by MARK GABRISH CONLAN
Copyright © 2013 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s
Newsmagazine • All rights reserved
Father T.J.
Sofreso
Joe Leimert
Mayoral candidate
David Alvarez (right)
Standing on the side
of love
I am a voter
March kicks off
These people picked
the wrong day to move!
March heads downtown
The size of the march
as it heads downtown
Citizenship is an
American value
Demand justice!
We are human
Demando justicia!
Immigration is
natural
¡Immigrantes si,
dronas no!
“We’re going to
preach with our feet,” said Father T.J., one of several ministers and other
clergy members from the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice at the outset
of a large immigrants’ rights demonstration in San Diego October 5. “We’re
going to march. … We have waited so long for justice. Eleven million people are
living in shadows. Only roaches should be living in shadows. We want peace, but
there can be no peace without justice.”
March they did.
Over 10,000 people, some bused in from other parts of San Diego and southern
California, joined the protest as it started at 6th Avenue and
Laurel Street in Balboa Park, took 6th to Ash Street, then headed
down 5th to Broadway, went to the waterfront and reached its
destination at the County Administrative Center. Two rallies were held as part
of the action, a morning one at 6th and Laurel and an afternoon one
at the County building.
Many of the
people speaking at the morning rally compared the event to the galvanic May
Day, 2006 marches for immigrants’ rights which helped derail the reactionary
anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill in Congress. “In 2006 we had our last march,
and I spoke with Archbishop Corleone in San Francisco,” recalled another
minister, Father Henry, who said he was speaking on behalf of the local
bishops. “Let our voices be heard in Washington, D.C. We want to make this
nation a precious home for all.”
“It is the
Jewish Sabbath,” noted Rabbi Laurie Coskey, one of the Interfaith Committee’s
key organizers. “I come to you with blessings from an ancient Jewish tradition.
We are all immigrants, too. My father
was born in Turkey, my mother on the island of Rhodes and I in Los Angeles.”
“This is known
as an immigrant country,” said a young man from Somalia who identified himself
as “Sofreso” and wore a T-shirt identifying himself as a member of the
self-help group Great Lakes Union for Development (GLUD). “No one has the right
to push anyone out. This is a country of opportunity. GLUD was formed in 2010
because when we came to this country, we got no help. Some of us spent two days
without food or drink.”
Lee Hall of the
United Church of Christ’s Christian Fellowship Congregation hailed California
Governor Jerry Brown for signing the Trust Act that morning. The Trust Act is
designed to keep law-enforcement officers in California from cooperating with
the Obama administration’s aggressive deportation program, which allows
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to put a 48-hour hold on any
undocumented immigrant legally stopped by police or accused of a crime, however
minor — a step that usually leads to the immigrant’s deportation.
Under the Trust
Act, “immigrants in this country illegally would have
to be charged with or convicted of a serious offense to be eligible for a
48-hour hold and transfer to U.S. immigration authorities for possible
deportation,” explained reporter Patrick McGreevy for the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-brown-immigration-20131006,0,4208269,full.story).
The Trust Act is one of several bills Governor Brown has
signed to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants in California. In
addition to signing a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s
licenses, Brown also signed two other bills Hall mentioned: AB 1024, which
allows undocumented immigrants who otherwise qualify for law licenses to become
attorneys; and AB 1159, which regulates immigration attorneys so undocumented
immigrants don’t become victims of fraud.
“My daughter was brutally shot nine times by a Border
Patrol agent in Chula Vista, and they try to tell me that’s their training?
That’s what they’re supposed to do?”
said Riverside County resident Valentín Taquín, who had come to San Diego last
July to tell his grim story at a rally protesting the acquittal of George
Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. “We all commit errors and make mistakes. They made a mistake, and
now they want to justify their mistake by saying my daughter deserved to die.
I’m not going to believe that lie! Enough is enough!”
According to Taquín, his daughter was just one of 19 people
unjustly killed by Border Patrol agents in the last three years. “Is your life
better than mine?” he said. “We are all equal.”
Other speakers included Joe Leimert of the San Diego Poetry
Slam Team, who read a poem denouncing the high cost of college and the
outrageous student loan debts most modern-day collegians accumulate before they
graduate; Eloy Hernandez of the Service Employees’ International Union; and a
D.J. from Los Angeles. Both Hernandez and the D.J. spoke in Spanish only.
