Hundreds of students and Bay Area residents took to the streets to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration on Friday, Jan 30.
The demonstrations were part of a national day of anti-ICE protests in solidarity with Minnesota following the Jan. 7 killing of Renée Good and the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents, as well as other deaths linked to ICE operations.
Palo Alto
About 150 Palo Alto residents gathered at Town and Country Shopping Center for a rally following a student walkout at nearby Palo Alto High School earlier in the day.
Organized by The Wolves, a self-described independent progressive activist group based in Menlo Park, this protest was one in an ongoing series of demonstrations intended to raise awareness of ICE involvement in the upcoming superbowl, and ICE action across the country.
Ashley Ortiz, a Sunnyvale-based organizer with The Wolves, spoke about organizing the rally.
“It came together fairly quickly. The response speaks for itself,” Ortiz said, “It’s nice seeing other people come out.”
The Wolves have helped organize protests at Palantir former headquarters in downtown Palo Alto, as well as protests involving Tesla and Whole Foods.
“The community is going to be what gets us through this,” Ortiz said. “California is a different beast when you try to bring ICE here.”
The rally featured classic protest songs performed by Palo Alto’s Mitchell Park Band, along with chants and calls to passing drivers to honk in support.
East San Jose
In East San Jose, multiple protests took place throughout the day. Independence High School and Mexican Heritage Plaza each hosted protests attended by more than 100 people Jan. 30.
The protest at Mexican Heritage Plaza was organized by multiple community-based organizations, including SOMOS Mayfair, the Support and Intervention Resource Center, and the Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Nonprofits, which contributed to the protest and vigil against federal immigration enforcement actions.
“With everything going on seeing the gross abuses of ICE, it is important for the East San Jose community to have a space to come together and call out the abuses of ICE.” said Jeremy Barousse, director of policy and organizing for the Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Nonprofits.
San Jose City Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who represents District 5, attended the protest alongside other East San Jose community members.
“I’m supportive of the protests. I’ve been involved with many of them and it’s important for the community to raise their voices,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz said he hopes the protests bring attention to “the errors in how this country has approached immigration enforcement.”
Independence High School students marched from campus to North Jackson Road alongside students from multiple other high schools in the East Side Union High School District.
“I’m pretty excited, there’s a lot of people, today and I’m glad that people are coming out here to protest against ICE and all the bad things they have been doing recently,” Julian Baca, 17, an Independence High School senior, said. “We don’t want ICE terrorizing our community.”
Downtown San Jose
Local video game store Gameshop Downstairs closed its doors Friday as part of the protest. The phrase “No work, no school, no shopping” circulated online as a way to encourage people to join the demonstrations.
“We made an Instagram post to show our support and decided to perform some electronic noise music on the street,” Owner Anthony Guarino said.
On Santa Clara Street, outside City Hall, about 30 protesters gathered at 1:30 p.m. with anti-Trump and anti-ICE posters.
The crowd, most of whom were students from Abraham Lincoln High School and Herbert Hoover Middle School, was met with cheers and honks and received cases of water from passersby.
“We see kids cry over and over again for their parents to come back. This is why we’re here,” Denise Narciso said.
Chris Mercado, 13, a student at Hoover Middle School, ran past school administrators who tried to prevent students from walking out to attend the protest.
“We will fight here today and protest ICE till there is no ICE in the streets,” Mercado said. “We will keep our families safe. We will make sure they stay here and be protected.”
Willow Glen
Hundreds of protestors, many of whom were elementary school-aged children and their parents, marched up and down Lincoln Avenue in San Jose’s retail- and restaurant-heavy Willow Glen neighborhood.
“The world is crashing down all around me, and I care about these people,” Said Gini Bossenbroek, a Willow Glen resident and organizer. “This is my community. This is all of our community. We have to care more.”
Some businesses showed their solidarity with protestors, including the manager of Lincoln Avenue’s BevMo location, who offered free bottled water.
Bossenbroek said she was motivated to organize the event amid the detention of five year old Ecuadorian National Liam Ramos from Minneapolis, who along with his father, was detained and transferred to a Texas detention center despite having pending asylum cases.
At time of writing, a federal judge has ordered the release of Ramos and his father from immigration custody.
“That’s why I’m here,” Bossenbroek said. “Our kids are the future of the world, and I can’t leave the world where it’s at for my kids or for kids like Liam.”
