Protest Outside Federal Facilities in Mountain View

Photos: Simona Martin, Pro Bono Photo. Please credit the photographer.

About 120 demonstrators expressed anger on March 15 as they rallied in front of the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. They criticized the Biden administration’s use of detention camps for migrant children, saying the President promised to make immigration policies more humane during his campaign.

A few demonstrators wore monarch butterfly costumes, a symbol of migration. Others waved signs, many of which were created at a workshop in Oakland coordinated by SIREN the day before. All cheered when cars and trucks honked in solidarity with the protest.

After about an hour lining the boulevard and despite rain, protesters using a sound system demanded that the Biden administration change direction. Immigrants and children of immigrants bravely shared their stories and fears. More than one said they were stepping out of the shadows to make public their concerns, despite the risk.

Maricela Gutiérrez, Executive Director of SIREN, said that while Donald Trump created a reign of terror for immigrant families, it now seems it doesn't matter who is in the White House, Republic or Democrat. She called on the community to push back against these hateful policies.

Pete Weiss, an attorney from Pangea Legal Services, said, “These ‘temporary detention centers’ have a long history of becoming permanent. They get entrenched ...and all of a sudden it’s not so temporary anymore.” He said that the uptick in migration is caused by people who are fleeing violence and persecution caused by a century of U.S. foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere.

Sameena Usman of Council on American-Islamic Relations said, “We need to stand firm and call on our elected officials. This cannot happen here, not anywhere.”

Judy Adams of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Peninsula Chapter, held a sign calling for the creation of a "children's welcome center" with no detention. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is considering Moffett Federal Airfield as a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children.

Rally participants joined in a rap calling for an end to racist policies and the rally wound up with their vow to gather again to fight immigrant oppression.