San José: Protest demands immigrant and Chicano rights, opposes Trump's attacks on birthright citizenship
San José, CA – On May 15, during Trump's attempt to revoke birthright citizenship at the U.S. Supreme Court level, up to 100 protesters came out in defense of Immigrant and Chicano rights and condemning ICE operations in San José.
The Silicon Valley Immigration Committee (SVIC) joined the Solidarity and Unity Network along with Amigos de Guadalupe, SIREN, City Council member Pamela Campos and the Legalization for All Network (L4A) national week of action against deportations of U.S. citizen children.
The organizers began the action with a press conference outside of a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office. They then marched to and protested outside of an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office that ICE uses, where the crowd demanded no deportations, legalization for all and an end to ICE operations in San Jose.
Grassroots organizer Uriel Magdaleno from SVIC stated during the press conference, “The L4A network condemns the Trump administration's illegal practice of deporting U.S. citizens. Over the last couple of months, ICE has been participating in the disappearance of families. Some of the victims include a child with stage 4 cancer, Parra Vargas' children and various others.”
Magdaleno continued, “We also demand that Congressmember Ro Khanna join the fight against the Trump administration and the threat of deportation here locally in Santa Clara County and send a congressional inquiry on behalf of his constituent Ulises Peña López.”
Richard Hobbs, immigration lawyer with the SUN network and co-founder of Human Agenda, began the press conference by condemning the Trump administration’s attacks on undocumented families, stating, “We are here today because of the policies of a bigoted billionaire bully. Never have I witnessed the level of trauma and terror in our beloved community.”
The press conference focused on the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship. The activists say they oppose the actions Trump and his administration are taking that could potentially end birthright citizenship. San Jose City Councilmember Pamela Campos joined the press conference.
After the press conference, activists held a march to condemn ICE presence in the community. Protesters chanted “Shut down ICE! No deportations! Legalization for all!” while rallying outside of the building while others marched outside of the office while chanting.
“We condemn the unlawful arrest of Ulises, the wrongful deportation of Kilmar and U.S. citizen children, and demand no deportations.” Magdaleno stated at the end of the rally.
“Instead of ICE intimidating immigrants and the community, we intimidated ICE,” Hobbs stated after the protest.