Why We Walked 2.2 Miles

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We walked in prayer under the symbol of the medicine wheel, uniting our relations from the North, South, East, and West—Red, Black, White, and Yellow. This ceremony showed that the attacks on undocumented and Indigenous lives affect all of us, no matter our background.

Walking is our offering.
The ache in our feet, the burn in our legs—this suffering is our prayer. Like fasting in other traditions, our physical endurance becomes an altar to Creator.

We walked because the Trump administration’s immigrant crackdown is escalating:

• From Jan 2025, ICE has carried out over 158,000 arrests and 142,000 deportations in just the first 100 days.
   
• Executive Order 14159 (“Protecting The American People Against Invasion”) expanded expedited removal, allowing deportations without court hearings and is targeting sanctuary cities (en.wikipedia.org).
   
• Thousands of ICE raids are happening daily—up to 3,000 arrests per day, with military and National Guard deployed to enforce immigration policy in cities such as Los Angeles (axios.com).
   

This is not a distant issue.
Indigenous migrants—Maya, Zapotec, Mixteco, and more—are being detained and removed. Meanwhile, even Native birthright citizenship is under legal attack. Children born on reservations are being denied rights in cases involving nations like the Tohono O’odham and Lakota .

Every step we walk is for those inside detention centers.
For families ripped apart, for children without their parents, for communities living in fear. We walk to declare:

• We have not forgotten who we are.
  
• We are not immigrants on our own lands.
   
• We will not stand aside while our relatives suffer.
   

This was not just a walk—it was ceremony, resistance, and love in motion, held in prayer under the sacred medicine wheel for all our relations.