Feature Archives

A group of racists who organize through the website "Illegal Immigrant Protest dot com" called for an "Illegal Immigrant Protest Rally" at the Town Clock in Santa Cruz on July 22nd. Peace and social justice activists from across Santa Cruz County put out a call for solidarity with migrants and to confront and educate the out-of-town "anti-alien" group. About 30 activists showed up in solidarity with migrants and 3 "anti-alien" protesters came to Santa Cruz to scapegoat problems in our society on people migrating from Mexico to the United States. Feeling far too outnumbered and unwelcome, the racists returned to their cars and drove back over the hill.

On Friday afternoon in Watsonville, community members let Maria Shriver, wife of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, know just how they felt about her visit to their heavily immigrant city. Carrying signs that read, "Arnold Supports Terrorists" and "No Somos Tu Picture Op! Terminator Go Home!", people protested the visit from California's first lady. Billed as a promotion of the food stamp program, many attendees felt it was staged as a public relations opportunity with the Mexican-American community on behalf of her husband, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who is up for re-election this November.

On July 14th, 25 protesters with the East Bay Coalition for Border Security, a racist, anti-immigrant group in Fremont that is seeking affiliation with the Minutemen, were met by twice as many counter-protesters at a rally in Fremont which takes place every other Friday during the summer. For the first time, the counter-protesters were violently assaulted by the Minutemen wannabes and repressed by the Fremont police. As can be seen in a video taken at the event, a member of the EBCBS shoved and punched two of the anti-racist counter-protesters. This came after another violent altercation with a young Latino man.

Organizers with Direct Action Anti-Authoritarians (DAAA) Collective, and Aztlan Rising, held a counter protest against the anti-immigration group Save Our State, (SOS). The two groups started on opposite sides of the street, and then counter protestors crossed, and both groups were mashed together. It was documented that white power activists were in attendance at the demonstration.

As the government and the American public debate what should be done to fix the US immigration system, anti-immigrant forces are mailing bricks (to "help" build a wall along the border) to members of Congress. These bricks are symbols of division, isolation, and an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform. Advocates plan to counter the anti-immigrant bricks with a symbol of the positive contributions that immigrants make to the U.S. -- work gloves. Immigrant rights supporters are being encouraged to send a work glove to the Washington, DC offices of their local Senators and Representatives.

Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss, college students in Tucson, Arizona, are facing up to 15 years in prison on felony charges for the volunteer work they did last summer to help undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert. Their trial is set to begin in August. Sellz and Strauss are in the Bay Area this week to build support for their defense campaign. They will speak on Tuesday, June 20th, at the Friends' AFSC Hall in SF, 65 Ninth St. (between Mission and Market Streets).

On Monday, June 19th, as part of Juneteenth commemorations, the anniversary of the declaration of the end of slavery of Africans in the US, a rally in the Bayview District demanded amnesty for all immigrants.