By Roberta Alvarado | Special to The Observer
In a show of solidarity with demonstrators in Los Angeles, several hundred people converged on the Capitol West Steps Monday to protest indiscriminate raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California’s largest city.
The ICE raids in L.A. began June 6 across the Fashion District, Boyle Heights, Koreatown, and Compton, reportedly rounding up at least 118 immigrants, allegedly in the country illegally.
Sacramento protestors gathered at César Chávez Plaza and marched to the Capitol, joining a group from the Northern California Coalition for Just Immigration Reform (NCCJIR) – who walked nearly 40 miles from Vacaville over three days – joining members of labor unions and individuals promoting solidarity, resistance to the policies of President Donald Trump and urging immigration reform.
Volma Volcy, chief of staff for the Sacramento Central Labor Council and a Haitian immigrant, urged the crowd to organize: “I want you to be ready, knowing that we will lose some, we’ll be bruised … but we are going to win.”
Tozamisha Alexander, a Service Employees International Union member who traveled from Vallejo, urged the crowd to resist Trump, who has made deportation of undocumented immigrants one of his major policy initiatives.
“He [Trump] has called us names – we are human beings,” Alexander said. “This man should not be in office … this man who is a felon should not be president.”
Alexander continued: “We are here with our immigrant family. We ask that ICE be disbanded. We ask that the families detained currently be released … We ask that you talk to your friends and family, and bring them out to fight. Because if there is an injustice to one, there is an injustice to all. Get your family out here; when we fight together, we win.”
Meanwhile, Keyan Bliss of the Sacramento Community Police Commission told the crowd, “We need ICE out of our courts, out of our schools, and out of our communities.” He also called for public engagement against proposed increases in the Sacramento Police Department’s budget.
Guest speakers from Los Angeles shared stories of agents taking a son who was stopped on his way to see his dying father only to be detained and miss that opportunity.
Sacramento’s District 8 Councilmember Mai Vang and other elected officials recounted their family immigrant stories while calling for unity and action against what they characterized as an attack on democracy.
Organizers also condemned a subsequent show of force, including the deployment of the National Guard and threats of bringing in the Marines from Camp Pendleton, which, they asserted, overstepped Gov. Gavin Newsom’s authority and local officials’ ability to maintain peace.
“This is a dangerous precedent,” said Fabrizion Sasso, executive director of Sacramento Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, referencing SEIU and United Service Workers West President David Huerta’s detention and injury by agents as he observed an ICE raid.
“A labor leader, a citizen, violently detained by his own government for standing in solidarity with his members – if they can do that to David, what’s stopping them from coming for all of us? This is state-sanctioned intimidation, authoritarianism, and Donald Trump’s plan. This country crossed a dangerous line.”
Huerta has since been released, but his experience became an important focal point of the protest’s message.