Dozens storm South Bay ICE office in defense of community migrants
South Bay activists rally, demand closure of ICE office
Dozens of South Bay immigrant advocates and supporters rallied and then marched to an Immigration & Customs Enforcement office in South San Jose. They demanded the office be shuttered as push back to several ICE raids and detainments during the week.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The work week ended similar to how it began in the South Bay, with demonstrators taking to the streets protesting actions by ICE agents.
The initial rally started outside the immigration office in the 400 block of Blossom Hill Road. Participants then marched east on Blossom Hill about a half mile and entered a building housing an ICE office.
Anti-ICE chants of "shut ICE down!" echoed through the cramped hallways and stairways as the group made its way to an upper floor of the building in the 300 block of Blossom Hill. Dozens of community organizers and neighbors were determined to close a South San Jose Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
"There's 146 seniors that live here. We don't want them here. They just got here a couple of months ago," said neighbor Irene Madrid Morales, who lives in a senior center next door to the ICE office.
Once the group reached its destination, to its surprise, the office was already closed.
"We're still making a point to other neighboring offices, that we don't want them — ICE — to be present in the building, at all," said organizer Uriel Magdoleno.
The loud vocal push back came after ICE agents had, during the week, detained several people for deportation.
An emailed statement from the agency read, in part, "ICE has identified individuals with outstanding Final Orders of removal who may be removed from the United States...Many families came as a group illegally to the United States... Many of these same families have lost their case after being afforded due process. Accordingly, many are detained, pending removal."
The removal of individuals and families has stoked a growing fear in the South Bay and beyond, according to advocates and community activists.
"These raids are not about justice or security. They are about terrorizing our communities," said Leila, a member of the Silicon Valley Immigration Committee.
Added San Jose District 2 Councilwoman Pamela Campos, "We know the Trump administration set out with the idea that immigrants in our community are criminals."
San Jose District 5 Councilman Peter Ortiz on Friday introduced a memo requesting an additional $1 million in emergency funding be allocated to protect immigrant and undocumented communities.
"It's the city's job to make sure that the people of the city of San Jose are safe, regardless of their citizenship," said Ortiz.
Added Rapid Response Network founding member Richard Hobbs, "We are here today to build power, not panic, in the community."
It was a patchwork of community groups, forged by the determination to protect their own, and push out an unwanted tenant — from the building in the 300 block of Blossom Hill Road and from the larger Bay Area.
"We will defend our immigrant brothers and sisters. Our immigrant neighbors," said Joao Paulo Connolly of Silicon Valley Rising.
Ortiz's office said the requested emergency funding would be added to Mayor Matt Mahan's overall budget.
The mayor had already requested $500,000. A majority of the council members would need to approve the expenditure as early as June 10.
Jesse Gary is a reporter based in the station's South Bay bureau. Follow him on the Instagram platform, @jessegontv and on Facebook, @JesseKTVU.
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