Around 60
undocumented students, activists and community members staged a rally
and sit-in at the ICE headquarters in Los Angeles Aug. 24 to protest
‘Secure Communities’ and the racist ICE raids that have been on
the rise since the election of President Obama.
Organizers from
Dream Act California, which initially
called the action, held a speak-out where they shared stories about
friends and family having their homes raided and being brutalized and
arrested by deportation police.
Each speaker was an
immigrant and a student. All made it clear
that, although it was with great risk that they publicly denounced
the expansion of Secure Communities and the racist and brutal tactics
of ICE, they were undocumented and unafraid. This theme was carried
out through the whole protest in chants.
Issac Barrera, a
student and one of the organizers, spoke of
how his mother was arrested during a raid and of his own arrest after
taking part in an action against anti-immigrant policies. His demand
for immigrants to be treated with dignity and respect drew support
from the whole crowd.
Martha Vasquez, also
a student and organizer, spoke of her
sister being arrested and detained by ICE as she called for an
immediate end to the program.
Since the
creation of the Secure Communities program in 2008, countless
families have been raided and broken apart and hundreds of thousands
of undocumented people have wrongfully been forced out of the
country.
Recently,
Homeland Security made it mandatory for all states to take part in
the Secure Communities program even if a state previously opted out
of it. This is a tremendously heated issue especially in California,
which has the largest undocumented population in the country.
The
overwhelmingly young demonstration carried chants like “When
immigrant rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight
back!” and “Education not deportations!” that drowned out a
miniscule counter rally supporting the racist deportation program.
After a fiery
speak-out that emphasized to protesters why
they were there and what they were fighting for, the demonstrators
marched around the building to meet up with a bus that was being
readied for undocumented detainees about to face deportation.
It was then that
students from the crowd along with veterans and supporters sat down
in the middle of the driveway and stopped the bus from driving out of
the lot.
Police came
out in full force and were joined by increasing numbers of officers
as the protesters grew more determined in their struggle against the
criminalization of their undocumented sisters and brothers.
After about a
two-hour shut down of the driveway and of
the traffic along the side of the building, police dispersed the
crowd and arrested three students outside who refused to move out of
the driveway. Five others were arrested inside of the building.
Protesters didn’t
stand idly by as police arrested the militant fighters; the crowd
continued to chant, yell and denounce the
police, photographing and recording the police role in protecting the
racist immigration agency.
After the arrests, the
protesters grew even more militant and stood in line against the
police who doubled up their forces, bringing out not only more
officers and squad cars but also actual ICE agents and police dogs
clearly meant to intimidate and scare off the crowd.
The increased police
presence failed to demoralize the protesters,
who only grew louder and began to chant “Police say get back! We
say fight back!”
The toe-to-toe
confrontation with police lasted until the protesters were forced
onto the sidewalk and out of driveway. Still protesters chanted and
demanded an end to the Secure Communities program and for the
releases of those arrested.
This was a
demonstration of militancy and determination to fight a racist
system that criminalizes us and our loved
ones because of immigration status. The ruling class uses
undocumented workers for cheap labor in its attempt to maximize
profits while also scapegoating them with racist propaganda to
continue to divide the working class.
Through unity of all
workers, students and youth we can achieve victory in this struggle
and defend the rights of our sisters and brothers in the undocumented
community. End Secure Communities! End the
deportations!
