Hundreds protest Trump deportation policies in Ontario

With the Trump administration promising the greatest deportation effort in the history of the United States, more than 200 people marched through the Ontario center on Saturday morning in support of the Immigrant Community of the Inner Empire.

The energetic crowd stirred American and Mexican flags, beat drums and unleashed the noisy while parading down the sidewalks. They sang: “We are not going”, and the motto of the Agricultural Workers of United, “If possible”. The protesters exploded in cheers when the vehicles along Euclid Avenue played with support.

The protest, promoted in social networks as a “mass mobilization against mass deportation”, was directed by the Interior Coalition for the Justice of Immigrants based in San Bernardino, which is composed of more than 35 organizations that serve the community of immigrants in the inner empire.

The region is home to a considerable immigrant population. According to a 2018 report From the UC Riverside Social Innovation Center, the Interior Coalition for Immigrant Justice and the California Immigrant Policy Center, one in five residents of the inner empire was an immigrant, with almost 1 million immigrants in the County of Riverside and San Bernardino.

San Bernardino County is also home to the Advance Ice Processing Center, one of the largest immigration detention centers in California, which is administered by the GEO GEO of Private Pisis Corporation. A coalition of immigrant rights groups has advocated the closure of the installation for years, citing health, security and human rights concerns.

Going to the crowd before starting the march, Javier Hernández, executive director of the Immigrant Justice Coalition, framed the rhetoric of the administration as an attempt to sow fear and panic among the immigrant community; A stratagema to make people be in the shadows or deport themselves.

“The way we defend ourselves is to go to the streets,” said Hernández. “We are leaving fear behind and advancing with our struggle for immigrants.”

“Sin Papers, Sin” He shouted, leading attendees in a bustling song. “Undocumented, without fear.”

A protester with a flag that represents the United States and Mexico joins dozens of other protesters in Ontario on Saturday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Confronting that fear, and talking about those who felt attacked and fearful of protesting, was in the minds of many protesters.

Andy Garibay arrived in the country as a baby and now has labor authorization and deportation protection through the Deferred Action Program for Childhood Arrivals, or Daca. Mother of two children, she lives in Rialto and works in payroll administration.

She said the Trump administration threats already have her family to the limit. The chat of his family group seems to be constantly ping to the possible sightings of immigration officials near the stores where many relatives work, he said.

“Why should it be so?” Garibay said, who had posters reading, “a love”, and had a Mexican flag wrapped around his hair.

Deanna Pennino, from Ontario, is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant. He taught her already her brothers to work hard and be proud of US, never forgetting her roots, he said.

Pennino, a respiratory therapist in a local hospital, said that several colleagues have stopped coming to work, fearful that immigration authorities may appear at any time. Trump on his first day in office he rescinded a policy of the Biden era that Protected certain sensitive locationsincluding churches, schools and hospitals, of the application of immigration.

Pennino also fought against proposition 187, a 1994 voting initiative that sought to prohibit immigrants who lacked documentation when receiving public benefits, including health, education and social services. That experience, he said, showed her that “we can fight and make a difference.”

During Saturday's march, he brought a sign that said “Deport Elon”, a reference to Elon Musk, a South African immigrant who leads a controversial effort to eliminate the alleged fraud, waste and abuse of the federal government.

Initially, Trump focused his rhetoric on tracking immigrants who lack authorization and have been accused of violent crimes. His administration now says that all immigrants in the United States without legal authorization are criminals, because they have violated immigration laws.

Dozens of protesters participated in a “mass mobilization against mass deportation” in Ontario on Saturday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The immigration and customs control of the United States has already carried out well -advertised operations in Chicago and New York, among other places. The promise of more compliance actions has shaken immigrants communities throughout California and throughout the country and has stimulated a land of activism.

Last weekend, rumors that the federal government was Planning a mass sweep of immigration application In Los Angeles County, he put many people on a maximum alert. At that time, ICE officials did not say if any special operation had taken place and did not release daily detention figures. However, it seemed that such operation had not been as widespread as many had predicted.

At the beginning of January, at the end of the Biden administration, the border patrol agents made a Raid of several days in rural parts of Kern Countywhich results in the detention and deportation of dozens of workers who lack documentation.

This week, ACLU lawyers representing United agricultural workers and five Kern County residents sued the head of the National Security Department and Border Patrol officials, claiming that the Raid amounted to a “fishing expedition” that indiscriminately attacked people who seemed to be agricultural workers or workers.

This article is part of the times' Variable income report initiative, financed by him James Irvine Foundationexploring the challenges faced by low -income workers and the efforts that are being made to address The Economic Division of California.