San Ysidro, CA – Protesters marched from Larsen Field in San Ysidro to the pedestrian border crossing Friday evening, July 12. The march was led by local Kumeyaay tribal elders, accompanied by the Brown Berets, and local immigrant rights and political organizations in demanding an immediate end to the Trump administration's refugee and immigrant concentration camps.

These camps have been the center of popular outrage, as many reports have surfaced of children being ripped away from their families, sexually assaulted and denied medical treatment. Some even died in custody or immediately following release. Several thousand people participated in the march, which stopped right in front of the crossing that leads right into Tijuana, Mexico. There, Kumeyaay tribal leaders held ceremonial dances and local activists gave poignant speeches enumerating the atrocities the Trump and past U.S. administrations have committed against indigenous peoples, immigrants and refugees.

The influx of asylum seekers – particularly from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – can be directly attributed to U.S. efforts to destabilize progressive governments and attack revolutionary movements across Latin America.

In the United States, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been using insidious tactics in its war on oppressed nationalities. Once tactic has been scouring driver and motor vehicle databases in states that permit undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses, using facial recognition software to identify potential deportees.

Protesters that night chanted slogans like “Free the children! Free them now!” “Abolish ICE,” and “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here!” They also proudly displayed signs reading “Close the camps, free the fams,” “Prosecute Trump,” “Kids don't belong in cages” and “No more dead children!”

After speakers addressed the crowd, protesters marched back to Larsen field and the action ended around 10:30 p.m.

#SanYsidroCA #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #legalizationForAll #DonaldTrump #AbolishICE #concentrationCamps

San Ysidro, CA – U.S. Border Patrol agents fired tear gas and rubber bullets into Mexico in response to a march organized by refugees, including many women and children, seeking asylum. The march had remained peaceful until Mexican authorities forced the refugees marching into a canal separating San Diego and Tijuana, according to the American Friends Service Committee. It was then that Border Patrol agents fired tear gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets into the crowd. One young girl is reportedly in critical condition after being “struck with tear gas” according to the Movimiento Cosecha. The world's busiest border crossing was subsequently closed on both sides.

The refugees are part of the larger refugee caravan of about 5000, made up of people fleeing Central American countries. The United States has backed right-wing coups and militant repression of workers’ movements over many years in these countries, leading to a mass exodus of people seeking to escape the escalating violence.

Rather than allow refugees to apply for asylum, particularly given the role the United States played in the declining conditions of their home nations, the Trump administration has instead dubbed this an “invasion,” and deployed military troops to the border. The U.S.-Mexico border has become increasingly militarized over the past 20 years and even more so in the last several months.

In response to this increasing militarization, a coalition of local San Diego and Los Angeles political organizations and immigrants' rights groups organized a march in solidarity with the refugee caravan. More than 500 people came to show support, chanting slogans like “Somos un pueblo sin fronteras” (we are one city without borders), “No borders, no nations, stop the deportations,” and “From Palestine to Mexico, these border walls have got to go.” The march began around 10 a.m. in San Ysidro on the U.S. side of the border, several hours before attack on the caravan.

#SanYsidroCA #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #AntiRacism #Immigration #Trump #Caravan