From: Libertarian Party of California <chair@ca.lp.org <mailto:chair@ca.lp.org>>
Date: Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Subject: Special Statement from the Chair Loren Dean
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February 5, 2025
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Special Statement from the Chair Loren Dean
The single overarching belief that drives Libertarian thinking is respect for the dignity and rights of every individual, no matter where they were born or where they now live. Any government action, even when justified, must respect individual rights, reject the initiation of force, and honor due process. Those principles do not stop at citizenship, and they do not disappear for political convenience.
The federal government may have a justifiable role in controlling the border, but if that role exists it belongs at the border; it does not belong in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, or our schools. Armed federal agents should not be policing our communities or terrorizing families who are simply trying to live their lives. When real crimes occur, they should certainly be addressed, by local law enforcement officers accountable to the communities they serve. Federal agencies should step in only when local authorities request assistance.
Sadly, today ICE and CBP are operating in direct opposition to these values. Under presidential direction, they are endangering lives, violating rights, and eroding the line between military force and civilian policing. This harms citizens and non-citizens alike and undermines trust in all levels of government.
What to do? The answer, my fellow liberty-lovers of California, comes in two equally important parts.
The easy solution here is to call for organizational reforms and regulatory changes. But that treats the problem exactly the way government wants you to treat it: government wants you to believe that someone else will fix this problem for you. They’re lying to you.
ICE and CBP exist in their current form, and are perpetrating their horrors, because decades of politicians have convinced you to trade your freedom for security. The atrocities splashed at you in the news are the grotesque fruit of that rotten tree.
The real fix here in California is for everyone who loves freedom to truly get involved. Not performative nonsense masquerading as activism. No, the solution here is for you, liberty lovers of California, to rediscover community.
You, my friends, can do this by acting on two fronts. First, call on your representatives at every level to take a standby sponsoring and passing legislation to disarm, defund, and abolish ICE, and to repeal any laws that allow the President to authorize similar operations within our communities. CBP must be strictly limited to border protection and barred from conducting immigration enforcement within our cities. You don’t need anyone’s permission or direction to call for this. Just call your representative’s office and demand it, personally and directly.
But, much more importantly, you need to get to know your neighbors. Find the immigrant support networks around you and volunteer your time to help your fellow human beings in their search for a better life. Donate furniture to equip an apartment for a refugee family. Join a neighborhood awareness group near you. Contact your local school for tutoring opportunities. Read books to English learners at your local library. Contact your local chamber of commerce to learn how to shop local. Go eat at the kabob joint that just opened (and be sure to tip). Build communities that not only don’t want ICE, but also don’t need ICE, because the community is functioning great!
Our communities deserve safety without intimidation, liberty without exception, and a government that respects the rights of every person. Stop trusting government’s promises that they’ll give those to you (after the next election, of course). Get out there and build those things yourself!
–Loren Dean
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