Thread: Students Protest Local Raids on Illegal Immigrants

"Students Protest Local Raids on Illegal Immigrants"
By Kat Murti
Sunday, November 2, 2008
More than 600 protesters-including a number of UC Berkeley students-marched on the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency office in San Francisco to protest the agency's recent raids in Berkeley and other Bay Area cities.

Raids have taken place in the past few weeks, and protesters said they were concerned. While both San Francisco and Berkeley are sanctuary cities, protesters say city officials are not doing enough to protect illegal residents in the communities.

In 2007, the Berkeley City Council voted to reaffirm Berkeley's status as a city of refuge. The council requires that their police department not cooperate with federal immigration officials.

Protesters said Friday that both cities were not doing enough to prevent federal officials from operating.

But the city can only do so much, said Julie Sinai, the chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.

"Being a city of refuge does not mean you have a wall around the city that ICE cannot penetrate," Sinai said.

At the office on Friday, protesters were able to block off a parking lot where agency vans are held, effectively preventing ICE officers from conducting raids.

"ICE agents were not able to use their trucks to go out and terrorize our communities," said Aurora Castellanos, a UC Berkeley freshman who helped organize the rally. "We want to make sure that through our organizing, ICE officials will not be able to do that any more."

Three BART stations-Richmond, Fruitvale and the Coliseum-were shut down after 200 high school students attempted to board the trains to get to the protest without paying, protesters said.

BART officials confirmed that the three stations were shut down due to police action.

Other protesters said the fight for immigrant rights would continue among individuals in both the cities and on the UC Berkeley campus.

"We're demanding that California be a sanctuary state, beginning with our schools and universities," said Ronald Cruz, an organizer for By Any Means Necessary, an immigration rights group. "We're demanding that UC Berkeley protect our undocumented students and become a sanctuary campus."

Agency officials could not be reached for comment over the weekend.

http://www.dailycal.org/article/103389/ ... immigrants

Do these fools really believe that if ICE had a place to go or plans made they would not of gotten out of the parking lot

"We're demanding that UC Berkeley protect our undocumented students and become a sanctuary campus."

STOP THE INSANITY!

What a snake pit! A microcosm of the rest of the state...sadly.

Demand is becoming a swear word.

I had the odd experience of being feet away from Emma Lozano, sanctuary giver to Elvira, when she spoke to our council. Every sentence she uttered seemed to contain the word DEMAND.

Demand all you want. We don't agree.