Street-Corner Immigration Protests In San Rafael

POSTED: 8:42 am PST March 9, 2007

SAN RAFAEL -- Small groups of local religious leaders carrying candles manned street corners throughout San Rafael's Hispanic Canal District neighborhood early Friday, protesting a series of federal immigration raids in the area.

Spearheaded by the Marin Interfaith Council, at least 50 religious and civic leaders broke up into small groups ready to react to any raids that may have been scheduled for early Friday.

When one of the groups got word of a possible raid, they raced armed with cameras and flashlights to the home but found no action was being undertaken.

The protest followed two days of early morning raids by the I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) teams in San Rafael and Novato. Some 30 warrants were executed in the Canal area alone.

"People are not attending schools, they are not going to their health checkups," said local resident Anna Ferrer of the impact of the raids. "It’s affecting every aspect of their lives."

Erendiria Olivera, an official with the Marin County Health and Human Services Department, objected to even the name of the I.C.E. operation -- "Return To Sender."

"We are not mail, we are human beings," she told KTVU. "Most of the people who were dragged from their homes did not have deportation orders."

The religious leaders said the I.C.E. agents identified themselves as "police" to gain access to several homes in the pre-dawn raids and then rousted people from their beds and questioned everyone in the house.

They said several people including children were taken into custody.

The Interfaith Council and a number of civic and non-profit organizations were calling for I.C.E. to immediately cease all enforcement activities until adequate constitutional safeguards could be put into place.

"We are doing this to say to the residents here in the Canal that we are with you," Rev. Carol Hovis of the Interfaith Council told KTVU. "We are religious leaders, civic leaders concerned with the procedures I.C.E. officials have used this week. The level of fear in this neighborhood is very high right now."

Federal immigration officials had no comment about the protest early Friday.


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