On Sept. 6, over 200 immigrants and their supporters packed a hall at St. Cornelio Church in Richmond, Calif., to stand up against racist ICE raids that are terrorizing immigrant families in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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The rally was built around four points of unity: an immediate end to ICE raids in the Bay Area; an end to police checkpoints, which target immigrant drivers; the passage of laws that allow residents official identification regardless of their immigration status; and a call for the state of California to become a sanctuary state so that immigrant communities could live and work in peace without the threat of arrests and deportation.
Elected officials from the six surrounding counties were invited to attend the rally to hear the sentiments of the participants. Some politicians showed up. Moving stories of workers who were victims of ICE raids riveted the attention of the audience.
A worker from the El Balazo restaurant chain, where 60 immigrant workers were rounded up this year, told how he was facing deportation and would be forced to leave his son who is dying from cancer. A teacher in the Mission District of San Francisco told the disastrous effects that raids have on children and their education. Others spoke of having been profiled at traffic stops and having their cars confiscated because they did not have a driver’s license, a consequence of the state refusing to issue licenses to undocumented residents.
The San Francisco Day Labor Program, La Raza Centro Legal, and Movement for Unconditional Amnesty organized the rally. The rally had the support of over 50 organizations—including the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), which mobilized people and provided sound for the event.
