Groups unite, march to stand up for social justice for all immigrants
Marchers raise awareness of fear of ICE, deportation
Published in the May 17 – May 30, 2017 issue of Gilroy Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Mark Fenichel/Fenifoto — May Day protesters march through downtown Morgan Hill.
More than 100 people came together from throughout the South Valley for a May Day march through downtown Morgan Hill and a peaceful demonstration for social justice for immigrants at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in the Vineyard Court industrial district.
The Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy, and Services organized a coalition of partners to put on the march. It started 3:30 p.m. May 1 at Galvan Park with 89 marchers walking together along city sidewalks to promote their support for immigrants including undocumented people, said Reymundo Armendariz, program director at CARAS. Twenty more people joined the demonstration when it reached the ICE office.
The purpose of the march and demonstration was to raise awareness of the issue of immigration in South Valley, especially with the recent changes in federal government policy under President Donald Trump’s administration, he said.
“We have a pretty large immigrant community in South County,” he said. “Not all of them are undocumented but a good portion of them are. They have been feeling a real sense of fear. What we wanted to show is that American citizens, we who were born here in the United States, support them. We welcome them in our community.”
CARAS worked with other groups in a coalition called the South County Resistance. The members include local educators from the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers as well as Gavilan Community College’s sociology department. The students received credit in their class for their involvement, Armendariz said.
Photo by Mark Fenichel/Fenifoto — May Day protesters march through downtown Morgan Hill.
Other coalition groups involved in the march were the San Jose-based People Acting in Community Together, Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, and El Teatro Campesino, a theater group based in San Juan Bautista that was founded by Latino playwright Luis Valdez.
The El Teatro Campesino activists included actor Noe Montoya who decades ago worked with Valdez during the United Farm Workers strikes and marches led by Cesar Chavez, Armendariz said. The actors performed a “guerrilla theater skit” at the ICE office for the demonstrators similar in style to the ones put on for the farm workers in the 1960s out in the fields, he said.
Performers with the local Aztec dance group Kalpulli Izkalli organized by the troop leader Robert Castro also participated in the march and greeted the marchers at the ICE offices with a blessing ceremony, he said. Morgan Hill City Councilmember Rich Constantine spoke in support of the demonstration for social justice for immigrants as well as CARAS members. Youths also participated in the march.
The march represented the diversity of the South Valley supporting immigrants, Armendariz said.
“We had a lot of good representation from the teachers,” he said. “We had a lot of retired teachers so it was really diverse, with other ethnicities participating from the teacher’s union.”
The fear among the Latino community of possible deportation by ICE agents after the changes with the new administration has grown throughout the South Valley region, he said.
“Right now we’ve been getting a lot of social media postings and a lot of rumors that ICE has been seen at a lot of different locations, so CARAS and SIREN have stepped out to confirm their presence, but by the time that we get there, nobody is there,” he said. “Part of the chilling effect is that people are starting to believe all these accounts, even though they’re not substantiated. We’ve heard a lot of reports back from community members that people don’t want to leave their homes or come to forums or workshops on immigration rights or deportation defense.”
The organizers started working on the May Day march two months ago, he said. They met with officials with the city of Morgan Hill and the Morgan Hill Police Department. Organizing this kind of event helps increase public awareness of the issue by presenting the human side of the immigration challenges, he said.
“When we go out as an agency and we advocate with the city government or school district to change a policy that directly impacts the community that we’re serving, we also have to have something visual or public,” Armendariz said. “When I go speak to decision makers, we have to show we have public support. And that’s what we’re demonstrating — that there are people who support immigrant rights.”
