2 days ago
Hundreds protest in downtown Fresno following anti-ICE Los Angeles protests
Hundreds of protesters peacefully rallied outside a downtown Fresno federal office Monday following days of protests in Los Angeles over high-profile immigration raids in Southern California.
Many of the 200 or so demonstrators carried signs and waved Mexican flags at the solidarity protest to show support for immigrants, shouting slogans like 'Hey hey, ho ho, La Migra has to go.'
This follows a string of high-profile U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in places like downtown Los Angeles, Pomona and Riverside, fueling four days of protests in L.A., where President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops.
Leonel Flores, a coordinator with the May First coalition and the Network for Immigration Protection, helped organize the protest in Fresno. He told The Bee that it was important to show support for people who have been detained and deported after ICE raids in Southern California.
'When your uncle, dad, or grandfather is deported, you have to respond. If they send in the National Guard and try to repress you, people are going to push back,' Flores said in reference to the violence that broke out during the L.A. protests. 'We don't want deportations of workers or the separation of families in the Central Valley or any city in California. If the raids continue in other cities, we're going to continue protesting.'
Among the protesters was Raul Lorigo, a Mexican American veteran who served in the U.S. Marines from 1994 to 1998.
'The ICE raids, the families being torn apart, that is not what I fought for,' he said. 'I wore that uniform to defend a country that is completely turning on me and my people. I'm going to fight until things are right around here.'
Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea, who attended the protest, said it was important for her to show solidarity with her community.
'My grandparents were immigrants and so it's really important that everyone who is a part of helping our society and helping our economy grow is defended. We're here to defend the rights of everyone who's being treated unfairly,' she said.
As for the protests in L.A., Perea said 'it's really disheartening to see the violence that has occurred.'
'When you do have violent protests, you lose the importance of the message of why they're out there to fight to begin with and I'm just happy that Fresno is setting an example of how to protest peacefully,' she said.
Others in attendance included Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza and State Center Community College Trustee Nasreen Johnson and Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco.
'These unfair fear tactics from Trump's administration are distractions, divisions. A desperate attack to hold on to power by tearing communities apart,' she said.
Many protesters also came from organizations not primarily focused on immigrant rights, including Peace Fresno and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
'I'm very distraught by what Trump is doing with the ICE raids. This is personal for me because I'm an immigrant as well even though I've been here for over 50 years and we're a nation of immigrants. Only Native Americans were the ones that were here before all of us,' said Dan Yaseen, president of Peace Fresno, which started after the 9/11 attacks.
