by Mark Aspillera
Locked in with their arms inside the barrels, young people from different parts of the Bay Area protest against the abuses and raids of the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE). The teenagers managed to block the bordering streets to the immigratin building.(photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)
A group of student protesters demonstrated in front of San Francisco’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on the morning and afternoon of Oct. 31, 2008.
The Halloween event was not a youth party, but an organized protest directed against immigration raids conducted by ICE.
The week before the protest, ICE agents conducted 17 raids as part of a three-year investigation in the East Bay and San Francisco. The raids resulted in the indictment of 29 individuals. The 52-count indictment includes charges of murder, trafficking and extortion.
Protesters carried banners and signs with messages such as “Our Immigration is Forced Migration,” and “We are ready to fi ght ICE out.” Many were clad in solid black clothing and wore black and white face paint in the likeness of a skull.
Among the signs were banners for non-Latino organizations such as United Native Americans Inc. and the Filipino Community Center.
The group marched around the perimeter of the building in what guest speaker Renee Saucedo of the Day Worker Project described as a “funeral procession.”
“No more raids,”protesters chanted.
The march stopped before the front doors, where organizers burnt incense, performed a ritual dance to a drum and spoke to the crowd using a PA system covered by a plastic sheet and carried along on a shopping cart.
Among the speakers was Barbara Lopez, a Tenderloin-based community organizer and San Francisco School Board candidate, who criticized critics of San Francisco’s 1989 Sanctuary City law.
“It is unacceptable that immigration is used as political football,” she said.
Lopez also praised the youth groups and organizers taking part in the protest. She also warned of adversities, saying that “there are plenty of forces against you,” referring to the young protesters.
Renee Saucedo criticized the tactics of ICE to wild cheers.
“This building represents death,” she said, referring to the Immigration building behind her.
After speaking in front of the front doors, the march split in two and continued down both Jackson and Montgomery Street, where they paused to let photographers take pictures of the procession.
The two groups stopped within feet of the gated automobile entrances of the building, where, reportedly, detainees acquired in raids are brought in and out.
The entrances were guarded by offi cers from the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department and the United States Federal Protective Service, the security and law enforcement arm of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. Officers of the SFPD were present as well.D espite the tension generated by the security presence and several profanities shouted against ICE in general, neither side adopted a confrontational attitude.
On Jackson Street, protesters approached the gates with two steel fuel drums emblazoned with slogans and several people bound at the arms with cardboard tubing.
On Montgomery Street, several participants were invited to speak on a bullhorn.
Four East Bay BART stations including Richmond’s were shut down that morning, preventing several people from joining the protest, and rumors indicated that several students were detained.
The stations were reopened around 11:45 a.m. according to BART spokeswoman Luna Salaver.
