La Tierra Es De Todos (“The Earth Is For All”) was an immigration advocacy organization that viewed America’s southern border as an invalid construct which was created, unjustifiably, by white usupers of Latino territory. Operating from the axiom that “No Human Is Illegal,” La Tierra characterized as “racist” all U.S. efforts to control illegal immigration across the nation’s border with Mexico. To combat this alleged bigotry, La Tierra organized protest rallies against groups seeking to enforce existing immigration laws.

Most prominently in the crosshairs of La Tierra’s condemnation was the Minuteman Project, a volunteer, grassroots effort initiated in April 2005 by private citizens seeking to restrict the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico. Minuteman volunteers monitored sections of the Arizona-Mexico border in an effort to assist the undermanned Border Patrol. La Tierra staged numerous demonstrations denouncing Minuteman activities and objectives. An August 16, 2005 post on the La Tierra website characterized Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist as a “bigot,” a “right wing extremist,” a “not so closeted racist,” a “white supremacist,” a “hate-filled reactionary,” and a “jingoistic individual.”

In March 2005 Jesse Diaz, a UC Riverside graduate student and a member of the La Tierra coalition, helped organize a “call to action” where nearly 50 protesters picketed in front of Gilchrist’s California home and pilloried him as a racist. Diaz, who had a history of gang involvement, was also a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). And at UC Riverside, Diaz was exposed to the teachings of the radical professor Armando Navarro, a Mexican nationalist and anti-American activist who chaired the university’s Ethnic Studies Department.

On August 19, 2005, the La Tierra website featured a denunciation of “Supremacist James Chase” — founder of the southern California-based United States Border Patrol Auxiliary (USBPA), an offshoot of the Minuteman Project. Excoriating the USBPA’s “Neighborhood Watch” program that had been implemented along California’s border with Mexico, La Tierra mocked the program’s stated mission (to reduce the chance that criminals and terrorists would enter the U.S. by violating immigration laws) as a contrived pretext for the ethnic cleansing and harassment of nonwhites.

La Tierra was also part of a coalition of organizations pushing for the passage of a bill permitting illegals in California to obtain driver’s licenses. Jesse Diaz helped lead an April 2004 La Tierra boycott aimed at making this issue a centerpiece of public debate. The boycott also condemned the efforts of anti-illegal-immigration groups to get a revised Proposition 187 (which sought to deny illegal aliens access to driver’s licenses and public benefits from the state) onto the November ballot.   

La Tierra had ties to the International Socialist Organization. It was also affiliated with Bikers Against Borders (BAB), a now-defunct organization founded in August 2005 by a handful of La Tierra members. BAB membership consisted of motorcycle enthusiasts who support La Tierra’s open-borders goals. The membership guidelines for BAB stated: “Socialists, Anarchists, Peace and Justice and all similar affiliations are welcome. Be serious in realizing that confrontation is an important part of combating the proto-fascist nature of anti-immigrant groups.”

After 2005 La Tierra’s activities dwindled in number and size, and soon thereafter the organization became defunct.