Read our latest article on actions you can take to fight the administration’s war against immigrants. For more background on the family separation issue, please see our articles here and here.
Hundreds of thousands of people nationwide marched and rallied at more than 700 protests on June 30 organized by a broad coalition of groups, including Indivisible, to protest the administration’s separation of refugee families and horrifying immigration policies.
The primary organizer, Families Belong Together, is calling for further mass protests on Saturday, July 28, to bring attention to the date — July 26 — by which federal District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the administration to reunite thousands of refugee children with their parents. The administration missed the judge’s first deadline to reunite children under 5 years old with their parents, and they’re clearly dragging their heels, so we must all continue to demand a solution to this crisis, demand dignity for all immigrants, and demand justice!
Activists from groups including El Cerrito Progressives, El Cerrito Shows Up (ECSU), and Indivisible East Bay have organized large weekly rallies each Thursday for the past month. They’re holding their Families Belong Together: We Demand Justice! rally on Thursday July 26, the day Judge Sabraw’s order goes into effect. The rally, from 6 to 7 PM, will be a visible direct action, with people holding signs and letters to form a human billboard lining the busy intersection at San Pablo Ave and Carlson Ave, the west entrance to El Cerrito Plaza. Join others in songs, slogans, and solidarity, and bring a sign — for inspiration you’ll find signs, protest songs, and more here.
Focusing locally, the organizing groups – including members of IEB and our CA-11 team, and El Cerrito Progressives – also actively worked to oppose Contra Costa County Sheriff Livingston in the June 2018 election, emphasizing in large part his close ties with ICE. The West County Detention Facility, which Livingston runs, is the only Bay Area jail that houses ICE detainees. ECSU has also called for ICE to be de-funded and abolished. In a stunning reversal, on July 19 Sheriff Livingston announced that he is cancelling the ICE contract, and noted that protests and public pressure were a factor in his decision.
El Cerrito Progressives and ECSU organizer Sherry Drobner noted that activists are gratified that the ICE contract will be terminated, but are concerned about the 200 immigrants who’ve been detained at the detention center. “We hope they’ll be released into the community with their family members so they get access to resources to allow them to have their day in court,” she said, adding “and we look forward to a day when there are no ICE agents in our neighborhoods terrorizing families.”
Not in the Bay Area? Search for a Families Belong Together event near you (and check back for added events closer to the date), or sign up to host one, and spread that link to everyone you know!
