state of Mississippi. Nearly 700 people were violently arrested at seven sites in six different cities. The majority were Mam, Chuj, Q’anjob’al, and Akateko. Members of our team, including my mother, Nana Teresa, traveled to Mississippi.
The International Mayan League
1
They heard stories of how children were separated from their parents, who were deported to Guatemala. Our people had difficulty locating their loved ones in detention centers because they spoke little Spanish and English, had low literacy levels, and faced technological barriers. Language barriers are one of the main ways in which the rights of our peoples are violated. And the cycles continue. According to Comunidad Sol, an organization of young Maya youth created in 2023 in Ohio and an ally of the Mayan League, they share how the Maya community has endured persecution for several years, particularly affecting young people. “Who are these children? They are, and we are, granddaughters and grandsons of survivors of the Ixil genocide in Guatemala in the 1980s....on October 4, 2023, more than a dozen FBI and HSI agents arrived at the Gerber Poultry company in Ohio. They arrived like the armies that burned our houses in Nebaj,” stated Ka Maya K’iche’. On August 6 of this year, the Maya community in Ohio was attacked again. 25 people from the K’iche’ and Ixil communities were detained at the AZZ company in Canton, Ohio. Parallel to the raids, daily arrests are taking place in our communities. These are more subtle, but no less violent and devastating. Afterwards, families struggle to feed their children and maintain their homes, while grappling with the complexities of the legal, educational, and healthcare systems. In an instant, through raids and deportations, a family’s life is shattered, and in most cases, it is the women, the mothers, who face all this responsibility alone. Chana, a Mam leader in MA and originally from the Primavera del Ixcan Community, Quiché, and daughter of genocide survivors in Iximulew, recounts how her Mam friends were violently arrested in April 2025. Armed ICE agents "brutally broke the car window. The officer said he wasn’t obligated to give them a warrant, that they should simply get out of the car... this was a complete kidnapping.” A young gay Maya Ixil man told Comunidad Sol: “My father kicked me out of the house when I told them I liked men. My father got so angry that he even hit my mother, because he thought it was her fault. Then the pastor told them that I should be punished to get rid of “that evil.”; So my mother helped me escape, and that’s how I was able to flee.” Today he lives under the constant fear of being caught in a raid or arbitrarily detained in the community. And we cannot forget the children of our communities. Between 2018 and 2019, six Maya children and youth died or were killed while in the custody of the U.S. government. During Labor Day weekend, the U.S. government attempted to illegally deport 76 children, returning
The International Mayan League
2
them to dangerous situations in Guatemala. This was part of months of negotiations with the Guatemalan government to expel 609 unaccompanied minors: 90% of whom are from Maya Nations. The absence of the Guatemalan State is evident during these critical times for our displaced peoples in the U.S. The lack of consular services in the U.S., as well as the failure to implement The Return Home Plan for our deported loved ones, confirms the State’s lack of will and ability. From Comunidad Sol: “What kind of justice is the U. S talking about? If they only seek to politicize the suffering of the children, where was the Guatemalan government? Its absence is evident. Why do we have to negotiate the Guatemalan government’s responsibility?” Question 3: Based on the documented cases and the many untold experiences, how are the colonial system and imperialism connected in the way migrants, especially Indigenous Peoples are treated, for example in terms of criminalization and expulsion? The main factors driving the displacement of Indigenous Peoples reflect the existing structural racism of a colonial system, oppressive laws, and neoliberal economic policies and models, all of which violate our rights to exist, self-determination, autonomy, and self-government of our peoples. And these same factors are fundamental to the racism, persecution, and criminalization that we continue to experience in the north. There is also the “climate crisis,” but it is not a problem of climate change or immigration, but rather the result of neoliberal and extractivist policies. Governments grant licenses to transnational corporations such as NaturAceites, Fenix, and Enel, among others. The State, in coordination with the army and police forces, works for the economic interests of a few, at the cost of our peoples and Mother Earth. Violent evictions, such as those of our Maya Q’eqchi’ relatives from their ancestral lands, occur in real time, regardless of the administration in power. So how can we be surprised when we see the increase in our displaced Maya Q’eqchi’ relatives in the north? As a Maya Q’eqchi’ woman recently shared with Comunidad Sol: “I am very afraid. My parents don’t have a home because they are being evicted [by Guatemalan police forces] from where we live in Izabal, Guatemala. If I go back, I will only suffer because the police are persecuting my parents. That’s why I came to live with my older brother.” According to a Q’eqchi’ brother, M, in Houston, TX; there is a large Maya Q’eqchi’ community, composed of hundreds of people living concentrated in the same geographical area. Most members of this community have arrived in the U.S. in the last four to five years, and most
The International Mayan League
3
applied for asylum, turning themselves in to authorities after crossing the border. In recent months, these Maya Q’eqchi’ neighborhoods in Houston have become target areas for ICE raids. In mid-September, one of the apartment complexes was targeted in an operation: “a Blackhawk helicopter landed at the entrance of the complex, where several residents were detained.” According to our sources, these neglected neighborhoods are being used as training grounds for ICE agents. K. is an Ixil brother currently residing in Florida, where there is a large population of people from the Mam, Q’anjob’al, Akateko, and Ixil communities. K. is the son of genocide survivors and continues to advocate for the rights of the displaced Maya community as an interpreter. For K., the cycles of violence are causing new trauma to the predominantly Indigenous community in this area near President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “It’s truly terrifying to see all the persecution, the check points, what our community is suffering. And I’m afraid to go out and not to come back. They are arresting people indiscriminately. Now they don’t care... if you’re not white, they arrest you and take you away...This area has become like a war zone. You see patrols everywhere, and it’s not just immigration vans anymore, but now everyone is collaborating, all the police entities, the sheriffs, and the highway patrols. There have been afternoons when I’ve even seen helicopters and drones circulating here in this city where we live... something only seen in countries where there have been wars. What happened in Guatemala during the 1980 is almost exactly what’s happening now. There is control over this community. They are targeting only our community.” A young Maya K’iche’ man shared with us in 2022: “In our lands they call us Indians and tell us that we have no future.” And this feeling of contempt, that we have no right to a future, is also expressed by K. in Florida, when recounting anecdotes of the detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”. According to K., many Maya people have ended up in this detention center. Some government officials said: “It was a better place to lock up these criminals. And if they wanted to escape, even better, that way there would be more food for the crocodiles.” So, practically what they are trying to do with this policy is to make our people disappear.” To address and repair the historical violations that cause our forced displacement, real solutions are needed, and we recommend the following: a. Our communities are being violently displaced at a large scale due to territorial conflicts, and we demand respect for our territorial rights and the return of our lands. One concrete way to achieve this would be to implement the ruling in favor of the Maya Q’eqchi’ Agua Caliente Indigenous Community against Guatemala, which establishes that the “government must amend legislation to recognize the collective land ownership rights of Indigenous peoples and eliminate
The International Mayan League
4
all discriminatory laws, as well as recognize these communities as distinct legal, social, and political entities.” b. Ensure that current laws and policies are fully aligned with the commitments already agreed upon by the State of Guatemala in the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Peace Accords, and ILO Convention 169 to respect and guarantee the rights of Indigenous peoples. For example, create programs and allocate a budget for the education and health of Indigenous peoples, with a focus on women, children, and youth. c. Consult with autonomous organizations and spaces led by Indigenous Peoples in the diaspora to learn about our existence and needs, and to guide their work based on our experiences, because we are the ones who live with the community and we are the community. d. Support the strategies already promoted by our communities based on our experience and knowledge of the identified needs and priorities to address the urgent needs and specific shortcomings affecting displaced Indigenous peoples, including a response based on our languages, cultures, and worldview.
The International Mayan League
5