Bay Area march against ICE raids
By
SAN FRANCISCO--More than 150 activists gathered in downtown San Francisco and marched to the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters to demand an end to the federal government's attacks on immigrant communities.
The demonstration was organized by Mujeres Unidas y Activas, a local immigrant rights organization. The demonstration was supported by a number of other groups including the El Balazo Workers Defense Committee, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, Movement for Unconditional Amnesty, the International Socialist Organization and many others.
Protesters chanted "¡No cruzamos la frontera, la frontera nos cruzó!" (We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us!) and demanded an end to the raids and deportations that have been terrorizing immigrant communities and destroying families.
Daniel G., an El Balazo worker detained in the May 2 ICE raids, told Socialist Worker, "We're here to demand justice, to stop the raids. They treat us like criminals, but we are workers."
The protesters also made demands on the local government in San Francisco to unconditionally uphold the city's status as a sanctuary for immigrants, which has recently been under attack from anti-immigrant forces such as the Minutemen, as well as San Francisco's mayor Gavin Newsom.
Claudia Reyes, a member of Mujeres Unidas y Activas, and one of the key organizers of the protest, told Socialist Worker, "We're here on the third anniversary of Elvira Arellanos' courageous decision to seek sanctuary in a church in Chicago and to resist her deportation.
"We are demanding that the raids stop now. Mayor Newsom wants to be governor, so he's started scapegoating immigrants and is trying to end San Francisco's sanctuary city policy. But we're not going to let him. It is a long-established policy in San Francisco that began in the 1980's, when refugees from El Salvador fled their country seeking refuge from the American-sponsored war, and it should remain in place."
The demonstration was a positive development for the immigrant rights struggle in the Bay Area, because it was characterized by a reconsolidation of the various immigrant rights forces in the area.
